The Second Atlanta Fire

By Jack E. White

Even if you totally disagree with Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell's vow to "fight to the death" against a right-wing assault on his city's affirmative-action program, you have to acknowledge his candor. "This is as important to us as our right to vote was back in the '60s," he declares. "African Americans have to be as resolute on this issue as the Jewish community is about aid to Israel." Any "handkerchief-head Negro" who disagrees, he adds, ought to be "shunned."

Starting, no doubt, with Cynthia Tucker, who edits the editorial page of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. These two brilliant black people have been waging an epic feud since the mayor took office six years ago. Campbell says Tucker suffers from a "slave mentality" that causes her to be "more vicious than white journalists." She says Campbell is "strident," "vain" and "out of control."

Atlanta prides itself on being "the city too busy to hate," but it's not too busy to quarrel about the mayor's pugnacious strategy for battling the Southeastern Legal Foundation. That conservative group filed a federal lawsuit in August alleging that the city discriminates against white males by requiring prime city contractors to set up joint ventures with minority- or female-owned businesses. Tucker supports affirmative action, but she complains that Campbell has abused the program by showering lucrative contracts on his wealthy black supporters. She argues that courts have become so hostile to affirmative action that spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend Atlanta's program is futile. Instead, says Tucker, Atlanta should replace its program with one that gives preferences to local companies, as Detroit did in 1994 when it was faced with a similar challenge. Since then, she says, black- and female-headed companies there have obtained about $600 million in contracts, roughly the same as under the old approach.

Answering her charges, Campbell snaps, "She hasn't done her homework." The city, he points out, is about to embark on projects, including an airport expansion, that may generate $10 billion in contracts over the next five years. Under the existing program, nearly $4 billion would flow to companies owned by minorities and women. Adopting a local-preferences program would not assure the same level of business for minority firms, he argues, because national companies could easily qualify by setting up Atlanta-based subsidiaries. Campbell says he is prepared to use "any means necessary" to protect the program in its current form--not only in the courts but also by picketing the homes of the Southeastern Legal Foundation's supporters and boycotting their companies. As for charges of cronyism, he notes that many of the wealthy black contractors who have contributed to his campaign have also donated to his political foes.

The Campbell-Tucker feud would be no more than a clash of egos if so much were not at stake. Campbell believes preserving affirmative action is vital to the continued prosperity of the black middle class. Tucker thinks blacks need to prepare for the day when such programs are outlawed by conservative courts or ballot initiatives such as California's Prop. 209. This is a serious difference of opinion that deserves a dignified debate by serious people, not a wallow in the mud. Surely, the mayor of a major American city and one of the country's most formidable journalists are smart enough to figure that out.