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Chapter XX I Can Sing Atlanta: The Trail Blazers I have never been able to sing "Dixie." I cannot sing "Dixie" because to me Dixie means all the segregation, discrimination, exploitation, brutality , and lynchings endured for centuries by black people. It means the riots I have seen, the personal insults I have suffered, and the mobs I have barely escaped. It means a system that disfranchised me until I was fifty-two, denied my worth as a person, attempted to clip the wings of my aspirations, and deliberately and relentlessly sought to crush my spirit so that I would be ashamed of being black. If Dixie were Atlanta or Atlanta were Dixie, I could sing "Dixie." Not that Atlanta is what it ought to be or what it could and must be, but because Atlanta has come a long way, and I believe that Atlanta has the will to approach more nearly what a city ought to be. Atlanta did many wretched things to me, too. Yet having lived a black man in Atlanta for a total of thirty-eight years, I have experienced a new Atlanta, unknown to me when I first came there in the 1920*5. I know from my wide travels that Atlanta is not the typical South. It is better. I can sing and praise Atlanta as I sing the National Anthem and "America ," as I recite the Declaration of Independence, read the Bill of Rights, and rejoice over the adoption of the i3th, i4th, and i5th Amendments. I know that the Declaration of Independence was not meant for me; that its chief architect, Thomas Jefferson, was a slave owner; that the i3th, i4th, and i5th Amendments have not been fully implemented; and that the "land of the free" and "sweet land of liberty" are not equally applicable to black and white. But these are the ideals to which the nation clings and the goals toward which it strives when it isat its best and thinks nobly. It is not always easy for a black man to swear allegiance to the flag, but the American dream is embodied in that allegiance, and until it is repudiated one can still hope for and work toward the day when it becomes a reality. As long as Atlanta struggles toward the dream, I can sing Atlanta. I can sing the National Anthem and "My Country Tis of Thee" because 275 2 7 6 B O R N T O R E B E L after visiting many countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa, I have concluded that the United States, despite all its imperfections, is the best country for me and that my job isto continue the battle to make America in reality what it claims to be. Possibly Atlanta is overpraised, but having traveled in forty-seven of the fifty states, I can testify that black-white relations here are as good as in any city in the nation and better than in most. Atlanta is a progressive city, and the people here want to keep it that way. In the 1920*5, and even when I came back in 1940 to be president of Morehouse College, Atlanta was so depressing in its black-white relations that I saw little difference between it and Birmingham or Memphis. As I appraised bad human relations in the South, I rated Birmingham No. i, Memphis No. 2, and Atlanta No. 3.The railroad stations in Atlanta were embarrassing enough, but Birmingham provided separate stairways for blacks and whites to go to and from the trains. They were not even permitted to go up and down the same steps. The Memphis waiting room gave the impression that Negroes were sealed off as if in some kind of prison. I mention these two cities only because at that time I dreaded so much having to alight from a train in Birmingham or Memphis. The picture of Atlanta in the late 1960*8 and in 1970 must be contrasted with the one presented in Chapter V, and it should also be remembered that the great changes in black-white relations for the most part havecome about since the middle of the century. Today, we take Negro policemen and firemen for granted. But it was terrifying to attend the public hearings in 1948 when Atlanta was trying to make up its mind about employing Negro policemen. The then Mayor, William B. Hartsfield, Chief of Police Herbert Jenkins, and the aldermen made the decision to...

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