Atlanta, Georgia, one of the most historically significant cities in the United States, is the setting for the novel. After the Civil War, Atlanta underwent intensive reconstruction. However, even though the Union won the Civil War, Atlanta was far from removing its racist past. Due to the freedom of enslaved people in that region, Atlanta has a large Black population, yet Atlanta experienced segregation until 1973. Atlanta was at the pinnacle of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Martin Luther King Jr., who was born and raised in Atlanta, returned to the city in 1960 to take part in nonviolent boycotts and sit-ins in department stores and restaurants until the police arrested him. In recent years, Atlanta has been one of the major US cities to take part in gentrification. Gentrification is a system where wealthier businesses and restaurants move into a lower income neighborhood to generate easy profits off of cheap real estate that, initially, was priced for the impoverished residents. This process normally brings in wealthier residents to the area as the neighborhood transforms to attract wealthier clientele. Gentrification often occurs along racial divisions (rich white people gentrifying poor Black neighborhoods) and leads to displacement of the original community.