Atlanta’s racial geography

An interesting excerpt about Atlanta’s racial geography from “Parting The Waters: America In The King Years 1954-1963” by Taylor Branch:

That same year, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., announced that his family would donate enough money to build four more structures along the tree-lined quad at Spelman. Still, it was only a beginning. The three schools remained land-rich, owning scores of undeveloped acres for future growth. At the time, no one realized that this strategic acquisition would make the twentieth-century demographics of Atlanta unique among American cities. As the town grew, these holdings caused white developers to avoid most of the southwest quadrant of the city, and the Negro educational complex provided a pool of professional people to expand outward into that territory along stratified class lines. As a result, Atlanta would not develop along the usual pattern of a Negro inner city surrounded by whites. The two races would move outward into their own suburbs.