Atlanta moves to buy former convict labor site to memorialize Chattahoochee Brick workers

The entrance to the former site of the Chattahoochee Brick Company, located on the western edge of Atlanta at the confluence of Proctor Creek and the Chattahoochee River, is shown.
CREDIT BITA HONARVAR / SPECIAL TO WABE

An Atlanta property with a horrific past is on its way to being protected from industrial development.

The city is moving to buy the former site of the Chattahoochee Brick Company, which used forced prison labor around the turn of the 20th century.

Proposals to build a fuel shipping terminal on the property in the past few years have failed as activists have advocated to instead put a memorial there to the people who suffered under the convict leasing system. But the future of the site has still been up in the air.