Atlanta — Reflections on History and Heroes
Two months ago, my mother, grandmother and I were sitting on an airplane headed for Atlanta, Georgia. Our plan was to stop in Atlanta for a few days, drive to Montgomery, then end the trip in Birmingham for the Magic City Classic–the largest Historically Black College and University Football game in the country. This is the first article of a five-part series where I discuss my trip through the deep south.
Atlanta produced two strong impressions on me: emptiness, and Blackness. Driving through downtown on a Saturday night I expected streets to be thronged with people. To my surprise, the streets were empty. Very empty, yet exceptionally well lit. It felt like I was dropped into some sort of video game. This was enough to make me pay attention to my surroundings. I decided to half-ignore this instinct until, not two minutes later, I saw someone.
They were barely standing up and reaching for the ground, I thought they had just dropped something. However, then I remembered the characteristic slump fentanyl users crumble into in their intoxication (often referred to as the fentanyl fold) [i] . After watching so many documentaries about the fentanyl epidemic, I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was. By the time we reached the hotel, I realized that most people we saw outside were sleeping on the streets.
According to Atlanta Civic Circle, approximately 2,017 people are houseless in Atlanta[ii]. However, advocacy groups argue that this figure doesn’t capture people who could be residing in park areas and abandoned buildings ii. Furthermore, in 2022, 37% of homeless people in Atlanta reported mental illness and 32% reported substance use disorders [ii]. In some ways, this reminded me of my grandfather, Jimmy.
Jimmy, born and raised in segregated Louisiana, moved to California to get his Law degree at UC Berkeley. After getting his JD, he struggled to pass the California bar — and to find work. Eventually, in his late 70’s — due to undiagnosed mental health issues — he experienced homelessness. Walking through groups of homeless people in Atlanta reminded me of waiting for Jimmy at the Oakland metro station. It is frustrating to see how cycles repeat themselves.
The next day, our excitement at exploring the city undermined our concern for why it was so ‘empty’ (an odd sentence to write, considering Atlanta’s population of 6 million inhabitants). On our way to Ebenezer Baptist Church — the church which Martin Luther King Jr. attended and preached at — artistic renditions of civil rights activists covered the walls.
John Lewis. Evelyn Gibson. Omoro Kinte. Each lead up to the Church where service was currently being held. I could hear the preacher’s booming voice from outside, “Listen” he proclaimed (the rest, ironically, was inaudible). In the presence of such an important institution, I expected to feel reverence, but instead I felt comfort. As someone who tends to veer away from going to Church, this also surprised me.
After realizing that we would not be let in, since we’re not members (so much for putting up our feet) we strolled across the street to the Ebenezer Baptist Memorial Museum of MLK. Quotations chiseled in stone, a metaphor surely not lost on the architect, surrounded the open-air foyer. They told a story about MLK’s philosophy of nonviolent resistance.
Dr. King argued that injustice is characterized by The Triple Evils of poverty (i.e., homelessness/hunger), racism (i.e., apartheid/homophobia) and militarism (i.e., imperialism, media violence)[iii]. The principles of non-violence can be understood in terms of 6 principles (the following information was retrieved from thekingcenter.org).
Principle 1: non-violence is a way of life for courageous people. It is an aggressive opposition against evil. Principle 2: non-violence seeks to win friendship and understanding. The goal is to create, a ‘Beloved Community’, wherein The Triple Evils would not be tolerated. This does not mean that conflicts do not arise, but that they may be resolved peacefully. Principle 3: non-violence seeks to defeat injustice, not people. Principle 4: non-violence maintains that voluntarily suffering for a moral cause can educate and transform. Principle 5: non-violence chooses love, not hate. Principle 6: non-violence maintains that the universe is oriented towards justice.
These principles are realized through direct action. In this context, direct action corresponds to behaviours which “are taken when the opponent is unwilling to enter into, or remain in, discussion/negotiation.” [iii]. It employs “creative tension” as a means of forcing an opponent to cooperate with you [iii]. The boycott-divest-sanction (BDS) movement against Israeli apartheid is an excellent example of this. However, I will address these issues with greater depth in another article.
The memorial contains Dr.King and Mrs. Coretta Scott-King’s tombs. The simple white marble rectangles protrude above from an artificial river. Across from them, The Eternal Flame, reminiscent of the Roman Fire of Vesta, burns as a testament to the eternal struggle against injustice. As long as injustice exists, so will those who resist it (words which I can easily write, sitting hundreds of kilometers away from an active war zone).
Upon departing from the memorial, my reflections delved more deeply into the concrete realities of the Israeli occupation and the tragic genocide of Palestinian civilians. Frustration, sadness, and confusion are valid emotional reactions to what we are witnessing. I was slightly comforted by the realization that the Larger Than Life figures of the past also felt this way. It is deliciously tempting to become perpetually hopeless. I don’t have an answer, but I do believe that the opposite of jadedness is curiosity. Discuss, ask questions, read, and–although it may feel shallow–post about it.
Distractions are tempting, even though space is sometimes necessary. Interestingly, for all of the TV’s demanding attention from every direction in U.S. restaurants, none of them showed the news. Football was always on. The sense that something was deeply wrong pervaded me, but I couldn’t exactly understand why until I reached Montgomery, Alabama.
[i] Langer, M. (n.d.). Fentanyl is destroying San Francisco’s soul. Neue Zürcher Zeitung. https://www.nzz.ch/english/fentanyl-is-destroying-san-franciscos-soul-ld.1749900
[ii] Keenan, S. (2022, June 8). Atlanta officials say homelessness plummeted during the pandemic — but how many go uncounted? Atlanta Civic Circle. https://atlantaciviccircle.org/2022/06/08/atlanta-homeless-population-down-but-undercounted/
[iii] The King Center. (n.d.). The King Philosophy — Nonviolence365® — The King Center. thekingcenter.org. https://thekingcenter.org/about-tkc/the-king-philosophy/#:~:text=King%20believed%20that%20the%20age,create%20lasting%20peace%20through%20reconciliation.
