European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 2, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday. February 2, 1986 the stars and stripes Page 17 a View of the downtown area of Atlanta. The City hoi Long been known a the headquarter of the civil rights movement. New York times Pho lot but she sees the younger class of educated Blacks those interested in Good jobs and living Well As culturally adrift. I think they Are really seeking who they Are where they belong Biggins said. They be grown up in a world straddling two  still there is a traditional sense of caring in the Black Community and there Are efforts by those who Are doing Well to help those who Are not. Charles Johnson the Only Black partner in a 140 member Atlanta Law firm and the grandson of the first Black president of Fiske University in Nashville worked with other Black leaders to found the Atlanta Exchange a network of Black professionals and businessmen who seek to provide role models for Black High school students and help them shape College careers and identify lob opportunities. Monica Kauffman the Anchor on web to news joined the Atlanta Junior league. It gives her the Means and credentials she said to interest White women in Black causes. When you slip in that my Mother was a maid they look at you a Little differently and realize that maybe there Are others out there like you she said but when the credentials Are not known Black skin can still Breed presumptions. Kauffman bought a House in Ansley Park one of the most prestigious White neighbourhoods in town to be close to her Job. Walking through my own neigh Brood one Day a Man tried to pick me up she said. He assumed that i had to be a Hooker because a Black woman could t afford to live  the City s reputation As a place where Whites Are tolerant and Blacks can live Well makes Black managers with National companies glad to locate there much of that attraction shimmers around such sophisticated couples As the stewarts who have lived abroad and move easily through the cultural i be Wora us mrs. Stewart said that there is an upbeat group of Black folks in Atlanta. But the image also masks another Atlanta. Like Many others Edward d. Irons an Atlanta University professor of banking and finance was drawn to the City by Opportunity. He holds the Only such endowed chair at any predominantly Black University in the country. But in Atlanta he found a Gap Between the City s look and its reality. I had heard that Atlanta was the Mecca of Black family living he said. As i travel the country i continue to hear that Atlanta Blacks Are doing better than Blacks in any other City. But the facts Don t support  according to Federal census figures. Irons said the Black poverty level in Atlanta was 28 percent in 1980," higher than in new York Chicago. Los Angeles Philadelphia Houston Dallas the District of Columbia or Boston. The figures showed he said that 25 percent of Black households had annual incomes of less than $5,000, and 45 percent lived on less than $10,000. The Federal poverty level is now $ 10,178 for a family of four. Middle income the threshold of Middle class existence Irons said is not a National figure but one that varies with the Economy of the place. He said that $20,000 per household might be considered the threshold in Atlanta in 1980, when 10 percent of Black households earned $20,000 to $35,000. Taking $35,000 As the threshold of affluence in 1980, Irons said 3 percent of Black households earned that or More and 1 percent earned More than $50,000. The ratio of Black family income to White family income is about the same today As it was 25 years ago Irons said. " such figures mar the mythology of Atlanta. A lot of people Don t want you to Tell the truth Irons said. What you find he said of the people who were his neighbors when he lived in the Well kept expanse of Middle class housing in Southwest Atlanta is you be got two struggling family income earners some of them working two  some others who Are critical of the Black image of living Well in Atlanta Are not willing to be quoted by name for fear of being criticized. This is a City where it s not important to have a car said one. It s important to have a Mercedes. It s the City of conspicuous  a. Reginald eaves a Black member of the county commission said Atlanta is actually three separate cities a White Community and a Black Community which is living in the Best of times for some Blacks and the worst of times for a great Many  it s something that no one really wants to address eaves said. It has t gotten better. There is one census tract where the infant mortality rate was 63 per 1,000 in 1984, in Fulton county it was 19 per 1,000, which is extremely High higher than in some third world countries. That s More devastating to me than Lynching because they did t Lynch 19 out of every 1,000  because Atlanta has what is essentially a service Economy with few Industrial jobs wages for Blacks tend to be either High on the professional or Middle management end or Low on the clerical and menial end and the continuing Gap feeds what some see As spreading anger among the poor. I think there is an increasing sense of anger and alienation said Lomax. I think there is a spa Between the haves and the have not. The political leaders Are seen As the leaders of the haves and they Are forgetting the  part of the reason for the widening separation Many say is that younger More affluent Blacks have less of a sense of the impoverishment of Black life before the civil rights movement that King led. Many of our freshmen Are totally oblivious to Martin Luther King and to the movement Stewart said. They very much take for granted the freedoms we have and have no idea of the struggle it took to achieve