Postwar Atlanta’s desegregation was driven by a white-black moderate coalition, not activists or reactionaries

Evidence

THE STORY OF Atlanta’s struggles with segregation was centered, oddly enough, on neither the crusade of civil rights activists nor the reactionary resistance of segregationists. Instead, the tale balanced on the moderate coalition that controlled the city in the postwar era. During those decades, an unlikely collection of moderate white politicians, elite businessmen, and African American leaders dictated the pace of racial change. — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 50

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Complements the ‘color-blind suburban conservatism’ thread by showing white elites retained control by setting racial change’s pace from the center rather than fighting or yielding to it.
• XREF: connects to: Atlanta whites resisted desegregation less violently than northern whites did — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 38; Historians of Atlanta focused on the moderate power structure and ignored segregationists — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 42; Atlanta’s moderate coalition allied blacks with affluent whites against white workers — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 100 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Atlanta’s moderate coalition allied blacks with affluent whites against white workers #expands (0.92) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 100
• Atlanta postwar politics fused racial progressivism with economic growth. #expands (0.90) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 52
• Atlanta’s moderate coalition tied race-relations progress to economic growth. #expands (0.88) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 53
• Mutual black-white coalition politics triumphed in Atlanta’s 1953 elections #exemplifies (0.85) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 98
• Atlanta’s biracial coalition pursued white annexation to prevent a black-majority city #qualifies (0.78) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 93