Is Andre Dickens Atlanta's Last Black Mayor?
The future is here, Andre Dickens is the latest Black mayor or the last one
Welcome to my freemium newsletter by me, King Williams. A documentary filmmaker, journalist, podcast host, and author based in Atlanta, Georgia. This is a newsletter covering the hidden connections of Atlanta to everything else.
Is Andre Dickens Atlanta’s Last Black Mayor?
The 2021 Atlanta mayoral runoff is over, and Andre Dickens will be your next Atlanta mayor. Dickens, the now-former Atlanta City Councilmember, defeated the then-current City Council President Felicia Moore. Dickens, a native of Atlanta, has become the seventh Black mayor of Atlanta.
Dickens is also the seventh consecutive Black Mayor in Atlanta’s history, an unprecedented run of black political success in US history as no major American city has had. At 7 consecutive Black mayors, no major American city has ever produced a political run like Atlanta, as it has had a consecutive 48-year run of having a Black person as the highest city leader. But unlike previous years, it seems that this may be coming to an end. Or at least its significance.
The next mayor of Atlanta is Black, but the one after either Andre Dickens is questionable. The recently concluded November 30th runoff election between Felicia Moore and Andre Dickens is either the beginning of the end of the Black political machine that started nearly fifty years ago with the election of Maynard Jackson, or it’s the start of a new chapter in Atlanta’s history of Black politics.
Despite what people in Atlanta think, Atlanta is still the gold standard of the idealism of hope for many, especially Black people. Whether or not the locals here believe it is a different story. The fear of losing a black mayor is both reality and hyperbole. So what does that mean for this election, and how did we get here?
Is this the end or new beginning of Atlanta's Black political power structure?
The 2021 municipal elections may be the end of the run of Black political power in the mayor’s seat and on the city council. This has been building for some time now, what was once a whisper as early as the Shirley Franklin era of Atlanta in the early 2000s. The Black political machine was nearly upset both 12 years ago in the 2009 Reed-Norwood race, then again in the 2017 Bottoms-Norwood race, by Norwood.
The city’s demographics have changed, plus the reputation has taken some significant hits; Buckhead wants to secede, the Westside is now ‘West Midtown,’ and the biggest blue check boosters couldn’t muster the political support that they used to. The old Atlanta Way of doing things is headed for its sunset, but what does that mean for the most symbolic position in all of (Black) America? The mayor of Atlanta.
1) The Black Lives Matter movement and the anti-Black Lives Matter Movement
On May 25th, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black Minnesota resident, was apprehended by four Minneapolis police officers over the use of a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill at a convenience store.
Floyd was calmly escorted out of the store, then beaten, then held down by four police officers, with one officer placing his knee on his neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. The entire murder was caught on camera and then uploaded by 17-year-old Darnella Frazier to Facebook. After that, the world changed. Within one week, from May 25th to June 1st, 2020, the then-largest incident in the history of the internet happened—the protests of the murder of George Floyd and the resurrection of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Not since the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. in April of 1968 and tumultuous the 1968 Presidential Election has more political protest ensued. America was on fire, and cities like Atlanta became in the crosshairs of a larger conversation on the role of policing in America.
But the response to two incidents: First, the May 29th, 2020, vandalism of the CNN building during the George Floyd protests, and second, the June 12th, 2020, murder of Rayshard Brooks in the parking lot of the University Avenue Wendy’s is how everything has led to the 2021 Atlanta Mayoral Race. Black Atlanta and their allies marched in the streets for justice; their detractors got mad and then got online.
1B - The anti-Black Lives Matter movement is here in Atlanta
Despite the movement against police brutality and violence last summer, the more prominent white-led, Republican adjacent, conservative media, and intellectual contrarians were harder at work to dismiss George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery’s life. Judging by how the constant feedback loop of ‘crime’ has existed on both social media and local television since the protests, it would seem as if crime is as bad as it ever has been. It’s not. The data backs this up in Atlanta and across the US. But it does show the power of how crime porn from both traditional and non-traditional media has become the most prominent arbiters in producing a reality in Atlanta that isn’t statistically true.
2021’s overall crime statistics are double digits lower than those of 2019 and 2020. The feedback loop of crime online and local media makes it seem otherwise. Further fueling the narrative that Atlanta is under a wave of crime. A narrative that pairs well with police supporters, the state Republican Party, local news organizations, IG crime porn accounts, Nextdoor neighbors, and the Buckhead secessionist movement—as well as detractors of the protests. But the narrative is most important. It dictated the direction of the 2021 Atlanta Mayor’s race, nearly upending the booster machine Atlanta has worked for over a century to maintain. A booster machine that keeps Atlanta outside of strife.
From my article ‘Atlanta is losing the narrative’ - (6/23/2021)
In the last twelve months, Atlanta has undergone one of the most chaotic political and social changes it had in decades. The Atlanta way of doing things in 2020 saw the most fraught testing of the fragility of the bonds between the Black and White elites plus business interests of the city. This trifecta since the aftermath of the 1906 Atlanta Race Riots has been able to typically deal with racial or political strife in more private terms, maintaining the image of the city. But due to the combination of the increasing inequality, gentrification, and a decades-in-the-making demographic shift, the Atlanta of old has met the Atlanta of new. Add in the long-gestating backlash regarding race relations, police brutality, and social justice, Atlanta finally saw that its moniker as ‘the city too busy to hate’ be tested to its limits.
1C - Atlanta and the anti-BLM ecosystem
The most significant change in the overall focus has been the role of crime porn. Crime porn exists in a feedback loop online, where based on engagement with its core and non-core audiences, it can spill over into other users’ social media experiences whether they want to or not. While ATLScoop has been the biggest, the most influential, and the account that got the ball rolling on ‘crime’, it reflects a larger reality that neither Atlanta’s elite nor its gatekeepers are in control.
Overlapping with a demographic reality that Atlanta is no longer majority Black, the newer residents who are moving in are also not liberal in the sense of a simple Blue-vs-Red dynamic happening nationally. But if these accounts + local media keep the feedback loop, it can be. There are more MAGAs now in Atlanta, and they will bring the same toxicity to city politics.
1D- The Buckhead secession movement
Bill White is leading Buckhead's secession movement. White is a Trump fundraiser and one of Georgia's more prominent ‘Stop the Steal’ advocates. White moved to Atlanta in 2018 after spending a long career in New York City. White has been using the feedback loop of crime in Buckhead as the dominant reason for separating from Atlanta. White and his secessionist supporters have become a near-ever-present topic of conversation on local television, local journalism outlets, podcasts, and talk radio.
Not including Bill White’s open seat on Fox News, especially on Tucker Carlson’s #1 show on cable television news show. It’s a 2015/16 Trump strategy of 1) free press and 2) maintaining ‘message discipline’, ‘crime-crime-crime’, that’s working here in Atlanta to a staggering degree of success, add in the likes of ATL Scoop, Nextdoor, Facebook groups, and private messaging services, the strength that was The Atlanta Way is nearly on its death bed. One of the biggest financial contributors to Atlanta’s success, one of the anchors of The Black Mecca, may be out of the door this time next year.
2) Black Atlanta vs. Buckhead vs. White Flight—the sequel
The Atlanta of the 2010s is similar to the Atlanta of the 1960s and 70s. Atlanta’s last white (and only Jewish mayor) Sam Massell’s famous Atlanta is too young to die 1973 campaign mantra was indicative of a more significant situation. White Atlanta, specifically white businesses, homeowners, and shoppers, were leaving the city in droves. In droves over varying aspects of integration. Massell’s pleas were then criticized as dog whistles to the white Atlantans who were on the fence about leaving.
At the same time, the 2021 version of this Atlanta is seeing the potential abandonment of white wealth once again, this time by simply de-annexing from the city, not moving out to the burbs. The cityhood movement is an extension of the white flight movements that pre-dated for the last 50 years.
Another similarity between the two elections, Maynard Jackson in 1973 and Andre Dickens in 2021 is the role of pacification of whites concerned over ‘crime’ and city leadership. Whites also want to leave the city for similar reasons—in the 1970s, it was white flight, but in 2021, it was cityhood. Buckhead itself was an annexation effort to keep the white majority in the city of Atlanta.
Sidenote: Buckhead is also a classic case of farmland becoming a new development and also the displacement of Black people.
3) The Black Mayor of Atlanta is the mayor of Black America
The difference in how new/old Atlanta sees the mayor is how they perceive what the mayor should be and how they should govern. Because of the connection of Black mayors to Black Atlanta, especially a Black Atlanta that’s been majority poor for decades before this recent era of gentrification, they have to operate differently. The mayor of Atlanta is the community liaison, something that doesn’t happen in other cities, even with large populations. The mayor of Atlanta is hyper-aware, hyper-present, and accessible at a level that is more akin to the CEO of a popular publicly traded company.
Especially amongst Black gatekeepers, athletes, entrepreneurs, and cultural figures who still see Atlanta as the mecca for Black progress, their presence is the calling card for continued business, not the bro bars, golf courses, or private clubs that typical white leadership goes to make business and political deals if necessary.
3C-The mayor of Atlanta is a cultural figure. Deal with it
The Black Mecca isn’t real, but Atlanta’s Black mayors are. The mayor of Atlanta is not just a political one; it is symbolic. The mayor of Atlanta is defacto the mayor of Black America. Other cities have mayors, and Atlanta has representatives.
Former Mayor Keshia Lance Bottoms (KLB) is a national figure in the Black community. To be the mayor of Atlanta again requires speaking to the culture of Atlanta. It’s the one aspect of the job every Black mayor in Atlanta understands: they aren’t just the mayor of Atlanta. The mayor of Atlanta has to be aware of the city’s reputation amongst where it matters most—actual other Black people. Part of the reason this electoral cycle has felt deft for all candidates is because of the messaging. Who is Atlanta for now? We know, but no one has said it publicly. Atlanta is for everyone, but in this get-down or laydown era of politics, to be the Black leader of everyone means being the Black leader for no one. See Barack Obama.
3D- Black voters and Black residents have a different understanding
For white politicians, the coalition of voters often means directly appealing to pocketbooks or personal interests. For Black voters, that means appealing to special interest subgroups, typically voting in groups. These groups make their decisions not during the three months of campaign season but during the four years of engagement. Black voters in Atlanta remember everything.
Atlanta’s Black mayors are different from other Black mayors in cities not named DC because of their immediate connection to voters. She’s Keshia, not Mayor Bottoms. It’s Kasim, Andy, Bill, Shirley, and now Dre’—they, Black voters and Black boosters, expect a different relationship. It’s why KLB can confidently say that she wasn’t going to lose (she wasn’t) and why Black voters stick with Black candidates here, even when it can be detrimental.
The base is here for churches, schools, barbershops/beauty salons, homecoming, Essence Fest, Birthday Bash, and Fraternity/Sorority events. They vote for those who spend time there. It should be no surprise that every mayor of Atlanta is a member of a Black Greek-letter organization. Maynard Jackson (Alpha Phi Alpha), Andrew Young (Alpha Phi Alpha), Bill Campbell (Omega Psi Phi), Shirley Franklin (Delta Sigma Theta), Kasim Reed (Kappa Alpha Psi), and Keshia Lance Bottoms (Delta Sigma Theta). All but Campbell (Duke) have attended an HBCU for at least undergrad, with Howard University in Washington, D.C., as the dominant HBCU, counting Reed, Franklin, Bottoms, and Young all as alumni, with Jackson being the only mayor to attend an AUC school, attending Morehouse in undergrad.
4) The Backlash to KLB’s handling of police represented two of Atlanta’s
It’s important to note that the backlash to KLB crested over this time last year, with mostly white people regarding her not ‘supporting’ law enforcement. KLB did what nearly every Black person wanted, which was immediate action against the police for misconduct, as well as admonishing those few people who vandalized the CNN Center.
She did both, and most of Black Atlanta and Black America cheered her for it. When Rayshard Brooks was killed, Black Atlanta and Black America applauded the swift leadership. KLB acted as the mayor of Black America in those moments and was subsequently punished for it.
The police stopped showing up for work, but she had problems with the people regarding the uptick in crime. Blue Lives Matter won, Atlanta lost, and Keisha decided not to run again for a second term. The message was clear: Atlanta, the Black Mecca, now has conceded to the anti-Black, anti-Black Mecca crowd. Make Atlanta Great Again is here.
During this summer-fall 2020, the ATL Scoop and the Buckhead secession movement also began. Both represent a newer white Atlanta that is out of step with Atlanta in terms of the social governance of the past. A large portion of White Atlantans, plus their suburban and greater Georgia counterparts since the start of last summer’s protests, have used primarily social media to propagate the notion of a ‘lawless’ Atlanta.
4B- The White Elephant(s) in the room
The 2021 election will likely be the last election in which the Black population in Atlanta is over 50%. This election will still produce another black mayor; the real question is, will this be the end after this election? As Buckhead secession looms and demographic changes show more of its political views, who does mayor-elect Dickens answer to first? Or does the mayor of Atlanta become second fiddle to the mayor of Buckhead?
The white population in Atlanta has grown every year since the 1996 Olympics, but 2010’s growth was more pronounced in Atlanta than nearly anywhere else. However, it should be noted that Atlanta’s growth in the white population has been the largest in almost 60 years. The last time, white residents constituted a majority of Atlanta residents. Since reaching a high of over 300,000+ in the 1950s/60s, primarily due to the annexation of Buckhead in 1952 as a hedge against a rising Black population. Even that statistical majority was short-lived as by 1970, Atlanta would still be majority Black.
Because of white flight and white suburbanization as a statement of deliberate defiance against the ‘forced integration’ policies of the civil rights movement, but the death blow was the anti-integration stances of white Atlanta to the integration of the Atlanta Public School System, which lasted from the early 1960s until the 1970s. Atlanta’s white population declined by over 50% between 1960-80. As a result, the city has not seen a white population of over 200,000 since the early 1970s.
4C-The Anti-Black political machine is here
Add in voter apathy in most of the city elections, the backlash to Kasim Reed, dissatisfaction with the old Black Atlanta political operandi, the public disapproval towards cop city, or the series of bad real estate deals without moving aggressively in housing or transit, they should be happy that there wasn’t a near revolt over the last 20 months.
The old Black Atlanta political machine has seemingly fallen out of favor with Black people, at least those who don’t have a blue checkmark, moved here last week, or have a financial interest. The anti-Black political machine is building upon a malaise with Black leadership that has seemingly done little tangible things for Black people, especially poor ones. The reputation is damaged and now is on display due to the increasing role of social media.
4D-Mary Norwood and the white boogiewoman
And what does that mean for candidates such as Atlanta political veteran Mary Norwood? Norwood, the former city councilwoman and two-time Atlanta mayoral nominee, has become the boogie woman in some circles but could very well finally reach the iron throne of Atlanta politics if she plays her cards right.
Norwood has been used as a lightning rod for the threat of a return to the discriminatory politics of the deep South in addition to her supporting the Trump recount didn’t help her case. Norwood has always been considered to be a Republican in Democratic clothing by many in Atlanta. Having Norwood on the ticket proved enough to get both Reed and Bottoms barely over the hill in 2009 and 2017, respectively. Combined with the looming threat of Buckhead becoming its city, you could have a scenario where Buckhead gets the mayor of Atlanta that they want now in Dickens, then in 2022, still separates from the city.
5) The next mayor explicitly answers to White Atlanta first
We should revisit the 2017 Atlanta municipal election. The 2017 election was the highest election total ever for the city of Atlanta, but considering there were only 94,000 out of roughly 300,000 eligible voters, there is still room to grow. In some district runoff races, candidates were elected to office by less than 1,000 votes. The 2021 election had about the same level of turnout despite nearly 100,000 more eligible voters.
5B-The old guard isn’t making it in this new paradigm
Compared to years prior, both the traditional Black Atlanta political machine, business-first politicians, and the old Atlanta guard could be voted out in one fell swoop in 2025. This window was open only in this past election and won’t be in the next one.
The voters have spoken, and some long-term time candidates, such as Cleta Winslow and Joyce Shepherd, were voted out. Via a groundswell of fed-up long-time residents, new residents who came via Cop City for Shepherd, and fed-up people in the most rapidly gentrifying areas of the city in Cleta Winslow. The two candidates who won were both Black but campaigned outside of the traditional Black Atlanta political machines, with both campaigning on offering more than the status quo of the Black Atlanta politics.
5C-Dickens will have to govern with a different playbook than years prior
While the (primarily white) business community is relatively unfazed by these moves, this new group of white resentment also represents a new wrinkle the mayor will have to address. Let it be clear—just because there are more white voters in Atlanta doesn’t mean Dickens will abandon his Black constituents, nor does it mean the new white voters will ultimately be on team MAGA, but it will be a difference in governance. Team Dickens will need to be attuned to this new base of voters sooner rather than later.
5D-The GOP is betting their future on destroying Atlanta. Dickens has to move now
Dickens will have to deal with a state GOP hell-bent on destroying the leadership of the city and the positive legacy of Black political Atlanta. This comes from a more extensive series of GOP culture wars raged on covid-19 responses, ‘Atlanta crime,’ the anti-BLM/Blue Lives Matter bullshit, the take over of the board of elections—then suppressing it, add in a redistricting that is diluting Black/Democratic voting power statewide, and the always present airport takeover to name a few.
Also, expect more complaints directed at the city contracting the airport, etc, but none at GDOT, the ports, the Secretary of State Board of Education, and none of the other aspects of the state government that are controlled by white conservatives. Whether it be Dickens needing more conservatives in the state House or Senate, dealing with Buckhead secessionists, plus those concerned about the perceived rise in crime, or the rise of new voters in Atlanta, the mayor-elect has to make sure he is now seen as their mayor.
6) Gentrification in Atlanta has finally crested over
In many ways, gentrification in Atlanta was inevitable. The last 25 years of back-to-the-city movements started by Gen Xers and carried on by millennials was a logical step. In Atlanta, that began in the post-1996 Olympics era. Then, several residential changes proceeded on the east side of Atlanta, spilling over into Midtown and now southeast Atlanta.
Decade after decade, Atlanta’s geographical boundaries expanded while its young people, often locked in the suburbs, had to go to the city for nightlife and culture. Culture and entertainment that was pre-internet, which required a different level of experience to gain. The excitement of the metro had to be in the city. The rise of hip hop, R&B, Tyler Perry, prominent nightlife, and Black celebrities happened in the absence of ‘white Atlanta.’
Suburban Atlantans had to migrate from the burbs to the city. The culture of Atlanta was a commodity that could be easily experienced in the era of cheap oil, cheap land, and government subsidies for Silent Generation members, their Baby Boomer children, and then those Boomers’ Gen X children in the burbs. It was only a matter of time before they stayed in town. Most didn’t expect this continual avalanche of residents into the city from outside the state. And this current generation of migration has no connection to the Atlanta of old.
The generations now who live in Atlanta are also not connected to the cultural, political, or social connections of generations past. They are the Atlanta of Instagram and ‘the Upper Westside’; this is a generation in which Atlanta is a background of a self-generated identity; the city of Atlanta means nothing more than a geotag.
7) New Atlanta wants new leadership
Atlanta is in the big leagues now, and its political representation must accommodate. For some candidates, current and former, simply being the Black candidate will not be enough to win elections or avoid scrutiny. The Old Atlanta Way of doing things and the Black political machine that was birthed from it produced a lot of great leaders, but it also created a lot who didn’t bring much to the table. We have to acknowledge this and assert with the caveats that the wealth of Atlanta in 2021 is different than in 1991.
The curve is more challenging to grade for the last decade because most of the then-current problems (affordable housing, homicides, lack of job opportunities) and future (gentrification, inequality, land speculation) were present. New Atlanta is a lot of things, but what it’s not is complacent. They didn’t have to deal with the decades of economic and poverty-related issues as the last eras of Atlanta had to. They have options, and they will exercise them.
8) ‘Old Atlanta’ is dying off, left in adulthood, or is being priced out
The most significant change in this election from the last one has been the turnout. It seems to be on par with the 2017 election, but the Black turnout has been low for over a decade now, especially within districts that need top-tier representation the most. The last few electoral cycles have seen some elected officials elected by a single-digit percentage of eligible voters. Old Atlanta no longer lives or votes in Atlanta.
In many ways, these are the most neglected parts of the city and have received absolutely nothing from Black Atlanta’s political leadership. They should be seen as an indictment of that rather than a slight at voters. What’s often held up many of these candidates has been the declining block of senior citizens and long-term Black Atlantans. But demographically, these city areas are also getting older, dying off, moving out, or the base has been displaced. More often than not, their kids or grandkids no longer live in these neighborhoods. The people who live in Atlanta now are likely not from Atlanta, nor have they lived in the metro area at all.
This was bound to happen at some point due to the declines in residential homeownership within the city, gentrification, and new developments; eventually, the population in demographics, someone will have to come in and take over the reins. Atlanta’s continual attractiveness has also brought in a newer generation of people who see the city as theirs to be molded. This includes a rising Latinx, Arab/Middle Eastern, and Asian American population alongside a steadfast LGBT population, which has grown in importance over the last 25 years in Atlanta politics. All of this is compounding year over year, resulting in one of the highest percentages of growth in the country. Add in the weather, the colleges, the influx of young people to the metro, and the number of corporate relocations. Atlanta is becoming a different city from itself every 3-5 years. This will continue in the foreseeable future.
Conclusion
The 2021 mayoral and city council election race may be the end of the run of Black political power in the city of Atlanta, maybe. Specifically, this may be the end of the run of Black Atlanta’s hold on the mayor’s seat and city council. The next mayor of Atlanta (provided it’s Dickens running for re-election) is likely to be Black, but the one after that is questionable. And the politics of Black political leadership will likely need a major overhaul if it wants to continue to lead at the highest levels within the city.
This has been building for some time now; the reality of Atlanta’s long-sought-after growth has finally happened, and the next Atlanta is here. And it’s not playing by the rules that have dictated the last 50 years of politics.
It’s going to take something different. There’s nothing wrong with the photo-op or getting rappers to attend ribbon-cutting ceremonies. Still, the mayor of Atlanta can’t simply eschew the concerns of Black Atlanta to be just the mayor of Atlanta. As cliché as the ‘Bankhead and Buckhead’ phrase has become, it’s true: the next mayor of Atlanta has to realize you have to be both.
Incredible analysis. Praying for Andre Dickens' success in navigating these unprecedented times!