Atlanta: New Hope or Just Another Deception
John Burl Smith
The heart of the "Old South," Georgia was the fifth state to secede from the United States and join the Confederacy. Wedded to its legacy of slavery, Georgia paid a heavy price in destruction, economic devastation and lives, rebelliously trying to hold on to a way of life built on the backs of enslaved black people. Once the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, millions of penniless former slaves joined the fight that broke the iron gripe of human bondage, but freedom would be slow in coming. Those slaves that did not join the Union Army were simply set loose to roam the countryside without any means of survival.
Following the Civil War, Atlanta's phoenix-like rise from the ashes of rebellion and destruction was fueled by hard currency pumped into the devastated city by Union occupation. Without livelihoods, the search for work and food brought thousands of slaves to Atlanta, hoping to find the new freedom the future offered. Instead, carpetbaggers brought a new kind of exploitation to Atlanta, trapping former slaves between their old masters and money grubbing politicians who gained power through black votes.
Abolitionists inspired by black leaders like Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, David Walker and Sojourner Truth had led the fight to end slavery. However, the Freedmen's Bureau and church groups, such as The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament founded by St. Katherine Drexler, at war's end began the formal task of preparing former slaves to move from dependency to caring for themselves in a hostile environment. Government promises of land evaporated for the vast majority of former slaves. Nevertheless, one harbinger of opportunity did emerge and Atlanta benefitted immensely as several educational institutions were established. Atlanta became an educational mecca that drew knowledge hungry black students from all over America.
Atlanta became an incubator, nurturing leaders of the black community for half a century. A bedrock of knowledge and opportunity, leaders, such as Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Reverends Benjamin E. Mays, Martin Luther King, Sr. and Jr., along with many others matriculated at the premier black educational center in America. Atlanta's white leaders, as during slavery, were avid racists, ruthlessly supporting segregation and brutally manning the color line. While the veil of segregation and lynching hung heavily over Atlanta, a tide of radicalism surged on its college campuses in the 1950s. New young student leaders flooded the city with messages about civil rights and black power demands for freedom, justice and equality.
Unable to stem the tide of civil rights and demands for black power, white leaders in Atlanta devised a scheme that allowed them to change leadership but keep the reins of power. Managing this transition, whites gave up administrative control but held onto Atlanta's purse strings. Whites kept control of the job market and used city jobs -- City Hall, School Board, Grady Hospital, police and fire ? to reflect a pseudo-prosperity.
Maynard Jackson was selected as the first black mayor (1974). He was followed by Rev. Andrew Young in a kind of musical chairs until 2002. The novelty generated real pride among most black Atlantans, but whites fled the city for the suburbs, like rats leaving the Titanic.
Obviously today, it is clear the black community was deceived into believing it had gained real power though the switcheroo with Maynard Jackson. This game prevented the black community from developing its own leaders based on service and community ties. Instead, Atlanta's white leaders ? namely the Chamber of Commerce and the Commerce Club ? used Jackson's power base as the conduit to power for blacks. All other groups and personalities were shut out. Thus, the city of Atlanta got Bill Campbell and Shirley Franklin.
For nearly forty years Atlanta's Mayors have been picked from the Jackson elite. The lack of progress over that period is astonishingly clear, because very little has changed for the black community which supported Atlanta during and after white flight. Economically, whites still dominate the city, holding and controlling the higher paying jobs in the private sector. Moreover, the hope of desegregation has turned into re-segregation and black students are under siege from the "no tolerance school to prison pipeline."
Under the last two administrations, bringing back whites from the suburbs into midtown neighborhoods, while removing black residents, has been a top priority. Destroying public housing to clear the way for gentrification -- building condos and multi-use apartment complexes -- is a backdoor strategy white leaders hoped would enable them to take back the mayor's office. Relying on blacks' frustration over the lack of change and progress in reducing poverty, they hoped a liberal white woman could get black votes or reduce voter turnout.
Conversely, black voters remained committed to the hope that a true black leader will emerge who will keep his promises and work to create a better future. Consequently, last week (12-1-09) blacks rallied behind a young black man, Kasim Reed, in the mayoral runoff. His election more so than any since Maynard Jackson can be the change long-suffering blacks in Atlanta have hoped for. Although Reed received overwhelming support from blacks, he does not have to be a savior, just not disappoint by tailoring his administration to serve whites as Barack Obama, who has completely dismissed the needs of blacks. At this crucial juncture, if black leaders continue to make promises to get elected but serve the interest of whites once in office, black people will lose confidence in the only power they have left - the vote.
Atlanta has been an enigma -- possessing such potential but delivering such meager results -- yet the future does offer real promise. Slave descendants have witnessed whites turn back the clock on every gain blacks have made since emancipation. Whites have not been able to take away the vote, but they are working to make it irrelevant as a means of change for blacks. This would reduceblacks to their former status at the end of Reconstruction (1875). Then, black politicians did nothing to help poor and needy former slaves; they thought they were safe.----------------