A mere half-mile east of downtown, Auburn Avenue provides a glimpse into Atlanta's black history. In its 1920s heyday, " Sweet Auburn " was a prosperous, progressive area of black-owned businesses and jazz clubs, but since the Depression it has declined, becoming yet another faceless strip of boarded-up barbers and beauty stores. Despite admirable efforts and promises of revitalization, it has yet to succeed in reincarnating itself as a living monument to black culture and heritage.

However, several blocks have been designated as the Martin Luther King Jr National Historic Site (tel 404/331-6922), in honor of Auburn's most cherished native son, the reverend who won the Nobel Peace Prize at a time when he was being actively persecuted by agents of the US government. Despite the lack of attention given to it by the city, this short stretch of road is the most visited attraction in the entire state of Georgia, and it's a moving experience to watch the crowds of schoolkids listening patiently to the guided tours and waiting in turn to take photographs. Head first for the park service's purpose-built visitor center , 450 Auburn Ave (daily 9am-5pm), which holds a powerful exhibition entitled " Courage To Lead" that covers King's life and campaigns. Across the street at no. 449, the Martin Luther King Jr Center for Non-violent Change is privately run by King's family (daily 9am-5pm; free). Chiefly an educational and research facility, it also features displays of treasured artifacts such as King's bibles and traveling case, as well as separate rooms devoted to Mahatma Gandhi and Rosa Parks. King's mortal remains were brought here from Memphis in the early 1970s, and his memorial , a simple slab inscribed with the words "Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty I'm free at last," stands in the shallow, five-tiered Reflecting Pool outside, guarded by an eternal flame.

The Ebenezer Baptist Church next door, where King followed both his father and grandfather as pastor - and where his mother was assassinated while playing the organ in 1974 - has been converted into another museum (Mon-Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 1-5pm), while its congregation has decamped to a much larger new church over the road. Auburn remained the base for King's breathtakingly courageous campaigning during the Sixties, and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC ) still has its headquarters in the old Masonic building on the corner of Auburn Avenue and Hilliard Street.

King's birthplace , a block east at no. 501, is a small, neat Queen Anne-style shotgun house restored to its 1920s appearance, and now looking smarter than its neighbors. Home to Martin until he was 12, it remained in his family until 1971, since when it has been open for lively, anecdotal guided tours (daily 10am-5pm, 30min; free). These start from Fire Station no. 6, nearby at 501 Auburn Ave (daily 9am-5pm); you may have to be put on a waiting list, as schoolgroups often visit en masse.

Further west, at 184 Auburn, the recently reopened Royal Peacock Club was famed from the 1930s to the 1950s for performances by Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong and Aretha Franklin, while the Atlanta Life Insurance Co. Building at no. 148, from 1920 to 1980 the headquarters of the nation's largest black-owned business, now holds a small selection of African-American art in the lobby.

The privately run African-American Panoramic Experience or APEX at 135 Auburn (Tues-Sat 10am-5pm; $3; tel 404/523-2739) has an eclectic collection on black history, including a reconstruction of a 1920s black-owned drugstore and an African art gallery.