- Annexation & politics
- Segregation
- late 1960s–1980s
- DeKalb County
- General area only
South DeKalb becomes majority Black
As Atlanta's Black middle class moved outward, southern DeKalb County changed from white to predominantly Black while northern DeKalb stayed mostly white. The U.S. Supreme Court described the split in Freeman v. Pitts (1992).
The record
The Court recorded that DeKalb grew from 70,000 to 450,000 residents between 1950 and 1985. About 64,000 Black residents moved into southern DeKalb between 1975 and 1980 alone, most of them from Atlanta. 'As the result of these demographic shifts, the population of the northern half of DeKalb County is now predominantly white and the southern half of DeKalb County is predominantly black.' The school system's Black enrollment rose from 5.6 percent in 1969 to 47 percent in 1986. The New Georgia Encyclopedia notes DeKalb's large Black middle class.
Today: Southern DeKalb County.
Where on the map: Roughly the southern half of DeKalb County; use decennial tract race data (see notes) for the actual pattern.