Community and Service: Recognizing Judge Clint Deveaux

With Black History Month coming up, we wanted to recognize one of the early pillars of our community, Judge Clint Deveaux. Community members who attend our Christmas celebrations may know him as Santa Claus, but Judge Deveaux has been an important figure at Emmaus House and the Emmaus House Chapel since its earliest days.

Man on a mission

Clint Deveaux arrived in Atlanta in December 1969 to help Andrew Young with his first congressional campaign. Soon after, he accompanied Mr. Young to visit the Welfare Rights Office and there met Emmaus House Founder Father Austin Ford along with Ethel Mae Matthews.

Deveaux went on to become close friends with Father Ford, working with him at the ACLU where Ford served on the board. After seeking Ford out for spiritual advice, eventually, Deveaux became a member of the Emmaus House Chapel and has served actively ever since. He currently serves as Treasurer.

Blessed community

One of the things that impressed Deveaux about Emmaus House was the strong sense of community. He fondly remembers the Christmas Eve dinners that Father Ford would host for staff in his home, with dishes ranging from fried chicken to oyster stew and red cabbage—even a suckling pig one year.

By the 1970s, the neighborhood had been devastated by the building of the Fulton County Stadium and the interstate which cut through the community, destroying residential property and forcing many residents to relocate.

The first law firm Deveaux worked for represented many of the neighbors and tenants and won terrific settlements for them.

In a later interview, Deveaux speculated it was Father Ford’s connection to one of the firm’s partners through St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church that resulted in the firm taking the case.

More than service

Judge Deveaux was and still is part of a dedicated group of supporters who, for various reasons, chose not just to support the community, but to become part of it.

When asked what he thought people should know about Emmaus House, Deveaux answered: “It was and still is, in many ways, an integrated—racially integrated—religious community. Interactions of people in both the programs and in the chapel are comfortably integrated. None of it is practiced. It’s just people who are comfortable with each other and they aren’t insecure about whites being with blacks and blacks being with whites. It’s rare in this town. There’s a lot of social stuff in Atlanta that remains pretty segregated.”

When we focus on building and strengthening our community, we do more than serve one another—we connect. Many thanks to Judge Deveaux for embodying what it means to be a community leader in Peoplestown.