The Influence of Race and Class
Madison Stephens & Machayla Randall
RACE
Atlanta is known for its rich diversity and high minority population. When discussing the racial history of Atlanta, it is often mentioned that Atlanta was the heart of the Civil Rights Movement.
CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
The actions of civil rights leaders has improved the city and caused it to be recognized for so much. However, the movement is used as a cover for the city's criminal history associated with race and hate crimes which are still a big issue today.
CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
The actions of civil rights leaders has improved the city and caused it to be recognized for so much. However, the movement is used as a cover for the city's criminal history associated with race and hate crimes which are still a big issue today.
ATLANTA RIOTS OF 1906
Atlanta has a history of hate crimes, from the Atlanta Riot of 1906 to the Atlanta shootings in 2021. Both incidents involved many casualties, but for many, especially the Riot of 1906, these events have been unheard of.
For example, the Atlanta Riot of 1906 consisted of "roughly 10,000 white people attacked the city's African Americans on September 22, 1906…The death count of the Atlanta riots numbered over two dozen slain African Americans and five or six whites".
CLASS
Due to Atlanta's diversity, there are many successful minorities in the city.
“In 1973, Atlanta had elected its first black Mayor, Maynard Jackson – also the first to hold office in a southern state” (Digital Spy).
Therefore discussing class is also extremely important and seen in Atlanta's criminal history. An example would be the Atanta Child Murders.
ATLANTA CHILD MURDERS
CONTROVERSY
During the investigation, it was suspected that the killer was black, someone who had access to the community without suspicion. As a result, this caused a split in the community, because people were either questioning or relieved whether a white man was committing a hate crime.
But why did the killer have access to the community in the first place?
BIG PICTURE
These kids were vulnerable because they lived in a lower income town where crimes go unnoticed, or usually brushed underneath the rug.
LEAVING ATLANTA
Tayari Jones wrote a book to commemorate the Atlanta Child Murders from the perspective of someone who grew up during that time. She explains, “In America, everything is always race, race, race, but at that moment in Atlanta class became the issue at the fore front… then everyone is saying, why isn’t more being done if everyone is black? The question became, because some people were poor and some people were not.”
Why Atlanta's Art Scene is So Unique
Atlanta is very diverse and rich in culture and because of this its art scene has become an entity that is unique to the city. The city’s art scene is essentially a reflection of the factors that contribute to Atlanta’s cultural identity, with the art culture being characterized as, “an explosion of ingrained history, contemporary political discourse, vital discussions of race, and blossoming cultural industries” (Ketchum). Race has played a role in Atlanta’s art scene because its striving black community has greatly shaped the city’s overall culture. Atlanta’s black community is “inseparable from the city’s character and from the art it expresses” because of the city’s historical ties with the Civil Rights Movement, revolting against systemic racial inequity, and its ongoing battles with voting rights.
How the Class Divides Impacts the Art Scene
In 2017 22% of lower-income neighborhoods in Atlanta were at risk of gentrification and 7% were undergoing displacement of low-income households without gentrification (Atlanta – Gentrification and Displacement). The ongoing pandemic has done nothing to help this issue, but it has instead “sped up changes already occurring in the metro-Atlanta housing market, accelerating gentrification and worsening the already critical shortages in affordable housing” (Williams). Atlanta’s gentrification issue is a prime example of the class divide in the city and this issue impacts Atlanta’s art scene because with the city’s continuous growth has caused longtime residents of creative communities to be pushed out of their spaces.
Atlanta's History with Black Art
During the 1970s with the help of the Neighborhood Arts Center and with the governmental support of Atlanta’s first black mayor, Maynard Jackson there was a surge of black art in Atlanta. With the ongoing activism paired with the creation of spaces that allowed for the sharing and development of culture, it started a thriving black art scene in the city. The 1970s black arts movement truly opened the doors for other black cultural gatherings because in the late 80s and into the early 90s the Fulton County Arts Council became a major founder in the National Black Arts Festival, which is a festival that is dedicated to celebrating black art and artist.
Atlanta's Public Art Movement
Art and social justice movements essentially go hand and hand, and because of this with the increase in social justice movements that have taken place in the last 5 years, there has also been an increase in the amount of social justice-related art in public spaces. “Over the past year, Black mural artists, and particularly Black women artists, have been recognized as never before, with their work on display in some of the most visible and vibrant areas of metro Atlanta”, a lot of this is due to the commitments to diversity and inclusivity from corporations and communities that were caused by a summer of protest following George Floyd’s death (Rhone). Hopefully, this trend continues in the city so that maybe in the future Atlanta’s mural art can be just as culturally diverse as the city itself.
Gentrification's Impact
Back in 1981, the street art movement hadn’t really reached the city yet, so Atlanta was bare, but over the past 30 to 40 years Atlanta has been shaped into the vibrant city we know today. Over these past couple of decades, the city has nearly doubled in size while experiencing major cultural growth. “Atlanta’s growth has, however, proven to be a double-edged sword for the community. Unfortunately, the BeltLine brought gentrification into the city’s more affordable neighborhoods, such as Old Fourth Ward and Cabbagetown, which are also cultural hubs for Atlanta’s creative communities” (Armstrong).
With gentrification happening throughout Atlanta and deepening the class divide, within recent years The High Museum of Art has done a great job of reaching a more diverse audience. “The general arts museum, which has been around for more than 75 years, has seen the proportion of nonwhite visitors triple to 45 percent in recent years”, which is due to the museum’s decision to showcase a more diverse group of artists. Actions like these are important to current and future class relations because it helps foster a more welcoming environment for people apart of different socioeconomic classes and allows the art scene to become richer in culture.
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