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Beryl Satter, Maurice J. Hobson. The Legend of the Black Mecca: Politics and Class in the Making of Modern Atlanta., The American Historical Review, Volume 123, Issue 5, December 2018, Pages 1692–1693, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhy311
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Atlanta, Georgia, was one of several U.S. cities that elected black mayors in the 1970s, just as the U.S. economy in general, and U.S. cities in particular, were hit with a combination of inflation, recession, infrastructure decay, and deindustrialization. Yet while other black-led cities struggled, Atlanta seemed to prosper under the leadership of mayors Maynard H. Jackson Jr. (1974–1982 and 1990–1994) and Andrew Young (1982–1990). Jackson’s brilliant political leadership, and particularly his insistence on affirmative action in city contracts for airport, public transportation, and highway construction, helped create a thriving black middle and upper class. Atlanta became known as the “Black Mecca,” attracting black talent nationally and internationally. Young, who had served as a member of the U.S. Congress and as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, drew on his national and international contacts to bring the 1988 Democratic National Convention to Atlanta. He also helped Atlanta become the host city for the 1996 Summer Olympics, thus cementing its “world city” status.
