Beyond Atlanta: The Struggle for Racial Equality in Georgia, 1940-1980

by Stephen G. N. Tuck

This sweeping history of the civil rights movement in the South's largest state tells of many Georgias. On one extreme is Atlanta, a metropolitan center of relative black prosperity and training ground of many movement leaders. On another is Albany. A city deep in the "black belt" of the plantation South, it is the site of Martin Luther King Jr.'s greatest civil rights setback. Somewhere in between is yet another Georgia, a Georgia whose communities once constituted hundreds of Jim Crow fiefdoms. In places like "Bad" Baker County near the southern border, or in the relatively moderate town of Rome in the northern hills, black-white relations were as crude or as nuanced as the outlook of the local sheriff.

Beyond Atlanta draws on interviews with almost two hundred people―black and white―who worked for, or actively resisted, the freedom movement. Among the topics Stephen Tuck covers are the absence of consistent support from the movement's national leadership and the frustration and innovation it alternately inspired at the local level. In addition, Tuck reveals friction, along urban-rural and poor-prosperous lines, about movement goals and tactics, and he highlights the often unheralded roles played by African American women, veterans, masons, unions, neighborhood clubs, and local NAACP branches.

Tuck's narrative begins before, and continues after, the well-documented years of direct action protest in the 1960s. Though grounded in local and state matters, it is attuned to such national developments as World War II, the 1954 Brown decision, the Civil Rights Acts of 1964-65, and the growth of the Black Power movement. Perhaps most important, Beyond Atlanta makes clear the exorbitant cost of racial oppression, in terms of hampered economic and social progress, for all Georgians.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

376 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2001

Reviews

[k la ⭐️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

given that the author is not only a non-atlantan but also a non-american, i found the sequence of events and perspective to be both accurate and informative. as a resident of Atlanta, i appreciated that the author focused more so on the local small town heroes who laid the foundation for MLK’s future achievements.

it was also refreshing to see equal time dedicated to discussing simultaneous movements in savannah, rome, and other major cities at that time, which are often overlooked amidst the prominence of atlanta. overall, i found the text to be engaging and a valuable introduction to individuals interested in the overarching theme of race relations during those time periods!