Black and White

A race against race in Atlanta

"When I pray 'Thy Kingdom come on earth," I mean I want Atlanta to look like heaven." The author of that lofty sentiment, Andrew Young, a former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, was elected mayor of Atlanta last week. But any hopes Young has to make the city more heavenly may depend on his ability to heal some decidedly uncelestial bitterness sowed in his campaign's final days. Young, 49, a former Congressman and lieutenant of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., accused his opponent, white businessman and State Legislator Sidney Marcus, 53, of trying to "buy off" black leaders by hiring them in his campaign. When a Young supporter unfairly charged Marcus with having exploited poor blacks in a construction financing operation, Marcus exploded: "The politics of panic used by Mr. Young shows he is willing to destroy our city by manufacturing racial tensions and distrusts rather than lose an election."

The ugliest storm of the campaign was triggered by Incumbent Maynard Jackson, Atlanta's first black mayor, who was barred from serving a third term. In a speech, Jackson, a Young supporter, referred to blacks backing Marcus as "shuffling and grinning...Negroes." The mayor accused them of "selling out" the civil rights movement.

In Atlanta, which likes to call itself "the city too busy to hate," Jackson's remarks were widely criticized. Some in Young's camp feared that the racial epithets would provoke a biracial backlash against their candidate. Indeed, though Young ended up winning 55% of the total vote, he took only 10.6% of white ballots, down from the 12% he won in a preliminary election. He captured 88.4% of the black vote, up from 61% earlier. Blacks account for 67% of Atlanta's 425,000 residents, and 56% of the electorate.

When Young takes office Jan. 4, he may wonder why he did. Although for a generation Atlanta has been a model for social and economic progress, it is now caught in the squeeze agonizing many Northern big cities: its population is shrinking; the tax base is stagnating; almost a quarter of the city's residents are below the poverty line; crime rates are high; and the amicable coalition of black community leaders and white liberals that has dominated city affairs for years has been severely tested. Said Young: "The campaign has put a strain on it, but I think we've gone through the strain and there have been no broken relationships and there will be none in the future."

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