Expanding black voting instantly reversed white officials’ refusal of black demands

Evidence

In the words of Herbert Jenkins, chief of police from 1947 to 1972, most white officers “didn’t want to spend a lot of time” in black neighborhoods. And on the rare occasions that white patrolmen did appear there, they often caused as much trouble as they solved. As Jenkins remembered, “at one time most of the members of the police department were members of the Ku Klux Klan” who relished the chance to put black Atlantans in their “place.” Hoping to solve the problems caused by both the absence and presence of white policemen, black leaders had long pressed for the commission of black patrolmen. Before they had the votes, however, their requests were brushed aside. “I remember quite distinctly,” Rev. Borders recalled, “going to Mayor Hartsfield and asking him for black police. And he told us, without the slightest blinking of an eye, that we’d get black police about as soon as we’d get deacons in the [white] First Baptist Church.” The revolution in registration changed all that, however. When black leaders returned with the same demand in 1947, Hartsfield simply asked, “How many do you want?” — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 84

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Kruse’s later analysis elsewhere and to the general pattern of white politicians abandoning visible segregationist stances once black votes mattered — parallel to carrot-and-stick moderation debates in Dallek’s civil rights city literature. — connects to: Court rulings plus organized drives exploded black voter registration within months — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 83; At-large election rules diluted black voting power until single-member districts replaced them — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations: How Building a…, 42; County-wide voting rules diluted black electoral power before redistricting — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations: How Building a…, 42 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• At-large election rules diluted black voting power until single-member districts replaced them #contradicts (0.80) — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 42
• White election officials systematically blocked two million newly enfranchised Southern black women from voting #contradicts (0.80) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 496
• County-wide voting rules diluted black electoral power before redistricting #contradicts (0.78) — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 42
• Black voters helped pass an annexation that diluted their own electoral strength #contradicts (0.75) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 96
• White refusal to yield privilege demands radical black action rather than patience #complicates (0.74)
• Mail-in voting restrictions and polling cuts disproportionately targeted Black voters #contradicts (0.72) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 619
• Even symbolic Black protest has consistently triggered violent white backlash #complicates (0.72) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 347
• Racialized urban voters are explicitly targeted by structural vote-suppression arguments #contradicts (0.72) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 658