Franklin: ‘Black mayor first’ memo is ‘bigoted’
Shirley Franklin called Friday afternoon with a stark description of the memo you’ve heard about — the one that frets over the possibility that Atlanta might choose a white mayor to succeed her in November.
“I think it was bigoted,” Franklin said. It was not a slip of the tongue. The mayor used multiple variations of the word.
But what seemed to offend Franklin just as much was what she called the “lopsided history of Atlanta and Atlanta politics” contained in the document.
The mayor said more, but we need to back up a bit.
The lengthy analysis that careened through e-mail accounts last week was distributed by Aaron Turpeau, a long-time City Hall veteran whose political career was capped by service as chief of staff to Maynard Jackson.
In an interview, Turpeau said the analysis was written by two academics associated with Clark Atlanta University on behalf of an “ad hoc” group called the Black Leadership Forum.
The memo was an attempt to form an agenda for Atlanta’s black community, Turpeau said. “Everybody has an agenda,” he said. “The developers have an agenda, downtown business has an agenda, the gays have an agenda, the Hispanics have an agenda.”
What would be the substance of a black agenda? Economic equality, access to City Hall, and respect for those displaced by development, Turpeau said.
If the analysis had actually said those things and stopped, much underwear in Atlanta would have remained untwisted. But the memo used the phrase “black mayor at all cost” and spoke of a “black mayor first” approach.
According to the BLF memo, the election of tiny Mary Norwood, the white councilwoman, “would be just as significant in political terms as Maynard Jackson’s victory in 1973.”
The political aims of the analysis are none too subtle. The memo assumes that black voters won’t turn out in any runoff, and so — in order to knock out Norwood in the Nov. 3 general election — suggests an effort to rally African-Americans behind City Council President Lisa Borders.
Borders quickly disassociated herself from the memo and its strategy.
According to the get-behind-Borders approach, other black mayoral candidates, including state Sen. Kasim Reed, would simply be out of luck. The memo pointed to a recent InsiderAdvantage poll that showed Reed lagging well behind both Norwood and Borders.
That logic prompted the Reed campaign, over the weekend, to release fresh internal polling that concedes the top spot to Norwood, at 33 percent. (The Brilliant Corners Research poll surveyed 580 voters; margin of error was put at 4 percentage points.)
Norwood aside, Reed says his survey puts him in a statistical tie with Borders, 19 to 16 percent, and shows the two African-American candidates with near-equal shares of the black vote.
But there is more to this “black mayor first” memo than nervousness over a few polls, or worry over Atlanta’s shifting demographics.
Reed, the candidate placed most in peril by the memo, twice acted as campaign manager for Franklin. The two are close, but the current mayor has made no formal endorsement. Even so, the authors of the memo go out of their way to cast doubt on Franklin’s ability to put her imprint on the race.
“To ignore the alienation that exists among black voters towards the Franklin administration’s performance is naive at best and dishonest at worse,” the analysis says.
This brings us back to that Friday phone call from the mayor. Franklin wouldn’t talk about an endorsement in the ‘09 race. Nor would she discuss the portions of the memo directed at her.
What Franklin wanted to talk about was the effort by a group of African-Americans — size and membership remains ill-defined — to define Atlanta’s first black mayor, who has been dead these six years.
“The memo clearly characterizes the historic election of Maynard Jackson as if it was an election of blacks over whites,” Franklin said. Yes, the mayor said, Jackson understood the importance of his achievement.
But to treat him as a “black Messiah,” Franklin emphasized, is to ignore Jackson’s belief “that every segment of this community ought to participate in the development of public policy.” Jackson was about inclusion, not exclusion, she said.
“To reduce Maynard’s legacy to a political machine is to not know Maynard Jackson. That’s trite,” she said. And “crazy, bigoted literature” that rises up from such a flawed assumption will be flawed throughout, the mayor noted.
As for the Black Leadership Forum’s concern over the outcome of a runoff for mayor of Atlanta, and the fear of multiple African-American candidates in this year’s mayoral race: Runoffs have been more the rule than the exception in Atlanta politics, Franklin said.
That’s the path that Jackson and Andrew Young followed to City Hall. Bill Campbell, too, was forced into a runoff to secure a second term, by Council President Marvin Arrington, an African-American.
History is one of the world’s most powerful forces. And at the very bottom of so many political contests is the matter of who will control the biographies of those who have gone before us.
It has come to that in the Atlanta mayoral race: What Would Maynard Do?
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435 comments Add your comment
SouthernGal
August 30th, 2009
7:48 pm
I think it would be hilarious if all “white business”, white workers and residents left the city of Atlanta.
Renee
August 30th, 2009
7:48 pm
What a day it will be when racists stand before God. Some things are not even worth getting mad about…..this is one of them. Personally, I just take pleasure in the fact that at the end of their days, these people will have to stand before God. Let them tell him how much they despise others, all because of their race. Wonder where they’ll end up?
Alexander J
August 30th, 2009
7:49 pm
Wow! You white people are STILL this racist! I left the city before “everyone came down” (Olympics) with their crime and smog and the sheer lack of racial progress is astounding. Of Atlanta’s more notable problems (other than crime, but it’s a deep recession, what do you expect?) is the horrible traffic which could have been corrected with mass transit, but White people didn’t want “the nigs” in their counties — hahah, now you’ve got Mexicans AND illegals. You guys are lucky to have rapid rail in that city but the sheer blinding force of White racism/supremacy halts all development.
But then again, Atlanta is a small oasis in a bathtub of red (your leader is Black) as is the president. How ironic!
Batboy
August 30th, 2009
7:49 pm
I am glad to see Franklin be unambiguous about the BLF bigotry. This is a step forward. Franklin understands that race baiting is a dangerous road for a leader who needs the cooperation of other communities to succeed. While you might be able to divide and conquer, divide and lead is a strategy for failure.
Well done Shirley.
Jay Bookman on the other hand is an apologist for the bigot.
Parzival
August 30th, 2009
7:51 pm
As long as the people of Atlanta vote for a mayor based on skin color, and not character, experience, and REAL leadership, ALL of us in Atlanta will suffer. I think most of the good candidates know how it works, so they stay in their corporate jobs. I voted for Obama because I thought he was the best candidate. It seems like the Black Caucasus in Atlanta going backwards, while the rest of the Country is moving forward.
Real
August 30th, 2009
7:54 pm
Chris D. — so where in the timeline have you moved from “working” to become generations dependent on the government for your care and feeding, developed such an exteme sense of entitlement, become single parent households (with multiple children, each likely by a different man), responsible for most violent crimes (watch the daily newscast in Atlanta), etc….
Parzival
August 30th, 2009
7:57 pm
Alexander, you are 100% correct on transit in Atlanta. A lot of people suffer now because Gwinnett and Cobb did not want the “black crime” that MARTA would bring if it expanded North.
Where is the bad traffic? 75 N towards Cobb and 85 N towards Gwinnett.
Sam
August 30th, 2009
7:58 pm
I’m sure that when Hartsfield, Ivan Allen, and Massell were mayors, black businesses and professionals probably did not get their meritocratic share of contracts, even though Atlanta was “the black Mecca”. So, the response of Jackson and Campbell was to give contracts to black businesses that DIDN’T deserve them. Franklin has had all she could handle shoveling out the Campbellian Stables, and not been able to maintain the sewers and streets. But, her entourage hasn’t stolen anything. The black elite of Atlanta will continue to be rich and powerful no matter what the race of Atlanta’s mayor. That’s the irony of them telling always-powerless poor blacks to always vote black, to save themselves from accountability.
Maynard Jackson did NOT “build the Atlanta Airport”. I can personally attest it was there in ‘64. Maynard Jackson was mayor when a large and innovative new terminal was added. His mayorality almost certinly contributed to securing the Olympics.
kaycee
August 30th, 2009
8:00 pm
Will the authors of the BLF memo please step forward!!!
Renee
August 30th, 2009
8:01 pm
As you name calling racists raise your children, do you ever think about how ignorant you are? How do you sleep at night, teaching your children about hatred? It’s too bad that they are being groomed into such ignorance. They too will have to stand before God one day (maybe you don’t belive in God, but he is a God of love)…I wish we could have this conversation after that. Sad, sad, sad.
JD
August 30th, 2009
8:03 pm
What they want so badly for Atlanta is just what the problem is. Too many of “us” (black folks) running things in Atlanta, and for way far too long. I am convinced that we as a people don’t run things very well without equal power sharing of caucasians and others to help keep us in check. On the flip side, when Caucasian get power they also seem to have a tendancy to run amuck as well, but seemingly not with outright blatant nepotism (i.e., Dekalb County School System) that is so evident with the institutions that we run. nevertheless, they also need “others” around in an equal position of power to help keep them in check too.
kaycee
August 30th, 2009
8:06 pm
Why won’t Turpeau name names?
Mark
August 30th, 2009
8:06 pm
This memo is no more racist than the radio ad featuring the voice of Andrew Young which was broadcast the other year on election day in support of the Democratic Fulton County Commissioner candidates warning black voters to come out to the polls and vote for their candidates or they could be facing fire hoses and police dogs again.
Parzival
August 30th, 2009
8:07 pm
Chris D….Slavery is a history that all of us are a part of. Not just blacks. There are roads built in Europe by my enslaved ancestors hands for the Romans…Rather than sitting around dwelling in the past, we should all be glad that we weren’t enslaved, and that we live in a time where it is mostly over.
Time to move forward.
kaycee
August 30th, 2009
8:10 pm
How is Clark Atlanta U going to distance itself from this memo?
Parzival
August 30th, 2009
8:14 pm
Renee, do you have a splinter in your eye?
BlackRules
August 30th, 2009
8:19 pm
Atlanta needs a black mayor! The whites run everything else and without representation, the whites will try to keep the African-Americans down in this city!
Jason
August 30th, 2009
8:20 pm
@BlackRules: Human beings need representation.
HumanNature
August 30th, 2009
8:26 pm
BTW, The only Real Houswife star that lives in Atlanta is the white trash one…LOL!! The rest live in Gwinett and North Fulton, neither of which are in Atlanta.
To all the dumb rednecks on this post, you are ignorant to assert that all black men desire to sire multiple children by multiple women. How many white men in power have fallen for the panties of women not their wives? White people have a sense of entitlement and because you have had a 400 year headstart on most people in this country you have been able to advance other groups, especially blacks who couldn’t vote in many parts of America without the intervention of the government in the 1960s. Please, your children are smoking and selling dope, stealing cars, killing each other and bringing down communities as much as blacks. The news is sensationalized!
I can be honest as an African American, there are some of us that need to do better, but there are many of us that have made it against the most dire odds. You can keep kidding yourselves and saying that everything is equal and fair but there are some of us that rise above your divisive tactics.
Chris D'
August 30th, 2009
8:34 pm
Real,
It just puzzles me how a majority oppresses a minority for 350 years (there were not equal rights until the 60’s) and then the majority wonders why the minority might have some angst toward the majority. I don’t think enslavement and segregation are beneficial ways to help assimilate a minority.
“I am not really excited about living near you so there you go blacks folks sorry about all that crap before I don’t know what we were thinking. We are going to move out to the suburbs now and leave you in the city and make sure public transportation doesn’t come out to where we are. Go ahead and run the city and years later we will complain about how you ran it. We will probably get tired of our long commutes and want to kick you back out of your houses and move back into the city at some point. I hope you aren’t angry at us. Oh yah we’ll take all our wealth with us that we only had the opportunity to accumulate and have good schools and infrastructure out in the burbs. Enjoy yourself in the city. ” White folks 1960 something.
So Sad
August 30th, 2009
8:36 pm
I have always been proud of Atlanta rising above the petty politics of race that occurs on so many of our nation’s cities. Apparently I was wrong.
Ruralite
August 30th, 2009
8:40 pm
I am proud that there is at least some well-thought commentary appearing here. Perhaps there is hope for the city Black or White.
The White Devils You Say!
August 30th, 2009
8:41 pm
As I well remember, Maynard Jackson ran one of the most blatantly racist campaigns against Sam Masell to become the first ‘black’ mayor of Atlanta. Maynard and his cronies have run corrupt administrations since then. Too often it has been about race and not competence or what was best for the citizens of Atlanta. Good men and women were written off because the color of their skin was too light or too dark! What ever happened to electing the best person for the office? I’m voting for Norwood because she is the best. She is also not part of the corrupt political machine initiated by Maynard Jackson. Borders and Reed both are.
BHO
August 30th, 2009
8:44 pm
Change, we can believe in.
Kevin
August 30th, 2009
8:44 pm
I always find it frustrating when people on these boards focus on the few people who make ignorant statements. There’s always a handful of holier-than-thous that like bemoan how backward we must be and how we must not be able to move on.
Seriously? That’s a weak and very tiring position.
You lot seem always operate the same way. Anyone that says something remotely critical of blacks (even if the statement is fact based) is automatically expunged. Don’t you get it? That sort of brow-beating is precisely why we can’t have legitimate conversations.
So here’s a valid question? Why is no one critical of Mayor Franklin for saying the memo was “bigoted”. I would call it “racist”. But that word is reserved for situations in which white people have wronged blacks, right?
Strong White Woman
August 30th, 2009
8:44 pm
If you really think Atlanta has EVER been above pettiness with regard to race then you’ve been living under a rock. I have lived here my entire life and used to slum with the Blacks all the time down on the west end back in the 70s and early 80s. The Whites have always resented the Blacks here and vise versa. Not to worry. Once the rest of Atlanta begins looking like Gwinnett and Cobb (read: Mexico) then we won’t have to contend with the Blacks and their shenanigans anymore. We’ll just have to learn Spanish. I’m gettin on the Mayflower and going back to Europe, if they’ll have me.
Keeping It Real
August 30th, 2009
8:47 pm
Like it or not, politics, class and race are factors in all governments. Access to City Hall is a must if you want to do business. Whites in power have always given business to those they know or run in their social circles. Over the past 25 years or so, blacks have done the same. I understand what Turpeau and his group are saying. Its politics. If you think the same things are not done under the Gold Dome and the White House, then you are sorely mistaken. I gurantee you that Blacks will not particpate as much in the money stream if Norwood is elected. She has to provide opportunities for her people just like Shirley had to provide opportunities for her people.In the words of a very astute politician, “follow the dollar”.
Humored
August 30th, 2009
8:48 pm
The White Devils You Say! Tell me why Mary Norwood is the best? Tell me one accomplishment that has been good for the whole of Atlanta? Just one?
Strong White Woman
August 30th, 2009
8:50 pm
I am privileged and entitled. I can hold any opinion I damn well please because I have the complexion for protection. Remember, men were murdered in droves on behalf of my chastity. I will do and say what I damn well please. Don’t like it? Go back where you came from, I mean, where you were taken from. Oh hell who cares, the country’s built and prospering now so we don’t need your kind around anymore. God Bless you all, Jesus loves you.
Union worker
August 30th, 2009
8:51 pm
The memo was written by racist for racist. Why are democrat leaders in this country always playing the race card?
White Guy in 2012
August 30th, 2009
8:52 pm
Speaking of “bigoted memos” how come this is being overlooked:
http://www.google.com/search?q=great+white+hope+blunder&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS276US278
M.T.
August 30th, 2009
8:53 pm
We must learn to read between the lines. Turpeau’s letter is not just about Blacks against Whites, it’s about Lighter-Skinned-Blacks against Darker Skinned Blacks.
AJC Management
August 30th, 2009
8:53 pm
Strong White Woman is a frequent liberal poster on this blog. She is trying to make normal Americans appear to be racist. But it is she that is one. So sad.
Bill Crosby
August 30th, 2009
8:55 pm
A blue gum wrote the memo.
White Flight?
August 30th, 2009
8:58 pm
If you’re disgusted by Atlanta because Blacks are the majority and are in power then LEAVE. The same way some of you are so quick to tell others to “go back where they came from”, how about you honkies pack your stuff and get the hell outta here? Oh that’s right. The entire world hates the bane of your existence. I’m sure there’s some unincorporated town in Montana or “the unclaimed west” waiting for your trail of tears, if you get my drift. God doesn’t like hypocrisy and your race are the biggest walking/talking hypocrites on the planet. 5 billion people can’t be wrong!
Strong White Woman
August 30th, 2009
8:59 pm
I don’t need you speaking on my behalf. Thanks. By the way, what’s a”normal American”?
john wood
August 30th, 2009
9:00 pm
What happened to the 500 other comments that were posted earlier ?
Chris D'
August 30th, 2009
9:03 pm
WG 12′,
Thanks for the link. That is actually pretty funny. The best part is her acting dumb about it later.
Kaye
August 30th, 2009
9:03 pm
Black and leadership in the same sentence? Oxymoron maybe? Only if very few and very rare case are they “leaders”
PappyHappy
August 30th, 2009
9:03 pm
If Mr. Turpeau is looking for an agenda for the Black Leadership Forum, please look no further:
* Audit all city expenditures and provide 100% transparency of city expenditures.
* Conduct an immediate review of the accounting department, and isolate line items that are not beneficial to the rank in file citizenry. CUT SAME.
* Develop a listing of best practices from SOLVENT CITIES, and place them into practice in Atlanta
* Conduct a search for the most qualified watershed manager in the Country who is sensitive to citizens. HIRE HIM/HER! Need such a leader given the water issues Atlanta is and will face in the future.
* Conduct a search for the most qualified police chief in the Country who is a crime preventer and a crime solver. Hire HIM/HER.
* Blow into the Atlanta Public School system to insure cheating IS NOT TOLERATED; autistic children are not abused; and real increases in test scores are achieved. Push for increased charter schools. Hard to attract business given the incidents of the past year. Leadership appears to be sorely lacking.
* Permit MLK Jr’s statement of ‘measuring an individual’s character, vice the color of their skin’ become a reality …….. in Atlanta!
* Allow Mr. Turpeau to be part of another organization’s future …… immediately!!!!
Parzival
August 30th, 2009
9:05 pm
Chris D…are you oppressed right now? Have you ever been enslaved? Is there anyone alive right now that you know of who has been enslaved OR owned slaves? Also…the 1960’s were 50 YEARS AGO and you are still there. We just elected a black president…who is there because white people voted for him.! Why is it that African immigrants (who, by the way have it a LOT harder) come here today and succeed….taking advantage of the opportunity to get an education and better themselves…while “African Americans” feel oppressed and unmotivated?
It’s an attitude and choice. It’s time for the excuses of the past to end, and to move forward and appreciate the opportunities we All have in the U.S.
Strong White Woman
August 30th, 2009
9:08 pm
“Ask Any recent immigrant from Africa who is here now and they laugh at the so called “African Americans” here who think they have it bad and cannot make it.”
Are these the same people who sold their ancestors into slavery? Can you ask them to take them back to Africa along with themselves? We certainly don’t want any Africans here on their own accord.
Parzival
August 30th, 2009
9:17 pm
Chris…Atlanta Urban Sprawl is not as simple as race. There are a LOT of Black people that moved to the South side suburbs because of population growth in the city, better schools, quality of life, and all the other reasons that ANYONE moves to the suburbs.
Ask a Native
August 30th, 2009
9:23 pm
Parzival, are you an idiot? I will conclude the that the answer is yes. Why is it so hard for these Africans you speak of? I’ll tell you: because your White ancestors stripped their land of all its rich resources and when they were done with the resources they took the PEOPLE. Let’s strip people from their land, throw them into bondage without the feasibility to learn anything about their culture not the culture they’ve become a part of, add 400 years of oppression then 120 more of Jim Crow. We’ll create Affirmative Action, allow it to primarily benefit WHITE FEMALES, all while using Blacks as it’s scapegoat, continue to perpetuate overt racism and you’re in here telling the Blacks to just “get over it”?? Why is this acceptable? Why is NOT acceptable to tell the Jews to get over the holocaust? Or to tell AMERICANS who don’t live in NYC to get over 9/11? I’ll tell you why, it’s called oppression. When one group is oppressed that means another group is benefiting from said oppression. You can color your overt racism with this faux, harmonious “my people did it, too” debacle but YOU ARE PRIVILEGED based solely on the color of your skin and your forefathers sought to keep it that way. You may not have had a hand in slavery directly but damn it there’s 200 million of you BENEFITING from it right now in this country. So, until you’ve walked a day in the shoes of the oppressed then I’d kindly suggest you STFU.
YOU, and those who think like you, are the primary reason the 5 billion people of color in this world despise your very existence as mentioned earlier. 5 billion people can’t be wrong.
Strong Black Woman
August 30th, 2009
9:23 pm
Strong white woman, it sounds like you need a strong black man in your life to help you with all your anxiety.I have a good black man in my life. He’s a great father to our two children, he works hard everyday, earns a six-figure salary and he gives me good loving on the regular. He can do anything that he wants and he cares about humanity. He’s my gift, not because he’s black but because he’s mine.
You are an ignorant person and you really need help.If So many whites are so upset about the state of Atlanta why don’t you all leave. My white neighbors are great and we get along fine, I hope none of them are like you.
Black in Atlanta
August 30th, 2009
9:27 pm
Without all the white racism and slavery over the last 300 years in this country, the African-American population would be a much higher level in income and stature. I’m hoping Obama and the black leadership in Congress start talking about reparations for all African-Americans soon! Minorities are owed big money for all the racism by white people, which continues today. Atlanta needs a lot more African-Americans in government to block more racism by whites.
Ask a Native
August 30th, 2009
9:30 pm
“Turpeau’s letter is not just about Blacks against Whites, it’s about Lighter-Skinned-Blacks against Darker Skinned Blacks.”
This is amusing for a number of reasons. Even if it’s true, no one will care enough to read between the lines. The “us” versus “them” has already begun. Dance, puppets.
Humored
August 30th, 2009
9:32 pm
Ask a native, you are spot on with your comments. I swear on everything sacred that I do not hate whites, nor am I harboring I will for what transpired in the past but I will not allow senseless drivel to go unchecked.
By the way, I’m still waiting for someone to post a Norwood accomplishment. Sounds to me that she’s an empty suit and some (white and black) are itching to vote for her because she’s white.
GaTecherrorist
August 30th, 2009
9:36 pm
It takes 14 of them to run a Church’s chicken…and they expect ONE to run the country? obama = One Big A$$ Mistake America
Strong White Woman
August 30th, 2009
9:36 pm
SBW: Why am I to care about you or your livelihood? It is your husband’s six figure salary that is a threat to my own livelihood. I’m pretty sure my own husband was more qualified for whatever job your hubby has, based on the sole fact that he’s White. Furthermore, if I wanted a strong black man I’d have an easier time attaining him than you had
I know all Blacks aren’t bad, I happen to know 2. They work for me and are very nice, clean people. Remember, I used to slum with you people all the time on the west end back in the 70s and 80s. I know all Blacks aren’t bad. But when my privilege and entitlement become threatened then all bets are off. As long as Blacks are running this city my livelihood and the livelihood of my people becomes jeopardized and that’s a problem. Nobama 2012.