The Niggerazation of Atlanta part-2

During the late fifties, the civil rights movements came along, and things started to change. Protests became the thing to do, and many Black college students were involved in making a change for the future. As usual the "city fathers" rebelled against the change. but Atlanta being the city it was, managed to get the Black and White business people together, and integrating the city schools and other facilities was the focal point. There was no harsh treatment of Black students by the local police as had been done in Birmingham. No fire hoses, nor dogs were used.

At the same time, Atlanta Black neighborhoods were expanding, first Mozely Park, then Bankhead Highway during the fifties and sixties. After that, SW Atlanta began to change. first Peyton Rd, and then the rest of SW Atlanta. The mayor was so alarmed at the time, he had the city to erect a barrier across Peyton Rd, in hopes of stopping further expansion, but it didn't work. The city demographics were changing rapidly, and white flight was at the maximum.

As jobs became more available to Blacks, more homes became available to buy. During this period, many people moved from the "projects" to purchase homes also. Most people don't realize that during this era, living in the "projects" ,were akin to living "middle class". There were no SINGLE HEAD OF HOUSEHOLDS! One of the main requirements back then was, you had to be MARRIED! You mowed your own lawn, and kept your apt clean, because the inspector never told you what day they were coming! There were no "gangs" in the projects because ALL children had a father at home. Most people that lived there, were God fearing, hard working, people that took care of their children.

I can remember when I spent time with my Uncle and Aunt during the summer, the White ice cream man came around every day selling ice cream all by himself, and was never worried about getting robbed. At the time, there were very few killing, and very few serious fights, because Blacks were more friendly to each other.

During the middle sixties, the problems began with Blacks. The government had been forced into allowing single women with children into the "projects", and this resulted into gangs being formed, because no father was in the home.

Meanwhile, many poor blacks who had been sharecroppers was in mass migration to Atlantam since the northern cities were now overflowing with Southern Blacks. They migrated here because of farm mechanization which replaced many of the sharecroppers. The farmers no longer needed blacks with large families to do manual labor such as picking cotton, thus we had a large percentage of basically illiterate people arriving in Atlanta with no marketable skills.

The same situation happened in Atlanta as with other Northern cities. Old houses were split up into three rooms to rent to these "newcomers", and overcrowding ensued. The people renting out those apts, moved to the surrounding suburbs in other counties, resulting in more "White Flight"! First Dekalb, then Cobb, and finally Clayton county. which resulted into having a large influx of Negroes in those counties.

Next, crime increases in those counties