Will America’s "Black Mecca" [Atlanta] Elect a White Mayor?

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ATLANTA—A dozen candidates fighting to be the next mayor of Atlanta crammed inside a union hall on a recent Thursday night. The moderator of the public forum, a black talk radio host named Rashad Richey, instructed the candidates to answer his questions by holding up a small sign that on one side said “yes” and on the other said “no.” He asked them whether they supported raising the minimum wage for city employees to $15 an hour and whether public money should subsidize billion-dollar stadiums. Then he turned to the topic of law enforcement: “Do you believe that police target or racially profile black and brown males in the community?”

In Atlanta, a city that boasts of being the birthplace of the civil rights movement, this is not a question that politicians are generally unprepared to answer. Indeed, nearly all of the candidates quickly raised their “yes” signs. One of them, a white city councilwoman named Mary Norwood, didn't. With her sign resting on her lap, the petite 65-year-old politician, a resident of the affluent, predominantly white neighborhood of Buckhead, sought clarification: “Atlanta or the country?” Annoyed that she had disrupted the format, Richey fired back: “Let me just ask you: Do you think people in Atlanta racially profile?” An awkward silence filled the room until Norwood started explaining, not entirely clearly, that, “it’s not a Pandora’s box. It’s really important …” As people in the audience hollered from their seats, Richey cut her off and moved on to the next question.

So perhaps it should come as a surprise that a woman who has struggled to speak decisively on one of the most prominent and divisive subjects confronting her city is actually leading the race—by a lot. And if she wins on November 7, Norwood, who holds a double-digit lead in the polls, would be the first white mayor of Atlanta in more than four decades. It turns out that the explanation for Norwood’s electoral advantage has less to do with her platform than the changing face of one of the most dynamic and important cities in the American South.

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