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3 The Return to Electoral Politics, 1932–1946 The decisive impact of the black vote on the special school board referendum in 1921, it may be argued, signaled the reawakening of African American voters in Atlanta and their return to electoral politics. But, in reality, this was an isolated event, and one with deep emotional roots in the black communities. More indicative of a sustained renewal of black interest and a systematic return to electoral politics were the roles that African Americans played in the municipal elections of 1932 and 1946.These were,of course,momentous years for the entire nation—the era spanning the Great Depression,the New Deal, and the end of World War II. The lives of black Atlantans, like those of all Americans, were profoundly affected by the economic crisis and recovery at home and the global war against Nazism and fascism. Atlanta, like the rest of the South, changed dramatically in the one and one-half decades between the beginning of the Depression and the end of the Second World War.The black population grew from about 50,000 in 1910,to 90,000 in 1930, and soared to 104,000 by 1940. As more African Americans were drawn into the city, competition between the races for jobs increased. During the Depression years, a group of Atlanta’s whites organized a group known as the“Black Shirts” to protest the actions of employers who seemed to prefer black laborers to white ones. The Red Shirts’ activities, fostered by the beliefs that black labor was cheaper and that blacks were strikebreakers, led to heightened racial tensions in the city.1 Attracted by the Atlanta University Center complex of colleges and the stability of the black business establishment, concentrated along Auburn Avenue , hundreds of black business and professional people joined the poorer black migrants to the city in these years. Although still disfranchised in local and state Democratic primaries, the majority of the politically active blacks attached themselves to the Democratic banner by 1940. The personality and policies of Franklin D.Roosevelt and his wife,Eleanor,and the lack of a“positive program” by the Republicans led most Atlanta blacks, as well as others Black Power in Dixie 52 throughout the nation, away from the party of Lincoln. Black Democratic clubs were organized in most urban areas of the state, even though“affiliation with the regular Democratic party machinery was discouraged.”2 Democratic policies in the New Deal,although administered through segregated agencies, provided new avenues for economic gain and for political positions for the black middle class. Although Karen Ferguson criticizes the black elite for taking advantage of these new opportunities while doing little to advance the socioeconomic conditions of the black masses, other evidence, including some of her own, strongly indicates that, through such organizations as the Atlanta Urban League, black leaders did strive to help all of black Atlanta out of the depths of the Depression.And,indeed,it was during these same years that the black leadership was reenergizing black electoral potential .3 Although still largely excluded by state and local laws from electoral politics and faced with considerable apathy among the masses, several members of the black leadership class continued to subscribe to the notion that full political participation was possible and that such participation would influence race relations in the city. Early in 1932, this group renewed its campaign for a return to electoral political participation. A meeting, composed largely of black ministers, was held at the Butler Street YMCA. A committee to encourage and instruct blacks to register and to vote was appointed. The civil rights attorney A. T. Walden was asked to serve as consultant for the committee .4 The committee planned to register every black citizen of voting age in Atlanta and Fulton County. It called on the black churches to help persons get to the registration offices and eventually to polling places. The Atlanta Daily World, which in 1928 succeeded the Atlanta Independent as the major black paper in the city, took up the Independent’s protest against disfranchisement and urged black Atlantans to take an active part in local and national politics. These efforts by black churches and the Daily World were accelerated when a mayoral recall election was set for the fall of 1932.5 Lay groups, including the Atlanta branch of the NAACP, led by attorney A. T. Walden; the Neighborhood Union, headed by Mrs. John [Lugenia Burns] Hope; and the Atlanta Teachers’ Association...

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