In this Book

buy this book Buy This Book in Print
summary
For more than a century, the city of Atlanta has been associated with black achievement in education, business, politics, media, and music, earning it the nickname "the black Mecca." Atlanta's long tradition of black education dates back to Reconstruction, and produced an elite that flourished in spite of Jim Crow, rose to leadership during the civil rights movement, and then took power in the 1970s by building a coalition between white progressives, business interests, and black Atlantans. But as Maurice J. Hobson demonstrates, Atlanta's political leadership--from the election of Maynard Jackson, Atlanta's first black mayor, through the city's hosting of the 1996 Olympic Games--has consistently mishandled the black poor. Drawn from vivid primary sources and unnerving oral histories of working-class city-dwellers and hip-hop artists from Atlanta's underbelly, Hobson argues that Atlanta's political leadership has governed by bargaining with white business interests to the detriment of ordinary black Atlantans.
In telling this history through the prism of the black New South and Atlanta politics, policy, and pop culture, Hobson portrays a striking schism between the black political elite and poor city-dwellers, complicating the long-held view of Atlanta as a mecca for black people.

Table of Contents

restricted access Download Full Book
  1. Cover
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Title Page, Copyright, Dedication
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Contents
  2. pp. vii-viii
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Illustrations
  2. pp. ix-x
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Acknowledgments
  2. pp. xi-xiv
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Introduction
  2. pp. 1-11
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 1. Building Black Atlanta and the Dialectics of the Black Mecca
  2. pp. 12-49
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 2. The Brawn of the Black Mecca and the Black New South: Maynard Jackson, Racial Symbolism, and Economic Realities
  2. pp. 50-93
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 3. The Sorrow of a City: Collisions in Class and Counternarratives—the Atlanta Child Murders
  2. pp. 94-130
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 4. The Bravado of the Black Mecca and Blackness Abroad: Andrew Young and Black International Citizenship
  2. pp. 131-168
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 5. Speaking to the Spirit of the Games: Atlanta’s Rise to Olympic City
  2. pp. 169-202
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 6. The Sound of the Fury: The Olympic City through the Prism of Black Atlanta’s Expressive Culture
  2. pp. 203-248
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Afterword
  2. pp. 249-250
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Appendix. Archives and the Atlanta Child Murders
  2. pp. 251-260
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Notes
  2. pp. 261-290
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Bibliography
  2. pp. 291-304
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Index
  2. pp. 305-322
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
Back To Top

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless.