The Quest for a New Black City in Georgia

A key state deadline this week determines whether predominantly African-American communities just outside Atlanta can vote to start their own city.

DEKALB COUNTY, GEORGIA—Roughly 25 people are holding court in the Greenhaven headquarters, all of them bound together by an unclarity about the name of the place where they live. Standing before them is Kathryn Rice, an urban planner who heads the Concerned Citizens for Cityhood of South DeKalb Inc. (CCCSD).

“Where is South DeKalb? What are its boundaries,” she asked them, but none could give an answer.

“I bet you can name the tallest building in South DeKalb, though, right?” she asked. Just about everyone blurted out “The jail!”

Indeed, the DeKalb County jail is the largest building in the area known intimately as “South DeKalb,” which is not a city or any kind of official jurisdiction. North DeKalb is where all the major businesses, office parks, hotels, restaurants, and skyscrapers are. Almost all of the major economic development over the last few decades has happened in North DeKalb, while South DeKalb, which is majority African American, struggles with just having its basic needs met, like landscaping and litter-pickup. Rice is leading a team of businesspeople and civic leaders to change the South DeKalb dynamic by turning the region into its own, self-contained city.

The city, named Greenhaven, would be the second-largest city in Georgia after Atlanta, if formed. It would be 87 percent African American—a larger percentage of black residents than even the city of Atlanta has. And while the notion of solving local problems by creating a freestanding city may sound extreme, it’s the new normal in the Atlanta metro area. At least ten other cities have formed anew since 2005 in the region, in a cityhood movement that is rendering this part of Georgia a new American frontier. But Greenhaven has had no such luck. Right now its supporters have had little success in even getting their city proposal approved for voters to decide on via a ballot initiative.