Since the 1960s, Atlanta’s neighborhoods and citizens have worked together to successfully protest the incursion of major thoroughfares through historic residential areas of the city. Many of these efforts took years, such as the protest against the Stone Mountain Tollway. Plans for the thoroughfare that would cut through historic neighborhoods including Druid Hills, Inman Park, Candler Park, Poncey-Highland, and Old Fourth Ward, were laid out in 1958. Finally, in 1972, residents of neighborhoods threatened by the project succeeded in convincing Governor Jimmy Carter to halt plans for the Stone Mountain Tollway, preserving the neighborhoods intact as well as an historic Olmsted Park in Druid Hills, established by Fredrick Law Olmsted in the late 1890’s. Carter also agreed at the time that the land already seized and cleared a decade earlier for the tollway by transportation authorities in historic black and poor neighborhoods would be maintained as a large greenspace, to be called “Great Park,” without the incursion of a major highway.

Another Atlanta freeway revolt prevented the construction of the north-south section of I-485, a major thoroughfare that was planned to begin in the heart of the City and run east to the interchange with the proposed SR 400 where it would turn north, ending at I-85 near Lindbergh Drive. Again, historic neighborhoods such as Morningside, Virginia Highlands, Poncey-Highland and Inman Park, were threatened, and residents worked together to halt construction.

Although they succeeded in stopping the northern spur, the east-west portion of the highway that would join Stone Mountain Freeway on the east side was still being considered, this time as the Presidential Parkway. In 1982, the Atlanta City Council approved a four-lane freeway from Ponce de Leon Avenue to the Downtown Connector, with easy access to the newly established Carter Center. Although not as large a project as the earlier Stone Mountain Tollway, the Presidential Parkway was still planned as a major thoroughfare elevated by bridges above the residents of multiple neighborhoods and ending at Ponce de Leon Ave, where it would have destroyed the Olmsted Park.

To address this threat, a new organization spanning several neighborhoods arose. CAUTION, Inc. (Citizens Against Unnecessary Thoroughfares In Older Neighborhoods), was formed in 1982 by Emory professor Jack Boozer and the neighborhood associations of Inman Park, Druid Hills, Candler Park, Lake Claire, East Lake, Virginia-Highland, Poncey-Highland and City of Decatur. CAUTION's long legal, political, and civil engagements with the City of Atlanta and the Georgia Department of Transportation eventually led to a mediated settlement between those parties that resulted in the creation of Freedom Parkway.

An important ally of CAUTION was the activist group known as Roadbusters, formed in 1985. This group used street theater, protests and non-violent civil disobedience to challenge the Georgia DOT’s plans. Together, the organizations gained the support of prominent officials including civil rights leader and city council member John Lewis and Maynard Jackson, Atlanta’s first African American mayor.

The announcement that Atlanta would host the1996 Olympics brought enormous pressure on officials and residents to seek a mutually agreeable solution after years of bitter conflict. In 1991, a compromise between the City of Atlanta, Georgia DOT and CAUTION was finally reached. The high speed, high traffic Presidential Parkway was reduced to an at-grade, low speed, meandering parkway providing access to the Carter Center ending at Moreland Road, called “Freedom Parkway.” Freedom Parkway (renamed John Lewis Freedom Parkway in 2018) opened on September 19, 1994, drawing the road fight to a close. The Freedom Park Conservancy was created to replace CAUTION, and the Olmsted Park Society was formed to protect the historic parks along Ponce de Leon.