City Considers Renaming Street for 105-Year-Old Resident

Ferris Street in southwest Atlanta may soon bear the name of one of its long time residents and one of the first black people allowed to live in the neighborhood when it was desegregated almost 50 years ago.

Back in 1968, Rufus Roscoe Morrow was a 59-year-old man looking for a new place to live. He chose to buy a home on Ferris street, which was a prestigious neighborhood at the time. The neighborhood had only recently been opened to people of color. Morrow spent the rest of his life at the home.

Or at least, he plans to.

On July 8, Morrow celebrated his 105th birthday at his Ferris Street home with several friends and family members in attendance. He told WSB-TV that his secret to a long life was being good to other people and having faith. He also added that it helped to have a place of your own in your golden years, ”and then they can’t throw you out.”

Far from wanting to throw him out, the Atlanta Urban Design Commission may rename Ferris Street to “R. Roscoe Morrow Street” during their Aug. 13 meeting. The newly-christened Morrow Street would run from Beecher Road to Westwood Avenue, near Beecher Hills Elementary School.

According to records found on Ancestry.com, Rufus Roscoe Morrow was born in Walton County, Georgia on July 8, 1909. At the time of the 1910 Census, Morrow was a nine-month-old baby living with his mother Mary, father Stephen, and 11 brothers and sisters in a community called Booth in Walton County.

Stephen died in 1953 at the age of 84, and Mary lived to the ripe old age of 94 before passing away in 1967. The couple married in 1890, Ancestry.com records show.

Morrow’s paternal grandparents were free people of color living in Walton County at the time of the Civil War, according to the 1850 and 1860 censuses.

Photo Credit: WSB-TV