The Legend of the Black Mecca by Maurice J. Hobson

Author:Maurice J. Hobson [Hobson, Maurice J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Ethnic Studies, American, African American & Black Studies, Sociology, Urban, History, United States, State & Local, South (AL; AR; FL; GA; KY; LA; MS; NC; SC; TN; VA; WV)
ISBN: 9781469635361
Google: 2U84DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Published: 2017-10-03T02:42:58+00:00

Former president Jimmy Carter and newly elected mayor Andrew Young, City Hall, Atlanta, 11 January 1982. Credit: AJCNS1982-01-11-01e, Atlanta Journal-Constitution Photographic Archives. Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library.

Though the DNC selected Atlanta as host of the 1988 convention, the press published unflattering accounts of Atlanta. Attacks against the Omni mentioned its capacity and esoteric characteristics. The press asserted that the city lacked important cultural sites and had a less than stellar nightlife. Media portrayal of the city showed Atlanta as not ready for primetime. The 1988 Democratic National Convention concluded with approbation for Atlanta and its growth and promise. Atlanta embodied the epitome of genuine “southern hospitality,” and Young and Governor Harris were credited with the city’s success. Wyoming governor Mike Sullivan stated, “Atlanta established a new standard [of hospitality] during the Democratic National Convention. It was a marvelous effort … you have every reason to be proud of your city, your people.” Donald Ward, director of Special Markets of the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau, who had advocated for Houston as host, said he “ ‘tips its hat’ to Atlanta for its outstanding success in hosting. The 1988 convention in Atlanta had to be one of the most outstanding successes in political party history.” The citizens of Atlanta characterized the convention as a great success. According to the city’s foremost architect, John Portman:

All Atlanta can feel proud of Mayor Andrew Young as he graciously hosted the most important convention of the city’s history. What made his contribution particularly special? It is his leadership. Leadership in helping the convention come to Atlanta in the first place. Leadership demonstrated by his diplomatic handling of civil disobedience. Leadership in helping beautify Atlanta with the Trees Atlanta and Peachtree Planters program.… And finally leadership in helping our visitors from all over the world feel at home.… At a time when Atlanta is working hard to become “the next great international city,” Andrew Young helped make the city a little more personal and a little more friendly than any other city in the world. And that’s something [of] which all Atlantans can be proud.87

The most negative charge Young endured was that his platform during his two terms in office centered on economic development. He accomplished his goal in making Atlanta a true international city, but many saw him as a neoliberal who was too accommodating to business needs. Though Young believed that the outcome of a vibrant business-savvy Atlanta did beget jobs and other resources, he thought this would trickle down to the poor, but very little of that took place during his mayoral tenure.

In the final moments of his terms, Atlanta’s poor blacks began to express their public sentiments, which on all fronts asserted that Andrew Young cared very little for poor people. Alton Hornsby noted that even Susie LaBord, president of the Grady Homes Housing Project Tenant association and the woman who convinced a disinterested Young to run for mayor in 1982, blamed his repeated travel abroad as his Achilles’ heel among black Atlanta’s poor.

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