The Legend of the Black Mecca
Politics and Class in the Making of Modern Atlanta
By Maurice J. Hobson
336 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 12 halftones, appends., notes, bibl., index
-
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4696-3535-4
Published: November 2017 -
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4696-3536-1
Published: October 2017
Buy this Book
- Hardcover $29.95
- E-Book $19.99
For Professors:
Free E-Exam Copies
Awards & distinctions
2018 GHRAC Award for Excellence, Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council
In telling this history through the prism of the black New South and Atlanta politics, policy, and pop culture, Hobson portrays a striking schism between the black political elite and poor city-dwellers, complicating the long-held view of Atlanta as a mecca for black people.
About the Author
Maurice J. Hobson is assistant professor of African American studies and history at Georgia State University.
For more information about Maurice J. Hobson, visit
the
Author
Page.
Reviews
“Provides an intriguing look at a group of people who are typically left out of conversations about Atlanta’s past and progress.”--ArtsATL
“Provides a necessary counter to the standard narrative of modern Atlanta.”--Choice
“Maurice Hobson keeps it real in this post–civil rights history of black Atlanta. He excavates the political contradictions in the city’s politics by revealing what Atlanta’s hip hop community dubbed the Dirty South. Here’s a history where Outkast and Goodie Mob meet Atlanta’s black mayors. The ironies are deliciously delectable and debatable. Hobson’s history of Atlanta is not simply regional; it is a national story of neoliberal politics at the expense of the poor."--Randal Maurice Jelks, author of Benjamin Elijah Mays, Schoolmaster of the Movement
“In this extensive study of the evolution of black Atlanta, Hobson uncovers and closely examines the black Mecca trope and offers a much more nuanced and interesting narrative of Atlanta’s history than the ones we are so accustomed to hearing.”—Derrick P. Alridge, University of Virginia
Multimedia & Links
Watch: Hobson's talk at the Atlanta History Center, recorded by C-SPAN. (2/21/2018, running time 1:24:27)