"Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar's America's Black Capital is a towering achievement. It powerfully captures the dynamism of Black politics in Atlanta--in great depth and sheer brilliance. This remarkable book is an inspiring work of history in which Black people take center stage as the key architects of their own destiny."
--Keisha N. Blain, coeditor of the No. 1 New York Times bestseller Four Hundred Souls and award-winning author of Until I Am Free
"An illuminating and thought-provoking history of Atlanta from the 19th century to the present...Ogbar's meticulous account is both an eye-opening reassessment of the origins of African American political power and a significant contribution to American history."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A revealing history that points to a Black Atlanta destined to be an ever more important economic and political center."
--Kirkus
"Jeffrey Ogbar has crafted a first-rate work of historical consciousness-raising. America's Black Capital is a stirring testament to the generations of Black Atlantans who, from the ashes of the Confederacy, raised a bastion of Black political power and cultural excellence. A tremendous feat."
--Peniel Joseph, author of The Third Reconstruction
"Spectacular! America's Black Capital is a landmark in Black history. Jeffrey Ogbar provides an expert excavation of how Atlanta came to be seen as the 'Black Mecca, ' including a deftly drawn origin story for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A dazzling book."
--Gerald Horne, author of The Counter-Revolution of 1776
"Elegantly written and exhaustively researched, America's Black Capital is a brilliant chronicle of both Atlanta, the Southern city, and Atlanta, the metaphor for a segment of the American experience. Here is a saga of race, aspiration, war, ambition, and the tide of history told through the story of a single metropolis. Jeffrey Ogbar has produced a book that is every bit as vital and essential as the place he writes about."
--Jelani Cobb, coeditor of The Matter of Black Lives