Basic Information
- Type of Place
- Suburb
- Metro Area
- Politics c. 1860?
- Strongly Democratic
- Unions, Organized Labor?
- Don’t Know
Sundown Town Status
- Sundown Town in the Past?
- Probable
- Was there an ordinance?
- Don't Know
- Sign?
- Don’t Know
- Year of Greatest Interest
- Still Sundown?
- Surely Not
Census Information
| Total | White | Black | Asian | Native | Hispanic | Other | BHshld | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | ||||||||
| 1870 | ||||||||
| 1880 | ||||||||
| 1890 | ||||||||
| 1900 | ||||||||
| 1910 | ||||||||
| 1920 | ||||||||
| 1930 | ||||||||
| 1940 | 1,081 | 222 | ||||||
| 1950 | 3,445 | 92 | ||||||
| 1960 | 6,635 | 2 | ||||||
| 1970 | 9,127 | 1 | ||||||
| 1980 | ||||||||
| 1990 | 7,668 | 1,482 | 922 | 1,833 | ||||
| 2000 | ||||||||
| 2010 | ||||||||
| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
- Unknown
Main Ethnic Group(s)
- Unknown
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
Comments
A Georgia Journalist writes: “In 1940, the Atlanta
‘region’ didn’t extend beyond the current city limits.
Chamblee was a small and ‘distance’ community. In
the 1960s, the northern section of DeKalb County
grew very rapidly, mostly whites, many of them
leaving Atlanta over school desegregation. I am sure
that blacks were displaced by rising property values.
In the 1980s, Chamblee begin to attract Hispanics and
Asians. Today, it is a major population and business
center for Hispanics and Asians.”
There was a military base in Chamblee in the
1940s, and a couple of large black communities.
As whites moved in, the black population declined,
and with the construction the of interstates, many
blacks moved as the area was taken over by whites
moving into the area.
From Vivian Price, The History of DeKalb County,
Georgia, 1822-1900, DeKalb County, Georgia,
Historical Society, 1997:
“The origin of the name of the post office and
town of Chamblee, which had a population of 72 in
1890, has been, and continues to be, the subject of
considerable debate and research. There are two
Chamblee families – one white and one black – whose
family traditions state that the town was
named for them.
“The story of the naming of the town of
Chamblee has been passed down verbally through
six generations of the family of Alvin D. Chamblee,
who lives in Roseville, Minnesota. Chamblee’s great
grandfather, Ransom Chamblee, was a slave in Hall
County, Georgia. After emancipation, Ransom
Chamblee worked as a railroad laborer, and later in
his son’s shoe shop.
“Although the town had not acquired the name
of Chamblee until 1881, family records show that
Marietta Chamlee Southard was born in Chamblee,
Georgia, on May 26, 1859. She was the daughter of
William L. (or John William) Chamlee (sic) and
Minerva Westbrook of Cherokee County, Georgia.
Her obituary, published in the Atlanta Constitution
and the Atlanta Journal, describe her as a member
of a “pioneer family of the Chamblee section… the
family for whom Chamblee was named.”