Gary M. Pomerantz
Nonfiction Author, Journalist, Lecturer
Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Aburn
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Summary
The Intersection of Peachtree Street, historically the residential and commercial street of Atlanta's white elite, and Sweet Auburn Avenue, the spiritual main street of Atlanta's community, mirrors the often separate but mutually dependent worlds of whites and blacks in this Southern city. In Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn , Gary M. Pomerantz traces five generations of two families -- the Allens, descended from slave owners, and the Dobbses, from slaves. These families produced the two most influential mayors of the modern South, Ivan Allen Jr., and Maynard Jackson Jr. Through hundreds of interviews and five years of painstaking research, Pomerantz shows how the families rose to social, economic, and political prominence. But he also demonstrates how their interesting lives paralleled the shifting relations between Atlanta's blacks and whites as the city grew to become the capital of the New South. It is a representative story of the transformation of a city and the entire south.
Where Peachtree Meets
Sweet Auburn
Paperback: 688 pages
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (May 1, 1997)
Category: Nonfiction
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0140265090
ISBN-13: 978-0140265095
Reviews
“Peachtree should stand as the definitive history of Atlanta’s turmoil and triumph from the Civil War until now.”
USA TODAY
“Pomerantz has done a remarkable job of digging through the historical record -- delving into archives and stomping across graveyards -- to chronicle these two intriguing clans . . . Pomerantz’s dual family approach . . . provides a window on both the black and white communities through the city’s most racially tense days.”
The Chicago Tribune