ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to comment specifically on black mayors in Atlanta, Georgia. The city of Atlanta has been under black mayoral leadership since 1973. Blacks have majority control in both the Atlanta City Council and the Atlanta School Board, as well as on the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. The steady rise in the number of black registered voters and the attendant increase in the number of black elected officials, including and especially big-city black mayors, reinforced the disposition. Indeed, a sense of euphoria permeated the political atmosphere as the major cities of the Old Confederacy, such as Birmingham, Alabama, and Atlanta, Georgia, joined the ranks of municipalities headed by black mayors. In spite of the positive results as reported by the city, the overall conditions of black Atlantans, especially those in the inner city, have continued to decline during the incumbency of both black mayors.
