In his private racism and paternalism, Hartsfield simply echoed the attitudes of his business allies. As Floyd Hunter found in his study of Atlanta’s “power structure,” many businessmen who appeared racially progressive in public were decidedly less so in private. “I’m a true friend of the Negro,” one man told him, “and will be, as long as he keeps his place.” Like the mayor, many of these businessmen adopted a public image of racial moderation that was strongly at odds with their personal racism.
