Atlanta: The ‘Black Mecca’ Becomes a Mecca for Whites

By Hal LamarSpecial to the NNPA from the Atlanta Voice ATLANTA (NNPA) – Atlanta, often cited by Black Enterprise and other national publications as the ideal residential and business climate for African-Americans and other people of color, is changing ever so slowly. In fact, by the year 2009, the city now called the “Black Mecca” by many of those same publications will find itself overtaken by a growing minority of middle- to upper-class Whites. That commentary on the city that birthed Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the first Black mayor of a major southeastern city and several bastions of Black business success such as H.J. Russell, Citizens Trust Bank and Atlanta Life Insurance, has moved beyond a mere visionary stage. It is quantified by the 2004 “Status of Black Atlanta.” The report, issued annually the past 11 years by Clark Atlanta University’s Southern Center for Studies in Public Policy, is watched over by center director Bob Holmes, a 30-year member of the Georgia General Assembly. He has shepherded the status of Black Atlanta report since its launching in 1993. Asked to compare the 2004 report with the 10 others he has done, Holmes noted that things haven’t changed much economically for the city’s poor and lower class population. “Progress has been made by about 30 percent of the population, but as many or more than that experienced a decline in the quality of life,” he told the Atlanta Voice in an interview. One of the key indicators of how Atlanta is slowly changing demographically is in affordable housing. A federal housing initiative called HOPE VI (Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere) is a well-intentioned effort by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to redistribute inner city dwellers out of public housing projects and other so-called “reservation communities” into better neighborhoods with single family houses and more amenities like better grocery stores, shops and medical services. But Holmes says the concept has yet to flourish the way its creators envisioned. “We have yet to see that happen.” What we have seen, he notes in the report, is the increase in condominiums and loft housing which he said is being gobbled up by Whites moving from other areas of the country and suburban Atlanta into the inner city. “Not many Blacks are buying into this,” he said. “While we are moving outside the city into the subdivisions and housing developments, Whites are coming into the city and occupying 95 percent of the condos and loft apartments.” He predicted that if the trend continues, the demographics of the city will change significantly and with it the political landscape as well. Speaking of politics, Holmes said the census data from 2000 suggests that the White-Black population could reach parity within the next three to five years and allow a strong White candidate to be elected mayor. “That’s not to say that a Black person couldn’t be elected,” he notes. “But that person will have to be one Whites feel will work in their best interests as well as those of the city’s poor and working class. The days of the incumbent mayor hand-picking successors is over. That died with Maynard (Jackson) in 2003.” One of the reports’ most disturbing finding is the declining rate of marriage in the Black community. According to their findings, nationally the number of Black married couples plummeted from 68 percent in 1970 to 46.1 percent in 2000. In Atlanta, the decline was equally as sharp from 58.5 percent to 33.7 percent. Black married couples with kids comprise only 12.4 percent of total Black households in Atlanta compared to 30.5 percent for Whites. Holmes said their report cites the low supply of “marriageable Black men” as one cause for the downward trend. The report cites the ratio of Black men to Black women as 597 men for every 1,000 “sistahs”, nearly 2-1. When Black male employment is thrown in, the figures shrink to 279 eligibles for every 1,000 Black women. “The impact is devastating,” said Holmes. “It’s increased teen childbearing, higher school dropout rates, more children in foster care, increases in welfare rolls, more kids in poverty and greater incarceration rates.” As possible solutions, the report suggests everything from major education efforts to encourage marriage over cohabitation or “shacking” to outlawing no-fault divorce or even sanctioning same sex marriage (a crime in Georgia). “The Status of Black Atlanta 2004” is available for $15 and can be obtained by calling the Southern Center at 404-880-8085.