| The Legend of the Black Mecca: Politics and Class in the Making of Modern Atlanta Contributor(s): Hobson, Maurice J. (Author) |
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ISBN: 146965475X ISBN-13: 9781469654751 Publisher: University of North Carolina Press OUR PRICE: $33.20 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: August 2019 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | African American - History | United States - State & Local - South (al,ar,fl,ga,ky,la,ms,nc,sc,tn,va,wv) - Social Science | Ethnic Studies - African American Studies |
| Dewey: 305.896 |
| LCCN: 2017002265 |
| Physical Information: 0.8" H x 8.2" W x 9.2" (1.00 lbs) 336 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 20th Century - Cultural Region - Southeast U.S. - Cultural Region - South - Demographic Orientation - Urban - Ethnic Orientation - African American - Geographic Orientation - Georgia - Locality - Atlanta, Georgia - Topical - Black History |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: 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. |
Contributor Bio(s): Hobson, Maurice J.: - Maurice J. Hobson is associate professor of African American studies at Georgia State University. |