Inequality and Human rights in Atlanta
A paradox… This is what David Sjoquist called Atlanta in his seminal work, The Atlanta Paradox, and over two decades later, this moniker remains fitting. Atlanta is often lauded as a city where Black people can thrive; a city with a sizable Black elite. Masked behind the image of “The Black Mecca” is a large number of Black Atlantans struggling to claim their own piece of what should be a big enough pie. As Atlanta grows and is celebrated for the opportunities it offers, many Black Atlantans are striving for the realization of their basic human rights - a living wage, a safe and affordable place to live, quality healthcare regardless of race or income; for inclusion in the Atlanta success story. How does one of the nation’s more economically stable metropolitan areas produce some of the starkest income disparities, and what can be done to address this significant human rights issue?
The first major Southern city to elect a Black mayor, Atlanta continues to elect Black mayors and maintain a majority Black City Council membership five decades later. Atlanta is celebrated for its large Black population, its thriving business industry, and its newly thriving film industry. It is home to thirty-one Fortune 500 and 1000 corporations. Boasting the busiest airport in the world, Atlanta is increasingly positioned as a global city and will be one of the host cities for the FIFA World Cup Olympics in 2026. These indicators point to a city on the upward move, yet Atlanta’s Black residents are being left behind.
Atlanta leads the nation in the highest income inequality, claiming the title at least three times in the past decade. A segment of the population in the city that is no more than 136.3 square miles makes significantly more than the lower-income segment of the population. According to Kendall Glynn in “White Atlanta Families Have 46 Times More Wealth Than Black Ones. How Do We Fix That?”, white Atlanta households have a staggering 46 times more wealth than Black households - $238,355 for white families, compared to just $5,180 for Black ones.[1] This number far exceeds the national average which has white wealth at 12.1 times more than their Black counterparts.[2] It is true that the inequality gap decreases when the surrounding metro Atlanta area is taken into account, nevertheless, the concentration of poverty still resides with the Black population. Sixty percent of the Black population is native to Atlanta.[3] These are the people who should have benefited from the economic growth in the city. Instead, economic inequality is stubbornly persistent, evident in the double-digit poverty rates among the Black population. That rate is currently at 31.8 percent. In comparison, the rate is 7 percent for their white counterparts, 16.9 percent for Asians, and 13.1 percent for Latinos.[4]
Economic inequalities are not inevitable. They are the result of policy decisions of those in leadership. In Atlanta, the inequalities date back to a history of racist decision-making. The City’s Black leadership has not moved the needle much for the majority of the Black population. To be fair, some of the policy decisions impacting inequality have been outside the control of Atlanta’s Black political leadership. Many date back to white flight from Atlanta following the successful dismantling of redlining and segregation resulting from the Civil Rights Movement. These majority white suburban communities opposed the extension of MARTA to their neighborhoods or the creation of multi-family apartment buildings effectively cutting off the suburbs and attendant new jobs from Atlanta’s Black population.
In recent years, the trend has reversed. The rapid development of the City with a focus on real estate has brought more business, public spaces, and now talk of new mass transit options. It has also attracted more people. The development however appears designed for new residents and not for native Black Atlantans. Speculators are venturing into historically Black communities and driving prices up. Not surprisingly, the Black population is declining and is currently 47 percent of Atlanta’s total population according to the 2022 Census QuickFacts. There are few protections for tenants; a landlord could increase rent as high and as often as they choose at the end of a lease. Atlantans earning the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour and working full-time cannot afford the average rent for a two-bedroom abode. While the City has little control over the abysmally low minimum wage (the State does), and is prohibited by the State to enact rent control laws, there is more that the City could do to protect low-income Black communities. In particular, decision making related to new development such as zoning, permit, and land use policy is within the authority of the City. Cities also have a lot of leverage that they can use creatively.
The failure of the City to protect against inequality is a human rights issue. With inequality comes concentrated poverty. And where there is concentrated poverty in Atlanta, we find the lowest economic mobility in the country. A child born into poverty in Atlanta has a 4 percent chance of getting out. This has a disproportionate impact on Black Atlantans who also bear the brunt of other conditions associated with inequality. They live in neighborhoods with the poorest road conditions and other infrastructure neglect. Black women in Atlanta have one of the nation’s highest maternal mortality rates. And unlike the political attention to safety concerns in Buckhead, similar issues in predominantly Black neighborhoods are often ignored. In a meeting at the United Nations, Mayor Andre Dickens, the sole Mayor invited to represent U.S. cities, recognized the government’s responsibility ‘to improve the lives of residents including by ensuring access to infrastructure, social services, housing, education, healthcare, and safety.’
Cities have the obligation to respect, protect, and fulfill human rights. Mayor Dickens recognized this in a statement to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination “We are a City committed to human rights and stand firmly against racial discrimination, we are the voice of the voiceless, and will continue to be the catalyst for change.” Two steps that the City could take to give meaning to this statement are to conduct a human rights audit to identify the root causes of current inequality and recommend steps that align with human rights standards, and to adopt the use of Human Rights Impact Assessments (HRIA) for all new policies. Both tools would help create a roadmap for addressing the seemingly endemic inequality in the City. Imagine if Atlanta led the nation in equitable real estate development practice? What if the City made Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s call for a basic income a reality? What if affordable health clinics, subsidized farmers' markets, and safe public spaces were concentrated in the poorest neighborhoods? Inequality is only unavoidable when leadership decides not to meaningfully address it.
Tamill Harris, MPA, is an Atlanta native, researching and advocating for Black economic advancement and a Ph.D. candidate at the Dr. Mack Henry Jones Department of Political Science at Clark Atlanta University and Ejim Dike is a leading human rights strategist and also a doctoral candidate at the Dr. Mack Henry Jones Department of Political Science at Clark Atlanta University.
[1]Glynn, Kendall, 2024. White Atlanta Families Have 46 Times More Wealth Than Black Ones. How Do We Fix That?: A New Report on Building Black Wealth Offers Solutions, Atlanta Civic Circle, 2024.
[2] Building a Beloved Economy: A Baseline and Framework for Building Black Wealth in Atlanta, 2022.
[3] Census Bureau Quick Facts 2022, Median Household Income in Atlanta City, Georgia is $83,251± $3,285, American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates.
[4] Ibid
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