Will Atlanta ever lose its title as the Black Mecca? (Forsyth: neighborhood, live)

[908Boi]

"Atlanta" includes the Atlanta suburbs so no. Plus there is no other city that will overtake it as the "Black Mecca". Miami-Dade County is about 30-40% Cuban American but they still hold power/influence in South Florida.

[markjames68]

Originally Posted by citidata18

Detroit has since fallen off big time (thanks largely to the collapse of the Auto Industry), but for a time from the 60s to the 90s, Detroit was definitely up there as a popular destination for black people and an influential place for black culture.

And even today, it's still no slouch for black people as it has the top 10 largest concentration of middle class / wealthy African-Americans in the country and aside from the Mayor's office, blacks still make up most of the political leadership in the city, county and immediate surrounding suburbs.

Actually Detroit has been a draw long before the 1960's.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/2717031?seq=1

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by 908Boi

"Atlanta" includes the Atlanta suburbs so no. Plus there is no other city that will overtake it as the "Black Mecca". Miami-Dade County is about 30-40% Cuban American but they still hold power/influence in South Florida.

As far as I know the title primarily applied to the city proper due to the cities heritage, civil rights movements, pop culture (which is largely centered upon Atlanta proper) and so forth. It had little to do with the actual population. The suburbs drop sharply in AA%’s due to White Flight, Lack of transit, and other factors. They were never truly the focal point of the title.

As Atlanta gentrifies and more hipsters move into the core, I do believe over time the title will become less pronounced, but the roots and foundation of it will likely remain.

[demonta4]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

As far as I know the title primarily applied to the city proper due to the cities heritage, civil rights movements, pop culture (which is largely centered upon Atlanta proper) and so forth. It had little to do with the actual population. The suburbs drop sharply in AA%’s due to White Flight, Lack of transit, and other factors. They were never truly the focal point of the title.

As Atlanta gentrifies and more hipsters move into the core, I do believe over time the title will become less pronounced, but the roots and foundation of it will likely remain.

Pretty much all the southern suburbs have been majority black for most of my lifetime so I’d definitely consider them apart of the “black Mecca”. Camp Creek Pkwy feels very professional and black which is something I don’t experience much in other cities.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by markjames68

Time for metro Atlanta to embrace even greater diversity. So many new cultures coming to the area is only a good thing. Look at a place like Forsyth County and how it’s changed over the past 10 years.

That is an excellent point that so many new cultures coming to metro Atlanta can only be a good thing, particularly in our global economy.

That is also excellent point about how the increased diversity seems to have positively affected (changed) a historically completely white exurban jurisdiction like Forsyth County, a jurisdiction which had a population that was effectively 100% white 40 years ago (1980).

But metro Atlanta long ago embraced the concept of even greater diversity, even before the metro area really started to diversify after 1990, when Atlanta won the bid to host the 1996 Summer Olympics and Atlanta’s reputation as a metropolitan area of international importance and influence really started to gain much traction and even took off in many respects.

While not everyone in metro Atlanta and Georgia obviously might have been completely on board with their vision of Atlanta as a city and metro of international importance and influence, Atlanta city government and business leaders (both black and white) have long wanted and desired for Atlanta to be a city and metro of international importance and influence that would be home to a diverse and cosmopolitan population.

It has been black and white Atlanta government and business leaders desire for Atlanta to become a city/metro of international importance and influence that drove the city’s very early investments in air travel infrastructure, starting back in the 1920’s, when a young Atlanta city councilman named William Hartsfield convinced the Atlanta city government to buy an abandoned auto race track south of town so that the city could take the lead in investing in the then-burgeoning air transportation industry by building an airport before air transportation became widely available and widely used.

The investments in air transportation have continued through both black and white Atlanta mayoral administrations, from the 1920’s through the 2010’s, taking Atlanta from a provincial medium-sized city of regional importance back when the city first bought the land for the airport back in the 1920’s, to a large major metropolitan area of international importance and influence that has become one of the world’s capitals of multimedia entertainment production.

The city’s initial acquisition of professional sports franchises that notably occurred during the decade of the 1960’s (and mostly during the administration of Atlanta’s last white mayor, Ivan Allen, Jr. (1962-1970) when the city acquired the MLB Braves, NFL Falcons and NBA Hawks within about a three-year period), was also driven by a desire by the city’s government and business leadership for Atlanta to become a “major league city” with a more cosmopolitan culture and more national relevance.

Atlanta’s desire to become a diverse cosmopolitan large major city/metro of international importance and influence also drove the city’s investment in the massive expansion of the airport into the facility we know today, during the first administration of Maynard Jackson (Atlanta’s first black mayor) and motivated the city’s submission of its bid to host the 1996 Summer Olympics during the administration of Andrew Young (Atlanta’s second black mayor), with then-former mayor Maynard Jackson and white Atlanta business community leader and Buckhead resident Billy Payne leading the way on the now-historic Olympic bid.

And even though Atlanta has long had the label and image of being a ‘black Mecca’ or ‘the black Mecca’ it has most often (if not nearly always) Atlanta’s black leaders (in government, business, religion, entertainment, etc., from Martin Luther King during the Civil Rights era to Tyler Perry today and many in between and even before) that have helped lead the way for a once-provincial Atlanta to embrace and achieve increased and greater diversity as a city/metro of international importance and influence.

Being a ‘black Mecca’ or ‘the black Mecca’ and embracing and achieving increased/greater diversity don’t have to be mutually exclusive things.

In fact, Atlanta’s image and reputation as a or the ‘black Mecca’ that has often helped power the city/metro’s ongoing efforts to embrace increased/greater diversity.

It has very often/most often been black figures who (along and together with many white figures) have been some of the biggest and fiercest advocates for metro Atlanta to embrace greater diversity.

Love him or hate him, a prime example is billionaire entertainment mogul Tyler Perry, who was attracted and moved to Atlanta because of its long held image and reputation as a ‘black Mecca’ and now is often seen being a big advocate for diversity in casting and hiring in his television and film production operations that have emerged as a central player in Atlanta’s emergence as a world capital of TV and Film production.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

As far as I know the title primarily applied to the city proper due to the cities heritage, civil rights movements, pop culture (which is largely centered upon Atlanta proper) and so forth. It had little to do with the actual population. The suburbs drop sharply in AA%’s due to White Flight, Lack of transit, and other factors. They were never truly the focal point of the title.

As Atlanta gentrifies and more hipsters move into the core, I do believe over time the title will become less pronounced, but the roots and foundation of it will likely remain.

Originally Posted by demonta4

Pretty much all the southern suburbs have been majority black for most of my lifetime so I’d definitely consider them apart of the “black Mecca”. Camp Creek Pkwy feels very professional and black which is something I don’t experience much in other cities.

Demonta makes an excellent point about many, if not most, of the Southern suburbs having majority and/or plurality black populations.

And in addition to many greater Southern Crescent suburbs (like Douglas, South Fulton, Clayton, Henry, Rockdale and Newton counties) having majority and/or plurality Black populations, there are some important majority non-Black Northern Crescent/Golden Crescent Northside suburbs (like Cobb County, Gwinnett County, Sandy Springs, Gainesville, Paulding County, Roswell, Alpharetta) that have large, sizable and noticeable Black minority populations.

Even majority-white Southern Crescent suburban counties like Fayette and Coweta have sizable Black minority populations.

It is actually the aforementioned suburbs (along with DeKalb County, which is officially a suburb of Atlanta proper) which have helped attract to much of the black population to Atlanta, which surpassed Chicago early in the decade of the 2010’s to have the nation’s largest Black population behind only New York.

Also, it is actually the suburbs where most of metro Atlanta’s black population lives.

[Otakumaster]

Most people consider the suburbs, so yes. It's going to be have a lot of black middle class for a while.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

Do people even really still call it that these days?

That’s an excellent question.

Like previous posters might have mentioned, the term ‘Black Mecca’ seems to be a little dated now, with the term seeming to be used more widely before the year 2000.

But the term ‘Black Mecca,’ while maybe not used as widely as it might have been before the turn of the Millennium, continues to used in some circles.

In reference to Atlanta, technically it is what one would describe as either a ‘Black Mecca’ or ‘the Black Mecca’ with the city being a very high-profile hub of life and culture and a destination for African-Americans.

Though because the Atlanta city/metro has grown so much and has become so much more diverse and multidimensional (particularly since the 1990’s, as a large nationally and internationally important hub of entertainment, culture, education, technology jobs, industry, sports, etc.), the term ‘Black Mecca’ technically may still apply to the Atlanta city/metro as far the circles in which it is still used, but may describe only one (yet still very important) facet of a much more diverse and multifaceted Atlanta metropolitan area.

[brownhornet]

We stopped using this term like 10 years ago if we're being honest.

[brownhornet]

Originally Posted by markjames68

Time for metro Atlanta to embrace even greater diversity. So many new cultures coming to the area is only a good thing. Look at a place like Forsyth County and how it’s changed over the past 10 years.

I wonder how the Forsyth natives are feeling about the immigrants right about now.