Atlanta postwar politics fused racial progressivism with economic growth.

Evidence

Walking away from the session, Hunter searched for a way to describe all he had learned. In the end, he found himself forced to coin a new phrase, one that would change the ways sociologists, historians, and political scientists thought about local government. Atlanta, he decided, was ruled by a “community power structure.” Actually, as Hunter soon discovered, the city had two power structures, not one. The white elite was not the only game in town. “I find that it will be necessary to run a separate study in the Negro community,” he informed his thesis adviser. “There is a power structure there that cannot be overlooked, and follows, as far as I can see at this point, much the same pattern as the white.” And so, just as Hunter traveled to Spalding’s offices to learn about the white elite, so too did he visit the corridors of power in black Atlanta to understand its dynamics. Through his travels between black and white Atlanta, Hunter uncovered the secrets of the city’s moderate coalition. In the wake of World War II, these two elites, white and black, had worked together to create something in the city that stood apart from the more familiar politics of white supremacy surrounding Atlanta: a political system that saw racial progressivism and economic progress as inseparable. — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 52

Categorization

• DEFINE: Coins ‘community power structure’ and explains the dual (white and black) power structure concept.
• XREF: connects to: Postwar Atlanta’s desegregation was driven by a white-black moderate coalition, not activists or reactionaries — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 50; Atlanta’s moderate coalition tied race-relations progress to economic growth. — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 53; Mutual black-white coalition politics triumphed in Atlanta’s 1953 elections — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 98 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Atlanta’s moderate coalition tied race-relations progress to economic growth. #expands (0.97) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 53
• Atlanta’s moderate coalition allied blacks with affluent whites against white workers #expands (0.85) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 100
• Mutual black-white coalition politics triumphed in Atlanta’s 1953 elections #exemplifies (0.82) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 98
• Atlanta won the 1996 Olympics as a showcase of racial harmony #exemplifies (0.75)