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Minority Outreach on a Small Scale
Downtown Atlanta, circa 1962. Photo credit: Atlanta Time Machine.
Avik Roy’s return to the comments regarding Republican outreach to minorities has occasioned much discussion about how to do outreach to minorities, whether it is possible, how it would work, and much else along those lines. I don’t have an answer, but let me offer a small scale example that illustrates the problem, courtesy of Clarence Stone’s book, Governing Atlanta. And do keep in mind that everyone in this story is a Democrat.
In 1948, Atlanta was a segregated city with a large black middle class. The city was divided into wards, but the local government of Atlanta was rapidly centralizing into the hands of Mayor William Hartsfield. In the later 1930s, the city began to professionalize, moving power away from appointed officials and into a civil service and electing all its aldermen at large, rather than from districts. All of this was driven by the demands of the Chamber of Commerce, specifically the clique that Clarence Stone and Floyd Hunter called the “Downtown Business Elite.” It cost him working class voters who had previously relied on Jim Crow and patronage to provide them jobs and welfare support, but the new reforms placed that power in the hands of the Business Elite.
Mayor Hartsfield had previously been a segregationist — as recently as 1944 — but by 1946 he needed additional political support, and African American leaders offered it on conditions: black police officers. Black voters were kept from the primaries — the elections that actually mattered state and federal — by the White Primary rules, but they could vote in local elections. Black leaders offered a block — The Atlanta Negro Voters League — that would mobilize a quarter of the city in each election.
In return, they got eight black police officers, as well as Hartsfield’s push for state and national civil rights and an agreement to reign in the racist rhetoric in Atlanta. Not a small thing.
The white working class was completely shut out from all this.
The Business Elite continued to get their way on professionalization and reform in the city. They next moved on to the need for giant expressways to connect the surrounding territories to the city’s downtown hub. Atlanta actually had seven or so meaningful downtowns, but the hub was the downtown of the Business Elite, and they wanted the traffic to come straight to them, bypassing the other six.
Doing so, though, would permanently separate black residents from the jobs downtown (unless they had cars) and threatened the smaller white businessmen who located outside the hub. Hartsfield offered the black residents a land swap — relocating them to other parts of the city and bulldozing their homes — and did so by taking the land from working class white residents. Taking the hint, the whites left. Many black residents didn’t like their homes being bulldozed, (and maybe didn’t like getting moved into housing projects either), but they accepted the solution, at first. And the Business Elite got its way, expanding the black neighborhoods into white neighborhoods they opposed — driving out the whites — but never themselves being threatened, much to the irritation of black residents who found themselves held to a tight leash on where and when they could live.
This tension exploded in 1960 when white neighborhoods blocked an attempt to be re-zoned for housing projects. The vote to re-zone failed 9-8, with black leaders finally cutting loose on the Business Elite that had hemmed them in and failed to allow them to expand into another area. While the coalition was eventually restored, it led to a short rebellion by black voters against black leaders who were seen as too close and too deferential to the white Business Elite. Martin Luther King, Sr. was booed by black audiences for his attempts to be “reasonable.”
By 1962, Hartsfield’s 20-year career as mayor were nearly over, and he was soon replaced by Ivan Allen another elite businessman who allied with the black residents of the city against the white working class and the segregationists. At the same time, though, none of the black candidates for office won.
Atlanta had a civil service system that benefited the white Business Elite and, by 1962, black residents wanted real jobs, not token representation. For his part, Allen wanted a football stadium. He created a plan to bulldoze some of the housing authority territory and build that stadium (famously, “for a team that hadn’t signed, with money they didn’t have, on land they didn’t own”) and ejected the black residents. This led to big political fights, and eventually Allen got his way. In return he built a new neighborhood and school, displacing more residents, but residents who weren’t voting for him. And incidentally, all this put put more distance between the city’s black residence and the downtown Business Elite ‘s hub while eliminating some of the competing downtowns.
Displaced blacks rioted. More whites were displaced and left the city for neighboring jurisdictions.
By 1973, so many whites had left or been driven off, that the city was split almost half-and-half black and white; soon after, it became officially black majority. Allen was succeeded in 1969 by Sam Massell (his vice-mayor) in a bruising competition with Maynard Jackson. Jackson was a black attorney who leapt in line — from nobody to mayoral candidate — over the established black leadership who, by this time, had been thoroughly replaced by younger radicals (one of the remaining old-school leaders asked of Jackson, before his run, “Who did he check with?”). To pay off the established black support, Massell created an Office of Affirmative Action and began appointing black residents to every department in the city.
The Civil Service was replaced again by a patronage system and ward elections, but Massell also ditched the moratorium on racial rhetoric, arguing that a black mayor would cause property values in the city to drop. At the same time, he continued to build highways into the city, bulldozing white and black neighborhoods willy-nilly, and further consolidating the city.
In 1973, Jackson won the mayorality by uniting the black and white neighborhood groups that had been ground under by the Business Elite since the 1930s. The old Civil Rights Establishment was rejected, the downtown elites were reduced to a junior partner, and Jackson began what was widely considered a corrupt administration. Corrupt, but honestly corrupt. Jackson handed out patronage on simple terms: Support the city, and you’d receive benefits and protection. The neighborhood communities that had supported Jackson got the relief from the downtown businesses they needed, and they got the jobs and contracts they wanted.
But the Business Elite got what it wanted anyway. They discovered a simple tool under Massell: partnership. Contracts with the city required knowledge of city systems and procedures, but also required a minority (read: black) business owner to get the affirmative action contract. Thus, the white businessmen lent their expertise to black businessmen, who would get the contract and then let the white business subcontract parts of the job, or advise on the whole process for a fee. Though Jackson had thrown out the Business Elite and brought in the people, the Business Elite simply snuck back in the window.
In discussing the situation in 1981, I should disclose that I have a soft spot for Maynard Jackson: He took a city that was dominated by business interests, allied all the residential and neighborhood interests, and threw open the doors of the city to the interests of the voters and not the Chamber of Commerce. While I am not fond of the open corruption, I can understand it: the Business Elite had created the rigged system, and Jackson was just playing the game.
By this point, it was clear that the only winning move was to play exactly as the Business Elite wanted. Jackson was succeeded by Andrew Young, a black minister and protege of Martin Luther King, Jr. Young promptly threw-in with the Business Elite; he had to. The voters who remained in the city were part of a patronage system heavily dependent on partnering with the Business Elite. If you wanted government to work for you, you had to play ball, and Young did. He bulldozed the neighborhoods and brought in not only part of Stone Mountain Expressway but also Presidential Parkway and the Carter Library (built on the land bulldozed for Stone Mountain). By 1988, the city had consolidated from 7 to 3 downtowns, and the Hub was by far the most important. The Business Elite got what it wanted.
This is, incidentally, why I consider Atlanta traffic to be God’s personal vengeance on the city.
Defeated, black and white neighborhood residents fled to neighboring counties -most notably Gwinnett.
*****
Are there lessons to be taken from this story? I’m not entirely sure. What strikes me is that black voters throughout the story are treated horribly: there’s talk about respect, but it’s only enough not to directly insult the voters (and not even always that). When segregationists could use the white working class to keep power, and make way for the business elite, they did. When the white working class stood in the way, they were disposed of quickly and replaced with black voters. Those voters were then kept subordinate, given trinkets and tokens for 20 years, had their lands bulldozed and built over, all because the alternative was the working class segregationists.
But black voters were still treated horribly even after the segregationists disappeared in the 1970s. Even when they became a majority and elected one of their own to lead the city, they were still undercut by the Business Elite. After a short pause, their homes were bulldozed and built over (and I’m skipping over a lot).
Stone noted that the divide actually ran straight through the black community. While the neighborhood associations were getting hammered, the leadership, the businessmen, and the city employees were fine. However, because of the perceived need for solidarity during the 1960s, black voters who did not directly benefit followed their leaders anyway, even as they complained about their leaders selling out. But in the 1970s, when the radicals took over, the Business Elite found it easy to undercut the by offering to share the spoils with people who previously had to go through the black leadership. That is, when the black leadership could no longer deliver in repayment for the elite’s favors, they simply found new people to patronize who could repay. Those who couldn’t were displaced.
This doesn’t mean that the block of minority voters cannot be broken. Jackson came close three times. The Business Elite almost lost their domination twice under Hartsfield and Allen. It also points to exactly how pernicious Affirmative Action really is: binding African Americans to an elite that then uses the set-asides to enrich itself. But it seems much harder to counter these effects than @avikroy lets on.
Published in Politics
Yes. Lot’s of very wrong things transpired quite often at that time. I have no intention of belittling any of them. War is hell. Truly.
Fair enough. I am a bit touchy on the Civil War. These days any expression of horror on the part of the South is met with disdain. I am too fast to see an attack. Maybe it has to do with a Ricochet contributor going after a Confederate Symbol in an Paying Member’s Avatar.
My great-great grandfather was furious about his and his sons’ conscription, they were told they would be shot as traitors if they didn’t sign on. He was able to stay out as he was too old but his 2 oldest sons were taken and one of them killed in VA, one of them injured. I found letters in the National Archives where he demanded of the Confederate Army that his son’s body be returned to GA for burial, and the return of all his son’s belongings. The Confederacy paid $10 to have the boy’s body returned. The farmers fought because they were forced not because they received any prosperity from the slaves. Letters from his sister-in-law demanding the same for her son. She had 5 children, 2 sons and a daughter died in that war.
Best story since Gone With The Wind. I love to watch Atlanta burn in that movie.
(It’s a joke…)
Well done. This could fit maybe a half dozen cities. Maybe more. Glad you made it clear you were talking about Atlanta.
I too would like to read about the history of MARTA.
Imprecise language about the Confederate army was in interest of making a point and regretted. As someone who’s Grandfather escaped Nazi conscription in Romania, I apologize for lumping your familial history into my grabbag. Bleeding-Kansas points to a large population of Southerners actively opposed to Slavery. Namely the self-reliant Yeoman.
I’m a bit touchy as well, because people who have not researched simply do not understand. It is not as if all those southerners arose in-mass to destroy the northerner for objecting to slavery. On the 1860 census of Paulding Co. the population was 7,038 and of those there were 129 slave owners, Sherman’s abuse of the civilian population in GA was unprecedented.
I have not been able to find a list of names of the women shipped out from the mills. The family I have done my greatest research, there were 7 daughters and one son. I have found all of them either in Paulding or Cobb County in 1860 I have not been able to find several daughters and grandchildren in 1870 nor any record of death or burial.
As someone who has dived into slave holder records looking for my family, I understand the frustration of having ancestry disregarded as mere commodity & chattel–whose documentation were treated with the disregard of corporations purging incriminating data. Familial narrative is crucial in weaving nuance into a more complete tapestry of historical account. In doing so, we revisit the same hurt engendered by obfuscation engineered by mutual enemies. With that in mind, the fracture of the civil war is clearly not healed–indicating that bone was never set properly and healing must be apolitical and unspoiled by agenda.
With regard to the original post, the story is pretty clear: leaders who can deliver blocks of votes enhance their own power and the power of those they serve; power once gained will be used for the benefit of the masters, not the people who elected them. In this case the block of black voters and the block of working class white voters were played off against each other for the benefit of the elite. Fantastic and archetypal story.
I don’t think Trump can be elected, but if he were to loudly and emphatically expose the way that African Americans have been held in bondage by the Progressives, he would not only improve his chances enormously, but he would perform a magnificent public service.
These histories are fascinating for me. My Bartlett grand or great uncle who was a lawyer and judge, with a statue by the courthouse in Dallas GA, had numerous sisters. Two of them married Paris brothers. Sally Bartlett married Nathaniel Paris. Nat died in 1858 and Sally in 1862. Their 3 small children went to live with uncle Abner Paris and his wife Mahala Bartlett. Abner owned a grist mill. I tracked the descendants of these 3 children as their daughter was my great grandmother. Several years ago a number of the descendants of these three met at a family reunion in Hiram GA. They were known as the “three orphans” lots of court records and lore about them, and having their descendants meeting at a reunion was quite fun. One of them came all the way from Sydney Australia.
Nope. “Bondage by Progressives” means decrying a welfare state. You get tuned out immediately. Now, if he loudly and emphatically emphasized personal and community investment, prudent and measured real estate and stock market purchase–and clearly said financial not governmental growth was the key to Black gains–he would be listened to.
Although, I doubt it will happen as I’m not sure he understands basic economic principles like: market saturation, logistical growth, and diminishing returns.
By “Bondage to Progressives” I mean taking a black votes and never delivering the advancement that the voters need; instead using the bully pulpit to promote a world view that is in itself oppressive and continues the cycle. Prosperous inner cities would destroy the voting block that has been so profitable to the Progressives, so prosperity remains ever distant. The old saying is that one should never impute malice where incompetence is a sufficient explanation: in this case, incompetence enhances malice.
I thought those who were talking about it in resentful terms were dealing with it. At least they aren’t ignoring it.
Or does “deal with it” mean, in this context, “ignore it, don’t deal with it”?
My family has been in the South since the late 1600’s, in Georgia since the 1780’s, and Atlanta since the 1850’s. So I thought I knew all the bad there was to know about Sherman: the bombardment of every Atlanta building – “No consideration must be paid to the fact they are occupied by families;” the forced expulsion of Atlanta’s civilian population; and the destruction of factories, shops, warehouses, and whole blocks of businesses and residences. This was continued in towns and villages along Sherman’s march to the sea with a thirty-mile wide swath of theft and destruction of homes, crops, food, and animals, resulting in starvation for the civilian populace. Chimneys, which were all that was left after homes were burned, were called Sherman’s telegraph poles. But I had never heard of the Roswell mill women – another crime to be added to the long list.
Waging war against civilians is wrong, whether it’s done by Muslim terrorists or American generals.
It means simply that Sherman’s actions were a huge net good.
Wars of attrition usually start as miscalculated conflicts, thought only to last a couple of days. Years of frustrating stalemate motivate the occupying force into a brutal campaign to destroy Military and Civilian morale. Targeting weapons, transportation food caches, and civilian culture alike.However, North and South’s separation at birth engendered the deep cultural and economic fragmentation thtat drove this war. Along with Jackson’s dismantling of Hamilton’s central bank, and hiring ROger Taney, a man whose malfeasance and incompetence as Sec. of Treasury was only out done by his tenure in SCOTUS–rendering the Dred Scot Decision.
Hmmm. Didn’t know about Taney as Secretary of the Treasury. Gotta go and look that up. I’ve read various biographies of Jackson and several histories of that time (and the banking system) and don’t recall reading anything about Taney’s tenure as Secretary of the Treasury. Did he have TurboTax problems, too?
I fully agree. I have histories written at the time by family members and it was gruesome. I hadn’t heard about the Mill workers exodus either and have been researching since the 1970s.
President Obama, before he was President, used to accuse President Bush of a policy of “the end justifies the means.” So he might deal with it differently.
Very interesting history. My big takeaway from your article is in the beginning. “In 1948, Atlanta was a segregated city with a large black middle class.” That is always something to remember – despite having been slaves and living as second class citizens, there was a large black middle class in this country. This middle class consisted of a majority of intact families. These families survived slavery and Jim Crow only to be destroyed by government handouts (and bulldozers) just after they won the fight to be seen as equal before the law. I think your article also illustrates that decentralization is preferable to centralization. I wonder what Atlanta would be like today had the seven or so “meaningful downtowns” been allowed to develop with a traffic plan that did not try and advantage one over the other.
Hahha, Yeah Taney and Jackson dismantled the Hamiltonian Bank system. Had they not then promptly ransacked it and set up the spoils system, the economic “Panics” of the 1800s might have been assuaged. But those are weird times. I read an entire book on Bimetallism, Free Silver, and William Jennings Bryan which made me even more confused about those topics. Except that I oppose all three.
BTW – Not to be too pedantic, but originally the stadium was built for baseball.
During his 1961 campaign for mayor, Ivan Allen promised to build a sports facility to attract a Major League Baseball team. In 1964, Allen announced that an unidentified team had given him a verbal commitment to move to Atlanta if a stadium were in place by 1966. Construction of Atlanta Stadium was completed on April 9, 1965 and on the same night the Milwaukee (soon to be the Atlanta) Braves and Detroit Tigers played an exhibition game in the stadium.
The stadium was built in less than a year, primarily because of the efforts of the Big Mules, Atlanta’s movers and shakers (businessmen, bankers, etc.) and some of the deals mentioned above.
Excellent article. Not much to add, but I wanted to comment so I could belatedly @nedvaughn
In this and in other circumstances it seems to be best to be the man with the bulldozers.