Hollywood at the Nest

Filming on our front porch, with Abernathy’s church behind.

One of the most exciting weeks in memory at The Wren’s Nest is finally reaching the screen as the National Geographic series “Genius: MLK/X” premieres on Feb. 1, with streaming the next day on Disney+ and Hulu. The series, following the lives of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, was filmed a year ago around Atlanta sites  — including The Wren’s Nest.

The Nest stood in for the home of Ralph David Abernathy in Alabama. The Kings were staying with their friends because their house had been bombed during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The cast and crew were delighted to learn that Abernathy’s church, West Hunter Street Baptist, was next door.

For four days in December 2022, the producers transformed the Nest into a picture of 1950s domesticity. They shot scenes on our wraparound porch, in our west parlor, in the girls’ bedroom. They turned the dining room into a “video village” packed with laptops and video monitors and headphone-wearing directors. They made the family room their green room, with cast chairs for Martin, Ralph and Coretta next to Joel Chandler Harris’s Brumby rocker. Only Harris’s bedroom was off-limits, cordoned off with yellow police tape.

In a weird juxtaposition, the producers also turned our back bedroom into the senate office of Strom Thurmond, who was filibustering the 1957 Civil Rights Act at the time. The set designer thought of so many details; there was even a set of weights, which Thurmond, a health enthusiast, used to build up his strength for the his long hours on the Senate floor opposing equal rights for all.

Perhaps 50 crew and cast took over The Wren’s Nest that week. Our driveway bustled with equipment trucks and catering vans. Our backyard looked like a Renaissance fair with tents set up for wardrobe and cameras and sound gear.

The family room became a green room for the cast.

When filming finished on the last night — “That’s a wrap!” the director actually announced — all the tents, trucks and equipment were moved off our grounds within 90 minutes. "We're like the circus," one of the crew said. "We know how to break it down fast and move to the next place.”

Just like that, Hollywood at the Nest vanished like a dream. We can’t wait to see how it all came out on screen.

Our dining room was turned into a “video village.”