Category: history

White Flight, Visualized

The proportion of black residents to white residents of Metro Atlanta counties rose dramatically from the 1940s to the 1970s. This phenomenon, known as “white flight,” occurred in urban areas all over the country, for the most part in direct response to school integration policies.

In 1940, the black population was concentrated in the middle of Fulton county,
interspersed with plenty of districts populated primarily by white people. This is the Atlanta that my grandparents were born into.
In 1950, we see that DeKalb county has become more white while Fulton county continues to
contain primarily black neighborhoods nearby primarily white neighborhoods. During this time, my grandparents were attending fully segregated Atlanta public schools.
In 1960, at the beginning of the serious push for school integration, Metro Atlanta’s black population was larger than it had been in recent decades. But there were still plenty of districts with approximately equal proportions of black to white students. This is the Atlanta that my parents were born into.
Finally, in 1970, as white flight has come into full affect, the mass exodus of white people (including both of my parents’ families) led to the overwhelming majority of Fulton and DeKalb county districts becoming almost entirely black– essentially perpetuating de facto school segregation. In the upper right hand corner, you see Gwinnett County, where my dad graduated from high school. My cousins still attend Gwinnett County public schools– which are now among the wealthiest and highest quality public schools in the South, while Fulton County schools continue to struggle.

The Atlanta Nine

On August 30, 1961, nine high school students showed up late to four different high schools across Atlanta. Their arrival, several minutes after the first bell, had been painstakingly orchestrated by the plainclothes police officers who picked them up from their homes in the early morning. White students watched from inside classrooms as their new classmates emerged from unmarked cars in groups of two or three, walking into the school with measured poise, surely rehearsed.

The protesters had been turned away, the press cordoned off across the street. Mayor William Hartsfield tightly managed the city’s image, setting up a cushy press suite downtown with direct teletype lines and free refreshments that lured reporters to get the story through the city’s official statements. When he wasn’t speaking to the press, he maintained contact with administrators who kept order inside the school and police officers who kept order on the streets outside the buildings. The country was watching. Atlanta would not be like Little Rock.

On August 30th and 31st, a father showed up to Grady High School with a switch, intending to whip his daughter for attending the newly integrated school against his wishes. At Murphy High School, four teen boys were arrested with a hook-bladed knife, a pistol and claw hammer in their car, along with stacks of racist literature. One teen identified himself as the president of the “Knights of the Confederacy.” A judge attempted to get the boys released early from their 30-60 day jail sentences, but Mayor Hartsfield vehemently refused the request. He was no more an integrationist than Lincoln was an abolitionist, but he was– like Lincoln– a pragmatist, concerned first and foremost with peace among his fractious people. The whole country was watching him. Atlanta would not be another New Orleans.

On the night of August 30th, President Kennedy congratulated Atlanta on its peaceful token integration, praising the city for its “courage, tolerance, and above all, respect for the law.” It was the first major Southern city to have black students enter a previously all-white school without major unrest and violence.