The Legend of the Black Mecca

Politics and Class in the Making of Modern Atlanta

By: Maurice J. Hobson

Narrated by: Bill Andrew Quinn

For more than a century, the city of Atlanta has been associated with Black achievement in education, business, politics, media, and music, earning it the nickname "the Black Mecca." Atlanta's long tradition of Black education dates back to Reconstruction, and produced an elite that flourished in spite of Jim Crow, rose to leadership during the civil rights movement, and then took power in the 1970s by building a coalition between White progressives, business interests, and Black Atlantans. But as Maurice J. Hobson demonstrates, Atlanta's political leadership - from the election of Maynard Jackson, Atlanta's first Black mayor, through the city's hosting of the 1996 Olympic Games - has consistently mishandled the Black poor. Drawn from vivid primary sources and unnerving oral histories of working-class city-dwellers and hip-hop artists from Atlanta's underbelly, Hobson argues that Atlanta's political leadership has governed by bargaining with white business interests to the detriment of ordinary Black Atlantans.

In telling this history through the prism of the Black New South and Atlanta politics, policy, and pop culture, Hobson portrays a striking schism between the Black political elite and poor city-dwellers, complicating the long-held view of Atlanta as a mecca for Black people.

©2017 Maurice J. Hobson (P)2020 Tantor

Outstanding ATL history

I loved this book. I lived in ATL for 25 years during most of this historical rendition. While I knew most of this history, I still found precious bits that I didn’t know. I am about to listen to it again because it was that interesting. I especially loved the explanations of lyrics from the dungeon family. Well done!!

GREAT BOOK TO READ—Especially You From ATL!!!!!

Great book!! Great Book to Read! Being from Atlanta, growing up here from Maynard Jackson to Andrew Young, Bill Campbell and Shirley Franklin; witnessing ATL pre-Olympics to post-Olympics, Dr Maurice Hobson does a great job intertwine historically why Atlanta is the “city to busy to hate.”

Excellent writing. Excellent Read. Excellent historical references. After reading this book, I am STILL a proud ATLANTIAN. If you are from Atlanta, born and raised, this book is a great read! You will be proud to be from Atlanta!

Dispelling the Myth of Black Mecca

This book was eye-opening to say the absolute least! I remember in my teens and 20s ignorantly praising Atlanta as a “Black Paradise.” A place where Black people can go and become successful. Now in my 30s, I realized how dreadfully wrong I was. However, I wasn’t alone. The reason why I believed that I was Atlanta was a paradise is because it was marketed that way. The ugly truth is underneath all of Atlanta’s glitz and glamour where Black poor and working class people are manipulated, exploited, and ignored. Great read!!!

Black Mecca

If you live in Atlanta and want to know how Atl became Atl, this is the book for you!