Page 55 - 1619 Project Curriculum

August 18, 2019

Atlanta has some of the worst instance, destroyed black neigh- By razing impoverished areas racists were joking that MARTA,

traffi c in the United States. Driv- borhoods and displaced their downtown and segregating the with its heavily black ridership,

ers there average two hours each residents with such regularity races in the western section, Atlan- stood for ‘‘Moving Africans Rap-
week mired in gridlock, hung up that African-Americans came to ta’s leaders hoped to keep down- idly Through Atlanta.’’

James Baldwin’s mem-
at countless spots, from the con- believe, in town and its surroundings a desir- Even as the suburbs became more

stantly clogged Georgia 400 to a orable phrase, that ‘‘urban renewal able locale for middle-class whites. racially diverse, they remained

complicated cluster of overpass- means Negro removal.’’ Articulating a civic vision of racial opposed to MARTA. After Gwin-

es at Tom Moreland Interchange, peace and economic progress, nett voted the system down again

better known as ‘‘Spaghetti Junc- This intertwined history of infra- Hartsfield bragged that Atlanta was in 1990, a former Republican leg-

tion.’’ The Downtown Connector structure and racial inequality the ‘‘City Too Busy to Hate.’’ But the islator later marveled at the argu-

— a 12-to-14-lane megahighway extended into the 1950s and 1960s so-called urban renewal and the ments given by opponents. ‘‘They

that in theory connects the city’s with the creation of the Interstate new Interstates only helped speed will come up with 12 different ways

north to its south — regularly has highway system. The federal gov- white flight from Atlanta. Over of saying they are not racist in pub-

three-mile-long traffic jams that last ernment shouldered nine-tenths of the 1960s, roughly 60,000 whites lic,’’ he told a reporter. ‘‘But you get

four hours or more. Commuters the cost of the new Interstate high- left the city, with many of them them alone, behind a closed door,

might assume they’re stuck there ways, but local officials often had a relocating in the suburbs along and you see this old blatant racism

because some city planner made a say in selecting the path. As in most the northern rim. When another that we have had here for quite

mistake, but the heavy congestion American cities in the decades after 100,000 whites left the city in the some time.’’

actually stems from a great success. the Second World War, the new 1970s, it became a local joke that

In Atlanta, as in dozens of cities highways in Atlanta — local express- Atlanta had become ‘‘The City Too Earlier this year, Gwinnett Coun-

across America, daily congestion is ways at first, then Interstates — were Busy Moving to Hate.’’ ty voted MARTA down for a third

a direct consequence of a century- steered along routes that bull- As the new suburbs ballooned time. Proponents had hoped that

long eff ort to segregate the races. dozed ‘‘blighted’’ neighborhoods in size, traffic along the poorly changes in the county’s racial com-

For much of the nation’s histo- that housed its poorest residents, placed highways became worse position, which was becoming less

ry, the campaign to keep African- almost always racial minorities. This and worse. The obvious solution white, might make a diff erence. But
Americans ‘‘in their place’’ socially was a common practice not just in was mass transit — buses, light the March initiative still failed by

and politically manifested itself in Southern cities like Jacksonville, rail and trains that would more effi- an eight-point margin. Officials

an eff ort to keep them quite liter- Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, ciently link the suburbs and the city discovered that some nonwhite

ally in one place or another. Before Richmond and Tampa, but in count- — but that, too, faced opposition, suburbanites shared the isolation-

the Civil War, white masters kept less metropolises across the coun- largely for racial reasons. The white ist instincts of earlier white subur-

enslaved African-Americans close try, including Chicago, Cincinnati, suburbanites had purposefully left banites. One white property man-

at hand to coerce their labor and Denver, Detroit, Indianapolis, Los the problems of the central city ager in her late 50s told a reporter

guard against revolts. But with the Angeles, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, St. behind and worried that mass tran- that she voted against mass transit

abolition of slavery, the spatial Louis, Syracuse and Washington. sit would bring them back. because it was used by poorer res-
relationship was reversed. Once While Interstates were regular- Accordingly, suburbanites idents and immigrants, whom she

they had no need to keep constant ly used to destroy black neighbor- waged a sustained campaign called ‘‘illegals.’’ ‘‘Why should we

watch over African-Americans, hoods, they were also used to keep against the Metropolitan Atlanta pay for it?’’ she asked. ‘‘Why sub-
whites wanted them out of sight. black and white neighborhoods Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) sidize people who can’t manage

Civic planners pushed them into apart. Today, major roads and high- from its inception. Residents of their money and save up a dime to
ghettos, and the segregation we ways serve as stark dividing lines the nearly all-white Cobb County buy a car?’’

know today became the rule. between black and white sections resoundingly rejected the system In the end, Atlanta’s traffic is at a

At first the rule was overt, as in cities like Buffalo, Hartford, Kan- in a 1965 vote. In 1971, Gwinnett standstill because its attitude about

Southern cities like Baltimore and sas City, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and and Clayton Counties, which were transit is at a standstill, too. Fifty

Atlanta, the intent to

Louisville enacted laws that man- St. Louis. In then also overwhelmingly white, years after its Interstates were set

dated residential racial segrega- segregate was crystal clear. Inter- followed suit, voting down a pro- down with an eye to segregation

tion. Such laws were eventually state 20, the east-west corridor posal to join MARTA by nearly 4-1 and its rapid-transit system was

invalidated by the Supreme Court, that connects with I-75 and I-85 in margins, and keeping MARTA out stunted by white flight, the city is

but later measures achieved the Atlanta’s center, was deliberately became the default position of still stalled in the past.•

same eff ect by more subtle means. plotted along a winding route in many local politicians. (Emmett
During the New Deal, federal the late 1950s to serve, in the words Burton, a Cobb County commis-

agencies like the Home Owners’ of Mayor Bill Hartsfield, as ‘‘the sioner, won praise for promis-

Loan Corporation and the Federal boundary between the white and ing to ‘‘stock the Chattahoochee

Housing Administration encour- Negro communities’’ on the west with piranha’’ if that were need-
aged redlining practices that side of town. Black neighborhoods, ed to keep MARTA away.) David

explicitly marked minority neigh- he hoped, would be hemmed in on Chesnut, the white chairman of
borhoods as risky investments one side of the new expressway, MARTA, insisted in 1987 that sub-

and therefore discouraged bank while white neighborhoods on the urban opposition to mass tran-
loans, mortgages and insurance other side of it would be protect- sit had been ‘‘90 percent a racial

there. Other policies simply tar- ed. Racial residential patterns have issue.’’ Because of that resistance,

geted black communities for iso- long since changed, of course, but MARTA became a city-only service

lation and demolition. The postwar the awkward path of I-20 remains that did little to relieve commut-

programs for urban renewal, for in place. er traffic. By the mid-1980s, white

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Photograph by Humza Deas