The Atlanta Youth Murders and the Politics of Race (Elmer H Johnson & Carol Holmes Johnson Series in Criminology) - Hardcover

Headley, Professor Bernard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0809322145 ISBN 13: 9780809322145

Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press, 1999

Synopsis

At least twenty-nine black children and young adults were murdered by an Atlanta serial killer between the summer of 1979 and the spring of 1981. Drawing national media attention, the Atlanta tragedy,” as it became known, was immediately labeled a hate crime. However, when a young black man was arrested and convicted for the killings, public attention quickly shifted. Noted criminologist Bernard Headley was in Atlanta as the tragedy unfolded and provides here a thoughtful exploration of the social and political implications of the case both locally and nationally. Focusing on a singular historical event, Headley exposes broader tensions of race and class in contemporary America.

About this title

About the Author:

Bernard Headley is a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago.  A former Senior Fulbright Scholar, Caribbean Regional Lecturing Program, he is the author of The Jamaican Crime Scene: A Perspective.

Review:

In a careful and poignant narrative analysis, [Headley] asks what conjunction of social forces produced twenty-nine murders of impoverished black children during the administration of a black mayor in the South’s most progressive and corporately successful city.  He links Atlanta’s rise to the unraveling of the core city and the ghettoization of violent crime.  A riveting narrative reveals a city of white business royals, black civic princes, and a surplus of black workers and their expendable children.” Renny Golden, author of Disposable Children

Bernard Headley has produced a solid piece of work about an important historical event which has wider and more profound implications concerning race and class in the United States. . . .  In my judgment, his explication of the roles of race and class in Atlanta (and by implication the United States) is exactly accurate.” Richard Allen Morton, Clark Atlanta University

About this edition

• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0809322145
• ISBN 13: 9780809322145
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272