A Tale of Two Cities

Atlanta and Birmingham respond to the Civil Rights

Movement

Lori Campanile and Lindsay Robinson

Atlanta and Birmingham

• Both cities have similar populations and importance up until about 1950

• Began to diverge in the mid 20th century• Develop different economies and

different imagesWhy did Atlanta and Birmingham

develop so differently?• What choices did city leaders make

that effected the future of each city?

Atlanta

“Atlanta was in the South but not of the South.”

Atlanta’s Population The City

White Black

• 1940   302,280 60% 40%

• 1960   487,455 54% 45%

• 1980   425,022 34% 66%

• 2000   416,474  37.7%   56.8%

Estimations leaving out other ethnic groups.

Metropolitan Area1940 - 820,000 about 35% of whom are black.

1960 – 1,300,000 44% Black

1980- Population is just under 2 million 66% Black

By 2007- Atlanta has been the fastest growing metropolitan area in the nation since 2000, with a gain of nearly 900,000 residents to 5.1 million

Atlanta: The City too Busy to Hate

• Is Atlanta’s ‘Progressive’ reputation overstated?

Atlanta’s business community chooses early on to comply with desegregation, but it was a grudging and long process. One example is the encouragement by the Chairman of Coca-Cola Robert Woodruff….

The Coca Cola City

Diverse is not Equal

• Atlanta experiences white flight and a growth of inner city ghettos

• One of the starkest examples is Atlanta’s schools

• Despite the level of development; Atlanta remains ‘segregated’.

• Atlanta is Progressive by comparison…to Birmingham!

Conclusions on Atlanta

• Atlanta’s growth and economy accelerate past Birmingham’s especially 1970-2000

• The city’s early; albeit grudging acceptance of Civil Rights and growth of the Black Middle Class accounts for its accelerated development

• Perhaps the development of a sizable Black middle class but also an influx of non-Southern whites account for Atlanta’s development.

Birmingham• Founded in 1871• Named after a manufacturing center in England• Famous for dubious distinction of

•“Most segregated city in the United States” – MLK Jr•Bombingham•Bull Conner

Birmingham Populations

White Black

• 1940    267,583   61% 39%

• 1960    340,887   60.3%         39.6%

• 1980    284,413   43.9%         55.6%

• 2000    242,840   24.1%         73.5% 

The ‘Magic’ City

• Industrial- iron ore, limestone and coal found in close proximity led to “Magic City”

• The Big Mules– mine owners control the city -delegate political intermediaries to oversee strategic racial violence– not realizing racial hatred is not the best strategy for economic growth

Bombingham

Birmingham

What stopped the “Magic City”?

• Small elite upper class and large lower class of poor whites and Blacks led to huge racial problems that politicians not only didn’t stop, but encouraged

• Encouraged racism whenever the have-nots threatened to organize unions across racial lines

• Bull Conner—commissioner of public safety “White and Negro are not to segregate together!”

Conclusions

• Atlanta and Birmingham develop different after the 1950s as a direct result of their different responses to the Civil Rights Movement

Sources Cited• http://sos.georgia.gov/archives/tours/html/atlanta_history.html• http://www.atlantahighered.org/civilrights/• http://www.edutopia.org/diverse-not-equal• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta

• 1. Carry Me Home   Birmingham, Alabama, The Climatic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution  Diane McWhorter, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2001.

•  • 2. "Southern Exposure" Jon Wiener, The Nation, June 11, 2001.•  • 3. America Divided  The Civil War of the 1960s  Maurice Isserman and Michael Kazen, Oxford University Press, USA; 3 edition (February

28, 2007) .

• 4. "Family's Profits, Wrung from Blood and Sweat"  David Barstow and Lowell Bergman, New York Times, January 9, 2003.

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