By Maynard Eaton / STAFF

It was a heated and passionately intense televised debate focusing on the now infamous "Struggle for Unity" memo authored by the shadow Atlanta Black Leadership Forum and the most controversial issue to erupt in the 2009 Atlanta mayoral election – the incendiary infusion of “race in the race” triggered by the highly possible election of Atlanta’s first white mayor in 25 years.

The divisive drama over the allegations of “Black racism in Atlanta politics” played out during last week’s Newsmakers Live program in downtown Atlanta’s Uptown restaurant. Let’s set the stage for this meaningful local media, and nationally significant political event that included a NY Times reporter.

The contentious conversation featured the premier protagonist and memo maestro Aaron Turpeau, the “young-gun” antagonist, 33-year-old state SW Atlanta Rep. Ralph Long III and venerable socialite and political sage Tom Houck.

THE NOT SO SCARLETT LETTER

“I found the letter that was emailed around to be very disturbing,” said Long, a supporter of mayoral candidate City Councilwoman Mary Norwood, who wrote a scathing rebuke of the infamous memo. “As a state legislator we must denounce racism or even the hint of it. It doesn’t represent my constituent base; it doesn’t represent the Atlanta that I know today; it didn’t represent the issues that we are faced with today. I felt it was a very insulting letter.”

The Struggle for Unity memo, which was written by Clark Atlanta University professors Dr. William Boone and Dr. Keith Jennings, called for the creation of a black agenda and urged the election of a black mayor. The memo was denounced as being “racist and divisive” by Council President Lisa Borders, State Sen. Kasim Reed and attorney Jesse Spikes.

“It was an internal memo but we never do anything that we are ashamed of,” said Turpeau, who worked in all three Jackson administrations. “It was an internal memo for discussion purposes, but we never got to discuss it before it was leaked to the public.”

“I think in the context of what Dr. Boone and others were trying to put out there it is nothing that anybody should be ashamed of,” added Houck, a veteran political pundit. “It is a perception that is ongoing in every election in this town since 1973 when Maynard Jackson was elected the first African American mayor of Atlanta. The incendiary aspects [of this memo] are that there was a great desire in this town to be able to keep somebody who looks like somebody in your neighborhood in City Hall. I don’t think it was meant to say, Mary Norwood, the ‘Buckhead Betty,’ we had to go out and defeat her.”

BORDERS SENDS CHECK BACK

Turpeau, says Houck, was thrown under the bus by the Borders campaign. Reaction to the memo was so virulent, that Borders returned Turpeau’s campaign donation, which forced him to withdraw his support.

“I’m pissed off. It was disappointing to see a candidate react the way Borders reacted. I was shocked by it,” he said. “It was really disappointing to see the black candidates what I consider pandering to white voters and reacting by calling it black racism. A lot of people don’t make a distinction between a racial discussion and racism. I think racial discussions are very helpful and I saw nothing racist about it.”

Turpeau then told the packed Newsmakers audience, “Kasim was down in the polls. They had to make a noise doing something. They put [the memo] out there and Lisa fell for the trap. She went for the ‘oaky doke;’ she overreacted and now both of them are suffering. They don’t go after the black vote. Their campaigns are just different than what we used to see.”

“They all denounced the letter for a reason,” said Long. “I’m not going so far as to say it was racist [but] it was distasteful.”

Houck speculated that the memo was a reflection of deep concerns among black voters about a pending change and culture shift in city politics.

GHOSTS OF THE PAST HAUNT MAYORS RACE

“The question that was raised by the Black Agenda document is how will the culture of Atlanta City Hall change if there is a white woman in that position,” Houck said. “Will the folks in this room feel any less comfortable walking into city hall than they do now with Shirley Franklin? Will the city that has been known as the ‘Black Mecca’ across the world change its image because there is a white woman mayor of Atlanta? Will there be a change of direction in terms of contracts and jobs?”

This is not the first time race has reared its head as the central issue in an Atlanta mayoral campaign. The 1973 campaign between Sam Massell and Maynard Jackson and the 1981 race between Andrew Young and Sidney Marcus also split the city along racial lines.

“That was a vile campaign,” Houck recalled of the Jackson/Massell contest. “I hope it doesn’t happen but whether it is Kasim or whether it is Lisa in a campaign against Mary Norwood, I don’t expect it to be anything but ugly.”

It is widely speculated that many leading members of the ad-hoc Black Leadership Forum, such as Turpeau, are former political cronies of Jackson who was often referred to as the Godfather of black Atlanta politics. Now pundits suggest this race may signal the end of the Maynard Jackson political machine.

“I can’t say it is the end of the Maynard Jackson regime, but I can say it is the end of injecting race in politics,” said Long, who stopped short of agreeing we have reached a post-racial society and political environment.

Newsmakers Live executive producer Jim Welcome argues that is what Long and the mayor candidates are saying. “It appears to me that the black politicians in the Atlanta mayoral race are under the impression that we are in a post-racial era,” he said. “This might be true in the minds of a small and hopeful portion of the black community. But a significant number of African American families still live in poverty and fight daily against the feeling of nihilism. They have not caught up with this new idea that race doesn’t matter and are largely disappointed in their candidates which may result in a poor black voter turnout.”­