On Thursday, July 13, the Historic Pleasant Hill Community celebrated Louis Presley’s life and legacy. Presley was a native of Pleasant Hill and achieved great milestones during his lifetime.

Mayor Lester Miller presented a proclamation at the Booker T. Washington Community Center declaring July 13 as Leo Hudson Presley Day! Presley’s great-niece, Nicole Presley, received the proclamation in his name. You can read the full proclamation here.

Louis Persley was born in 1888 and was the first State Board-registered Black architect in Georgia during the Jim Crow era. He graduated from the nation’s first HBCU, Lincoln University, then continued his education in Pittsburgh at Carnegie”s Architecture. He pursued achievements such as being hand-selected by Booker T. Washington to help design the Tuskegee University campus in Alabama. During his life, he leaves a legacy of creating a multitude of African Methodist Episcopal Churches, created libraries, and even dorms for Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Louis died on July 13, 1932. Today, Persley is buried in Pleasant Hill’s Historical Linwood Cemetery, a pinnacle community landmark.