An Idealist Black Man's Blues

The first Black Lives Matter (BLM) activist to lead an American city, Mayor Khalid Kamau took over South Fulton, an Atlanta suburb, in 2021 with socialist dreams for “the most African-American city” in the US. Three years and many disappointments later, the activist who wanted to change his country is considering leaving, saddened by the American empire’s decline.

Khalid Kamau receives Le Devoir in a posh French-inspired neighborhood in South Fulton, such as Versailles Drive or Montclaire Estates. The brick house that greets us is worth millions. “It belongs to a friend,” Khalid Kamau says as he takes us in without a fuss, a hooded jacket on his back despite the heat and furnace.

The exceptional 48-year-old mayor utilizes the double lowercase in his name to symbolize “the primacy of the community over the individual, in keeping with the African Yoruba tradition.” This sumptuous setting contrasts with his socialist stance.

After taking power, he moved into the royal-sounding Camelot Condominiums in South Fulton. After years of crime, drugs, and poverty, Camelot was ignored by previous administrations until the new mayor became a neighbor to its impoverished residents.

Ten months of adventure. Khalid Kamau says, “It wasn’t the murders or the rats that made me leave.” The mold was affecting my lungs more and more. A local newspaper analysis found 15 killings in the complex since 2019. The playground had empty alcohol bottles and used syringes when Le Devoir went in late March, despite the mayor’s attention to Camelot. The parking lot had a rotting cat.

Powerful Black Lives Matter

Khalid Kamau, of the most militant and committed activism, gained office in 2021 to move his hometown left. The program that elected this Bernie Sanders clone promised affordable housing, higher pay, shorter work weeks, and a city government publicly dedicated to emancipating its African-American majority.

Khalid Kamau believes South Fulton, a largely African-American city of 112,000, was “if there was ever a place where a platform inspired by the ideals of Black Lives Matter had a chance to take root, it was here”. Using the slogan “Black On Purpose,” he won the mayoral election with approximately 60% of the vote, despite only 14% of the electorate voting.

After 8% of the voting-age people supported him, the guy who entered politics to bring about the changes he had been demanding since the streets did not relent. Before becoming a councilor and mayor, Khalid Kamau protested police brutality and rights deterioration all the way to Atlanta City Hall.

South Fulton Little Socialist Revolution

South Fulton saw a tiny revolution after his election. City workers earned $15, then $20 an hour, over four times Georgia’s $5.15 minimum wage. To establish community parks, South Fulton bought more private developer land.

”A developer wanted to build cheap townhouses that would devalue nearby properties. The mayor said we bought the land he wanted to develop a park that would boost the area’s value. Socialism involves a community pooling its resources to better its quality of life.

Malcolm X, a significant thinker in the mayor’s career, advocated for “liberation of the land”—a region by and for blacks in the US.

The mayor wants South Fulton to lead a London-to-Cape Town market by taking advantage of Atlanta’s world-busiest airport.

“We want to establish a reverse triangular trade to circulate dollars and products among the black diaspora scattered across Europe, Africa and America,” Khalid says. Taking economic revenge on “where slaves were trafficked a few centuries ago.”

The mayor handcuffed

The mayor’s enthusiasm has waned after three years in office and legal issues. Khalid Kamau says “they have been fighting tooth and nail to block our reforms ever since,” including legal attempts to remove him from city hall. Six of the seven city councilors campaigned against his victory in the last election.

Councillor Natasha Williams-Brown said the mayor has never understood activism and governance. He uses his office to advance his agenda and mocks local democracy. Thus, he utilizes totalitarian methods and has done little for the city.”

The mayor-council split in July 2022. According to Williams-Brown, the mayor gathered his people for a heated meeting that necessitated police involvement. It compromised our physical safety. It was clear we couldn’t bargain with him.”

The July 2023 headlines showing Khalid Kamau in custody did not improve City Hall’s mood. Accused of breaking into a South Fulton home a year ago, the mayor faces charges. He claims the residence was “abandoned” and denies guilt prior to trial.

According to him, “systematic” obstruction of the council by “people who derive their wealth from their proximity to the white power circles of Atlanta” disproves politics’ potential to change society.

“It’s been a very frustrating experience being mayor,” says he. “I’m constantly banging my head against the status quo for $40,000 a year, a salary that’s barely enough to afford an apartment, much less a house.” In capitalism, money still rules, he concludes.

No idea if I’ll run again. Wealth influences politics in this country, therefore I might have more impact as a millionaire than mayor.”

The Jim Crow era

The right-leaning American Supreme Court’s attacks on abortion rights, voting accessibility, and university affirmative action deter him from redeeming his country.

Khalid Kamau says, “In a slowly warming bath, you end up boiling alive.” Many thousands of Confederate monuments in the US honor a war that enslaved my people. States interfere in history schools to make the Civil War truth illegal because it polarizes and shames white youngsters. They should be ashamed of their forebears, not their race.”

He was among the first African-Americans born with “the right to vote, the right to eat in the same cafeteria as white people and the recognition of their human dignity.” His Birmingham, Alabama-born father, an accountant, witnessed white nationalist reactionaries burning black churches. His mother, a nurse, was excluded from public libraries. Donald Trump worries that his country is drifting “little by little into a new Jim Crow era” and increasingly believes that black people may be better off overseas.

“I have friends who moved to Africa and their only regret is not having left this country sooner,” says he. It rejects us after we built it. Today, I question if America is worth fighting for.”

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