The Legend of the Black Mecca: Politics and Class in the Making of Modern Atlanta by Maurice Hobson (review)

Maurice Hobson's The Legend of the Black Mecca is a major contribution to historiographies centered on the American South, urban African Americans, and the working class. Hobson joins an impressive cohort of historians whose recent scholarship explores the multifaceted lives and experiences of urban black Southerners during the post–World War II era. Using oral history, archival records, newspapers, and the rap lyrics of "Dirty South" hip-hop groups such as Goodie Mob and Outkast, Hobson presents a familiar imagery and narrative of Atlanta, Georgia, commonly known for its long tradition of cultural, educational, and socioeconomic progress. At the same time, Hobson deepens historical and contemporary conversations about the black Mecca. Hobson's story is not only one of black excellence dating back to the Reconstruction era but a narrative that carefully interrogates and reveals the tensions surrounding Atlanta's rise to a world-class city. More importantly, Hobson considers the different ways in which working-class and poor blacks were affected by Atlanta's evolving socioeconomic and political landscape. The Legend of the Black Mecca "shows how elected and appointed black political king-makers capitalized on the support of the broader black electorate to rise to power, only to play politics diverting resources, politics, and attention away from the rank and file of black Atlanta and toward a new political machine" (1). Interracial cooperation among political leaders resulted in newly crafted images of a cultural and economically progressive city. But Atlanta's new stellar image came at a cost. Hobson convincingly argues that political and business partnerships were detrimental to less privileged blacks. Working and poor communities did not reap the socioeconomic and political benefits of the new emerging city. City officials ignored their socioeconomic and political needs and concerns for neighborhood development. Moreover, for the sake of economic and political prosperity, politicians demonized, criminalized, and disenfranchised the same black electorate that put them in office.

Hobson explores several points of discussion to highlight Atlanta's extraordinary political story. Chapters center on a general history of Atlanta from the Reconstruction era until the 1960s, the political rise of Atlanta's first and third black mayors Maynard Jackson Jr. and Andrew Young, the Atlanta child murders of the late 1970s and early 1980s, the city leaders' bid for the Centennial Olympic Games, and hip-hop artists' social and political commentary on urban politics. Hobson's chapter on the Atlanta child murders as well as working-class women's political activism against child homicide is worthy of mention. The city administrations' attempts to brand Atlanta as a global economic force were challenged by a series of tragic killings that affected the city's most vulnerable population—black children. Between 1979 and 1981 thirty black men and boys and several girls were murdered in "the city too busy to hate." As Hobson explains, "The Atlanta Child Murders worsened the fractures between black Atlanta's elite and middle classes and the working and poor classes of the city" (249).

Working-class blacks, particularly the victims' mothers, believed that Mayor Jackson and his administration were more concerned about how the murders affected the city's well-crafted social and economic image. Moreover, they contended that urban officials viewed the tragic killings as a barrier to the city's bid to host the 1988 Democratic National Convention and 1996 Olympic Games. Speaking on behalf of working-class communities and murdered victims' families, Atlanta grassroots organizations, including the Committee to Stop Children's Murders (Stop Committee), publicly criticized Jackson. Black mothers claimed that the Jackson administration was slow to react to the murders of "hustlers and runaways," did not inform the community about the possibility of a serial killer, and mishandled the murder investigation. To them, the city had failed to protect it citizens. Moreover, the Stop Committee, supported by civil rights and labor organizations such as the Southern...