Will Atlanta ever lose its title as the Black Mecca?

[wanderer34]

Originally Posted by glovenyc

Yes, the NYC I grew up in was ethnically (and racially) segregated. Although Black and Puerto Rican people shared many neighborhoods as well, areas like Bensonhurst and Howard Beach were very dangerous for us.

When the neighborhoods like Little Italy, Lower East Side and Chinatown became inhabited by Italian, Jewish, and Chinese immigrants it was always a custom to stay where your ethnicity was rather than staying away from the darker races, as the powers that be like to say.

Blacks, who have been here far longer than many of the other immigrants, have always been in the city since the city's founding, but the New York Draft Riots during the Civil War scared many of the blacks due to the animus of the Irish immigrants at the time (watch Gangs of New York) to places like Brooklyn. The city of NY would later annex Brooklyn in 1896 and Blacks wouldn't become a major presence in NY until the start of the 1920, when the Harlem Renaissance would eventually turn Harlem into not just a social and cultural center for blacks, but for pretty much everybody.

Nowadays, NYC is less becoming a "gorgeous mosaic" as described by the late and former mayor David Dinkins, and more like a "hipster haven" and a "gentrifier ghetto" in places outside of Manhattan that weren't even though of as inhabitable, but you're even getting the hipsters everywhere such as Bushwick and Bed-Stuy, and now Flatbush. In Queens, it's Queensbridge, Astoria, and Woodside, and even in the Bronx, Mott Haven is looking like it's going to be the skyscraper district for the Bronx.

The problem is that what are the rest of the black, Latino, and even the ethnic white communities going to look like in about 20 years? If we lose the NY accent, you can put the final nail in the coffin for NY!

[arjay57]

It's possible we could lose that title someday but I doubt it will happen anytime soon.

[JulianMabowski]

Most of the black population is moving to the suburbs. The city of Atlanta is now majority white or if not, will be by 2030 census.

[JMatl]

Originally Posted by JulianMabowski

Most of the black population is moving to the suburbs. The city of Atlanta is now majority white or if not, will be by 2030 census.

Which has absolutely nothing to do with our status as a mecca. It didn't affect our status as a gay mecca, and it won't impact our status as a hub of Black America either.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by JulianMabowski

Most of the black population is moving to the suburbs. The city of Atlanta is now majority white or if not, will be by 2030 census.

The City of Atlanta proper certainty looks to have the possibility to become a jurisdiction where non-Hispanic whites may make up the majority of residents.

But currently, the City of Atlanta proper does not have a majority-white population.

Non-Hispanic whites currently make up about 38 percent of the population of the City of Atlanta proper.

Black residents currently make up 49.8 percent (a plurality) of the population of the City of Atlanta proper, which remains a ‘majority-minority’ jurisdiction with racial and ethnic minorities making up 62 percent of all residents.

U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Atlanta city, Georgia

[ShenardL]

I see the northern burbs being a melting pot (a good percentage of Asian, White, Black, Hispanic). The city core will be more White and Asian with more tech-focused jobs. The southern burbs will grow with a lot more Black and Hispanic.

[Smocaine]

Originally Posted by JMatl

Which has absolutely nothing to do with our status as a mecca. It didn't affect our status as a gay mecca, and it won't impact our status as a hub of Black America either.

The City of Atlanta is, essentially, already a white-dominant city after the gentrification of Midtown and the east side. The only areas left are the west/south sides which are sparsely-populated and economically dead, and black people are only moving out of there. It's very clear that black people are going to continue to disperse into the inner suburbs like Cobb County while white people continue to re-occupy Atlanta itself. At that point, it would be very hard to call the city any sort of 'mecca', when it's just a completely typical city with a moderate black population interspersed among a white/miscellaneous majority.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by Smocaine

The City of Atlanta is, essentially, already a white-dominant city after the gentrification of Midtown and the east side. The only areas left are the west/south sides which are sparsely-populated and economically dead, and black people are only moving out of there. It's very clear that black people are going to continue to disperse into the inner suburbs like Cobb County while white people continue to re-occupy Atlanta itself. At that point, it would be very hard to call the city any sort of 'mecca', when it's just a completely typical city with a moderate black population interspersed among a white/miscellaneous majority.

Well, I don’t know if one can say that the City of Atlanta proper is a “white-dominant” jurisdiction just yet.

Non-Hispanic white residents still only make up about 38% of the population in the City of Atlanta proper while Black residents still make up 49.8% of the CoA population and racial and ethnic minorities as a whole still make up a 62% majority of the CoA population at present.

Whites certainly are a dominant presence in some very key and high-profile parts of the CoA and whites certainly do appear to be heading towards demographic parity and probably a demographic majority in the not-too-distant future. But I don’t know if whites necessarily be considered to be the most dominant demographic in the CoA just yet.

Though, even if and/or when non-Hispanic white residents do achieve a demographic majority within the City of Atlanta proper, “Atlanta” (which most often is not just limited to the City of Atlanta proper, but most often is applied to all or parts of at least about 14 metro Atlanta counties when talking about “Atlanta” as the leading “Black Mecca”) will still be considered the leading “Black Mecca” because of the presence of the seminal HBCU institutions of the Atlanta University Center, Atlanta’s very large metropolitan Black population (which is the largest in the U.S behind only New York), Atlanta’s pre-existing status as the national capital of Black culture and entertainment, and Atlanta’s relatively very centralized location in a region of the country (in the Southern U.S.) that has a very high concentration of African-Americans.

[JMatl]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

Well, I don’t know if one can say that the City of Atlanta proper is a “white-dominant” jurisdiction just yet.

Non-Hispanic white residents still only make up about 38% of the population in the City of Atlanta proper while Black residents still make up 49.8% of the CoA population and racial and ethnic minorities as a whole still make up a 62% majority of the CoA population at present.

Whites certainly are a dominant presence in some very key and high-profile parts of the CoA and whites certainly do appear to be heading towards demographic parity and probably a demographic majority in the not-too-distant future. But I don’t know if whites necessarily be considered to be the most dominant demographic in the CoA just yet.

Though, even if and/or when non-Hispanic white residents do achieve a demographic majority within the City of Atlanta proper, “Atlanta” (which most often is not just limited to the City of Atlanta proper, but most often is applied to all or parts of at least about 14 metro Atlanta counties when talking about “Atlanta” as the leading “Black Mecca”) will still be considered the leading “Black Mecca” because of the presence of the seminal HBCU institutions of the Atlanta University Center, Atlanta’s very large metropolitan Black population (which is the largest in the U.S behind only New York), Atlanta’s pre-existing status as the national capital of Black culture and entertainment, and Atlanta’s relatively very centralized location in a region of the country (in the Southern U.S.) that has a very high concentration of African-Americans.

Tell it, B2R! Aa usual, the voice of reason versus the all too common load of twisted opinion presented as fact.

[Mutiny77]

Originally Posted by Smocaine

It's very clear that black people are going to continue to disperse into the inner suburbs like Cobb County while white people continue to re-occupy Atlanta itself. At that point, it would be very hard to call the city any sort of 'mecca', when it's just a completely typical city with a moderate black population interspersed among a white/miscellaneous majority.

Of all the reasons Atlanta has been called a "Black mecca," simply having a majority Black population has been among the least important. As a matter of fact, when Atlanta was christened "the Black Mecca of the South" in 1971 by Ebony Magazine, it had only become a Black majority city officially in the previous year, the first Census that reflected a municipal Black population of over 50% (and even then just barely at 51.3%). If the size and share of the Black population of the city proper was the top criterion, then we'd would've been talking about Detroit instead of Atlanta over the same time period.

Even as the share of the Black full-time residents of Atlanta proper shrinks, Black students will continue to flock to the AUC (shout out to Morris Brown for regaining its accreditation), Black visitors will still frequent the various Black cultural events regularly hosted by the city as well as sites of interest, the Black folks associated with the entertainment industry won't be going anywhere, etc. And of course, the city's Black historical legacy will always loom large.

Furthermore, the "Black mecca" label began to extend to the larger region beyond Atlanta proper almost as soon as it was applied. The Fair Housing Act of '68, passed by Congress shortly after Dr. King's assassination, is what made the exodus to the suburbs by Black folks possible on a large scale and that's what began to happen almost immediately.

And lastly, if the remaining Black population in Atlanta proper is overall more prosperous and successful, even if smaller than it was at its peak, then that certainly won't detract from Atlanta's "Black mecca" status, especially combined with the strength and size of its Black suburban population.

But as I've stated before, any place that's conducive to Black success will be the type of place where success naturally extends to all groups so any true Black mecca will diversify over time. It only makes sense.