If you're a student of history, you can't go wrong by digging into the stuff that happened in 1973. If you like sports, that was the year that George Steinbrenner and his team of investors bought the New York Yankees from CBS -- for $10 million; and the year that George Foreman defeated Joe Frazier for the heavyweight boxing championship of the world.
If geo-political events are your thing, it was the year that the last U.S. soldier left Vietnam, and the year the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) was founded. It was also the year of the Arab Oil Embargo, and that President Nixon told 400 Associated Press managing editors, "I am not a crook."
For those who closely follow black electoral politics, however, 1973 was also the year that Maynard Jackson became the first black mayor of Atlanta, by defeating that city's first Jewish mayor, Sam Massell. That made 1973 noteworthy in that it was the last year that Atlanta, the so-called "Black Mecca," the revered African-American educational, cultural and business center, "The City Too Busy to Hate," had a white mayor. That was 36 years ago.
Since then, whenever black politically engaged people have wanted to talk about a city that epitomized sustained black political power and that produced economic inclusion and visionary leadership, they simply brought up "Maynard Jackson" and that was, usually, the end of the conversation.
All heads would automatically bow, and we would all pay homage to the greatness of Atlanta.
For us, here in the City of Brotherly Love, it has never mattered, somehow, that Philadelphia is, literally, three times as large as Atlanta, nor that Atlanta's 296,710 black people and 8,453 black-owned businesses are actually dwarfed by Philadelphia's 625,706 African-American residents and 10,586 black-owned businesses. The perception of Atlanta as the "Land of Oz" for black achievement has been so ingrained in the national black psyche that we, like blacks in many other cities, have always looked to Atlanta, waiting for a sign that would point to the next big cultural or economic move for Black America.
I know, for a fact, that all three black Philadelphia mayors have been specifically challenged, at the start of their terms, to "be like Maynard Jackson," and to, please, "make Philadelphia more like Atlanta."
How many times have you heard these statements? "If this were Atlanta, we would have a more focused black political strategy;" "If this were Atlanta, we wouldn't, routinely, have three black candidates in the Democratic mayoral primary election, splitting the black vote;" "If this were Atlanta, black folks simply would not accept the kind of political back-sliding and the half-hearted efforts we seem to be experiencing on issues such as black-owned business procurement, involvement in the construction industry, black teachers in the public schools, neighborhood gentrification, true control of the local Democratic Party, which we dominate by our registrations, and a number of other issues.
"If this were Atlanta," we say, "black folks just wouldn't be putting up with it."
That's what we say.
However, as I look at what is currently taking place in that city, I'm becoming all the more convinced that there isn't much there, anymore, for us to emulate.
In fact, as the Wall Street Journal pointed out last week, if next week's Mayor's election produces a result that reflects the recent polls, that city might have a new, not-so-progressive reputation to live down. According to the Journal, if Mary Norwood, a very well-to-do, incumbent, white conservative Democratic councilwoman and former Republican, from the city's exclusive Buckhead section, wins Atlanta's General Election for mayor, on Tuesday, she will become the first white mayor in Atlanta since Sam Massell. Consequently, Atlanta would be distinguished as the first majority-black Southern city to return its mayor's office to a white candidate.
While there is, certainly, nothing inherently wrong with voting for a white candidate, in a city wherein blacks still constitute 51 percent of the electorate, as compared to 39 percent for whites, a victory by Ms. Norwood, in purely political terms, would be a clear sign that Atlanta's legendarily powerful black political machine may be operating, now, on fumes.
Here's another question: Is it still fair to believe that Atlanta's black politicians are still savvy, goal-oriented, no-nonsense, charismatic little clones of Maynard Jackson? I think not.
In Atlanta, a city wherein African Americans, just one year ago, voted overwhelmingly for the first black president, for example, one of the mayoral candidates has these words on their website: "You tell me you want change. You want a new direction. You want someone to stand up for you for a change."
That's a statement that has been unquestionably ripped directly from the Barack Obama political playbook. Curiously, however, those words don't appear on an African-American candidate's website but, rather, on the website of politically conservative Ms. Norwood.
Here's where the whole political climate in Atlanta gets more complex: While the African-American population of that city has actually declined from 66.5 percent in 1990 to 54 percent in 2004, Atlanta has, over the same period, experienced the fastest-growing Korean population in the nation, from 42,000 in the year 2000 to 80,000 in 2006, and the fastest-growing white population in the country, from 31 percent to 35 percent, over the same period. That was, by the way, double the white population growth in the city during the last ten years of the 20th Century.
The big political issues in Atlanta, people are saying, have to do with reducing the violent and property crime rates. There has also been great controversy around the recent move by Mayor Shirley Franklin (the black mayor who's playing the "incumbent-to-be-avoided" role in this election) to close fire stations and lay off police officers.
So far, not surprisingly, Mayor Franklin has not endorsed any of the candidates, and the candidates, themselves, are not exactly knocking down the doors of City Hall seeking her support, not even Kasim Reed, the candidate who managed Franklin's own mayoral campaigns.
When black, Georgia state representative Ralph Long endorsed Norwood, in September. It was just one more sign that black political unity in Atlanta is now more myth than reality.
As to Atlanta's black political machine not putting up with multiple black candidates? There are at least four black candidates running against Norwood, who currently leads in most polls. They include the city's incumbent City Council President, a Georgia State Senator, a Harvard Law School grad/Rhodes Scholar, and a 2004 graduate of Clark Atlanta University named Tiffany Brown, who is one of two write-in candidates.
Looks like Ms. Norwood's campaign has covered every political base -- twice. Keep your eye on this one.
I know this sounds like heresy, but it seems to me that we, in Philadelphia, the nation's sixth largest city should immediately stop looking to Atlanta, the country's thirty-third largest city, for political and economic wisdom. It appears that Atlanta lost a great deal more than its former mayor when Maynard Jackson died prematurely, in 2003.
Let's start charting our own course on Tuesday, Election Day, by getting out and voting to elect Seth Williams as the first black district attorney, anywhere, in the history of the state of Pennsylvania. That's easy to do when he's also the hands-down, most-qualified candidate. While you're out there, also re-elect City Controller Alan Butkovitz, who's been very supportive of black business issues.
After that, we're going to need a clear, well-thought-out strategy to support the best candidate for mayor in 2012. Some people are already talking about that. We should be, also.
Hey, it's time for Atlanta to start looking up to us.
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