Rodney Cook, Sr. Park
"Find something worth dying for as well as worth living for and die for it daily." — Joseph E. Boone
Opened in 2021, this 16-acre park in Vine City is an important stop on the Atlanta Freedom Trail Tour. Named for a Buckhead insurance executive who worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders, this new park features a splash pad, performance plaza, two picnic pavilions, a pond, fitness area, boardwalk, playground, sports courts and a lawn area with an amphitheater. Eventually, it will also house an array of statues depicting local civil rights leaders such as John Lewis and Joseph Lowery, along with Cook.
The $34 million park — collaboration between the City of Atlanta’s Parks and Watershed Departments, the Trust for Public Land, and the National Monuments Foundation — also serves as a water management system for the Proctor Creek Basin similar to Historic Fourth Ward Park.