Return of the Atlanta Crackers

By Lucius Gantt

      Once upon a time, I dreamed I would be a baseball player. I would walk from my Fourth Ward house on Angier Avenue to Ponce De Leon Park to watch the Atlanta Crackers play baseball.

       They were a decent International League team with a few future future major league players. I wondered what kind of name was “the crackers”.

        Decades passed until I realized “cracker” was what some Southern people called themselves.

         Today, there is a new version of Atlanta Crackers. Instead of being professional baseball players, the Atlanta Crackers of today are professional political consultants.

          Atlanta is known for its academia. The city has the nation's largest predominately Black college, Georgia State University, and the famous Atlanta University complex which includes Morehouse, Spellman, Clark, and a theological school of study.

         After a catastrophic auto accident I eventually had to return to my Atlanta hometown for medical treatments. In my mind, I felt I would be welcomed home and I would excel professionally in journalism and media.

          Boy, was I wrong! The Black office holders and elected officials had zero desires to have diverse political staffs. Every Black candidate seeking election to Mayor, Governor, or Congressional offices were convinced to believe that only they were good enough to be in politics as a candidate or as a political advisor.

         I was shocked! Tyler Perry, Spike Lee, and other filmmakers couldn’t get regular political work, and opportunities. Printers, sign printers, pollsters, direct mailers, graphic artists, social media advertisers, outdoor advertisers, newspaper and broadcast owners, and other talented Black professionals couldn’t get any political business and contracts.

          Well, I’m basically retired now and don’t seek politicians to help and assist but I do want young Blacks to know why the city’s political candidates refuse to hire them, talk to them, train the or pay them!

            Black candidates honestly believe they can’t win an election unless they hire “Miss Daisy”, “Gomer”, or “Alfapha” like the new “Atlanta Crackers” told them to.

             No, you don’t like for me to write like this. But it’s true! Political contributions and expenditures are public information. Don’t take my word for it, ask any Black candidate, "who are the highest paid people on their campaign staffs" and the answer will be some non-Black person.

             Now don’t get it twisted. I’m not saying the political Atlanta Crackers have no skills, no merit, and no history of success, I’m saying history is the best teacher.

            Tell me, if Atlanta has more than a million registered voters, how in the hell can you win a mayor’s race with 15,000 votes?

            You can win that way because the highly paid consultants have no clue how to inspire and motivate Black voters to go to polls, and cast ballots! And, Hispanics in Georgia have declining turnout numbers also.

            I encourage my family, friends, and neighbors to vote in every election. If you don’t vote for yourself, vote for the Black men and women who died fighting for your right to vote.

           Finally, don’t get mad with me for talking about the Atlanta Crackers. Whites ran Atlanta in the past, and they run Atlanta right now. During my school days, Lester Maddox, Sam Massel, Ivan Allen, and others called the political shots in the ATL. Today, blessings by people like Authur Blank and Dan Cathy have the same impact on Blacks in politics today.

          Steve Henson, former Senate Minority Leader in the Georgia Legislature, met with me when I got to Atlanta. He checked my credentials and touched base with clients I had in a bigger state, and he asked the Black chair of the Georgia Democratic Party and told her I could “help Democrats”. When I met her at an SCLC Women’s event, she smiled and told me, “We only pay whites”, all Blacks have to volunteer!

         That was it for me! I was through with her and other Black politicians who feel Black professionals are inferior.

         In Georgia, white political ice will always be colder than Black political ice! The Atlanta Crackers are winners in baseball and in politics!