Atlanta’s white suburbs voted overwhelmingly to exclude the regional transit system

Evidence

In a 1965 vote, residents of nearly all-white Cobb County resoundingly rejected extending the system to their neighborhoods. In 1971, Gwinnett and Clayton Counties, which were then also overwhelmingly white, followed suit, voting down a proposal to join MARTA by nearly 4-to-1 margins, and keeping MARTA out became the default position of many local politicians. Emmett Burton, a Cobb County commissioner, won praise for promising to “stock the Chattahoochee with piranha” if that’s what it would take to hold MARTA off. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1203

Categorization

• SHARE: The piranha-in-the-Chattahoochee threat is a vivid detail a specific person into urban history or Atlanta politics would enjoy.