Posted Nov 24, 2022, 7:13 AMUpdated Nov. 24, 2022, 7:23 a.m.
Mansions half hidden under high trees; wood-clad middle-class hamlets emerging from the forest on a warm carpet of maple leaves; a town hall hastily installed among the warehouses, along the highway… Welcome to South Fulton, 107,000 inhabitants and a population growth of almost 2% per year, the self-proclaimed “blackest city in America”, with 92% African-American population – national average is 13%.
This town without a central core that spreads out southwest of Atlanta was created in 2017, somewhat by chance. It emerged with the unbridled growth of the suburbs of the Georgian capital, carried by a groundswell of African-American migration. Around it, cities have formed in recent years, denser, whiter, securing corporate taxes and property taxes. The people of South Fulton realized that if they didn’t organize, they would have no fiscal resources left.