From Murder to Money: Criminalizing the Atlanta Mothers to Preserve the New South City Restricted; Files Only

Abstract

In 1979-1981, a series of confounding disappearances and murders claimed the lives of 28 poor Black youth and two adult men, terrorizing the City of Atlanta. The city’s Black political elite largely ignored the spree of murders, pushing a group of mothers to bring the tragedy to the public. In doing so, the mother’s trenchant analyses of the murders and the city’s neglect began unravelling the mythology behind the “City Too Busy to Hate.” To preserve the new South city, the Black officialdom, white business elite and citizens neutralized the group’s activism by placing the group of assertive, poor, single Black mothers into a narrative of Black female pathology.

Table of Contents

I.              Introduction: “What More Do They Want?”………………………………………….1

 

II.            Chapter One: A “Model Mother”: The Start of a Saga………………………………19

 

III.          Chapter Two: “A City Too Proud to Beg”: Welfare Queens in a Welfare City……..37

 

IV.         Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...……57

 

V.           Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………63

About this Master's Thesis

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School	Laney Graduate School
Department	History
Degree	M.A.
Submission	Master's Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	History, Black Gender Studies African American Studies
Keyword	gender welfare queen carcerality Black female pathology Moynihan Report Atlanta Child Murders
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Walter C. Rucker, Emory University
Committee Members	Carol Anderson, Emory University

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