Over a quarter century, 37 million people flocked to the Georgia Dome for Falcons games, two Super Bowls, and the Atlanta Summer Olympics. The stadium elevated Atlanta’s image in the eyes of the world. But the city’s profile ascended at the cost of families who not only lost their fight against displacement but also their right to be remembered. Twenty-five years after Lightning was destroyed, Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank convinced the city to help fund a new stadium. In 2013, as officials debated the merits of a community-benefits deal, a formal agreement that outlines the city’s responsibility to nearby neighborhoods, they often invoked the names of Vine City and English Avenue. Councilmember Ivory Young, who represented the city’s west side, reminded his colleagues how former Lightning residents had experienced PTSD from their displacement. He vowed to minimize the disruption for Vine City and English Avenue residents who feared the harm of a new stadium. As soon as officials approved the new stadium, Lightning once again disappeared.

Harold Smith: At one time, Lightning residents tried to get a reunion together. But it’s gotten harder. Most of us are not even around anymore. Very seldom do you run across Lightning residents.

Rev. Ronnie Brailsford: We can’t do anything about [the loss of Lightning]. If we talk about the past, we can help people see how the seeds of the past — even though things might on the surface come forward as being racist — can lie dormant. Those seeds allow communities like Lightning to be obliterated with very little consideration for the people who were there. Those kinds of injustices are still going on today.

Tillman Ward: There are other cities — two, three, or four times as old — that have preserved their architecture. The ones that didn’t, we work hard, save money, only to see the ruins of a stadium. Too many buildings are torn down to their bricks. We need to save buildings [like historic westside structures Gaines Hall and Alonzo Herndon Stadium] for the purpose of perpetuating the good history. If we don’t take into account what’s around the stadium, we’ll miss tomorrow.

Michael Julian Bond: We have the ability to put up a historic marker there.

Byron Amos: Now that we can, people need to understand the past. We need to understand the past so you never repeat it.

Rev. Timothy McDonald III: We should learn from Lightning. The lesson, for me, is how to give voice, which will lead to power, to neighborhoods.

Rev. Ronnie Brailsford: Maybe we can make people more sensitive to the present, having learned from the past, and work together for a civil society where social justice exists for all people regardless of the color of their skin.

Tillman Ward: Lightning can still be a bright spot. Erasing the artifacts was a mistake, but we don’t have to erase the memories.