Michelle Commeyras moved to a home on East Broad Street in 2011 and met a longtime resident Frederick Charles Dillard, who told her about the history of the neighborhood, what he calls Back Street, and his family’s history there. Dillard’s father, William Henry Dillard, moved the area in 1924, settling at 1498 East Broad. The house was built by William working with others under his supervision. In later years, the family also came to own a house next door on Derby Street. As Frederick Dillard relates in the documents collected here, his father was a master craftsman who built furnishings for his own home and the local community, including churches and the local Boy Scouts troop. William Dillard, a veteran of the First World War, worked as a freight porter for the Georgia Railroad. His position enabled the family to travel extensively, visiting family members, attending national Baptist conventions, and, in 1948, going to the Chicago Railroad Fair. The Dillard family were involved in the Friendship Baptist Church, still extant at the intersection of Arch Street and Old Winterville Road in East Athens.

Frederick Dillard was the youngest of eight children born to William and his wife, Margie. He attended the school for African American children located at the intersection of Water Oak and Griffith in the East Athens neighborhood. Documentation of this school is scant; Dillard’s oral history provides valuable information about it, identifying the names of several teachers. After several years away from Athens, Dillard returned to his hometown, having been accepted into the National Teachers Corps in 1972. He graduated from the University of Georgia in 1974 with an education degree, hoping to work as an elementary-school teacher. Though he attained a position in Oglethorpe County for one year, in Clarke County he was only able to work as a substitute teacher. Frustrated by this experience, he went to work for Athens Transit. The homes at East Broad and Derby streets are still owned by the Dillard Family.