Bill Shipp on the 21st-century politics of race in a state that struggled for a hundred years to overcome the shackles of racist electioneering.

Bill Shipp writes:

Black voters will vote for black candidates.

In recent statewide primaries, black voters have supported such luminaries as Jesse Jackson for president and Denise Majette for Senate, even though neither had a prayer of winning their respective elections. As soon as Atlanta became a majority-black voting city, it tossed out progressive white Mayor Sam Massell and rolled Maynard Jackson into City Hall.

The current mayor, Shirley Franklin, warned recently that whites may have returned to the city in such numbers that they could recapture the mayor's office. She asked her constituents not to forget the past progress made by blacks in public office and suggested that they continue their support of black candidates. Such is the 21st-century politics of race in a state that struggled for a hundred years to overcome the shackles of racist electioneering.