Selling Atlanta

Abstract

Situated at the intersection between histories of urban politics, civil rights, and the rise of neoliberalism, this article explores the changing dynamics of mayoral politics in Atlanta, Georgia, during the first two decades of black governance. In particular, it charts the efforts of Atlanta’s first two black mayors, Maynard Jackson and Andrew Young, to negotiate the changing economic, political, and social climate of the 1970s and 1980s. Compelled to abandon a pro-labor, community control politics in favor of policies favoring Atlanta’s tourism industry, Atlanta’s mayors worked to craft a new liberal politics that appealed to the city’s diverse electorate, investors, and other outside spectators. In doing so, they relied on and appropriated the city’s civil rights legacy to help them forge new alliances—as well as rebuild old ones—and provided an example for liberal politicians across the country.