Political Competition and Black Empowerment in Atlanta, 1946–1992

Abstract

Abstract The city that was too busy too hate” Mayor William B. Hartsfield once dubbed Atlanta, and this description has stuck. He meant that the city’s business and banking leaders refused to allow segregationism and racial polarization to derail their ambition to make it the business hub of the South. Allegedly, that desire led them to build bridges to the Black community and steer a path on the road of race relations that was very different from that of most other cities in Dixie. The conventional wisdom is that Atlanta’s business leaders saw green rather than Black versus White; that is, they were pragmatists seeking to insure an environment of racial tranquility where business would thrive and northern businesses would establish southern offices. Atlanta’s businessmen feared that if they failed to take a positive leadership role on racial tolerance, the city might evolve as had Birmingham or Little Rock, cities they saw as racially divided and, as a consequence, economically crippled. This chapter rejects claims that Atlanta’s business leaders were innately more ambitious or less racist than elsewhere. I also do not believe that Atlanta’s political and economic leaders conceded power when they were not forced to do so. They reflected southern racial attitudes and the typical business desire to advance their financial interests, but their environment created a set of inducements and constraints that forced them to do more than pay lip service to ending segregation and empowering Blacks.