Back from Atlanta

It was a good weekend in the New South's most gleaming gem, Atlanta, Georgia. I have spent a great deal of time in Atlanta in the last decade or so. Between research trips, conferences, and the fact that four of my very good friends have found themselves there for different reasons, I find myself navigating hartfield airport and the I85/I75/I20 interchange a couple of times a year or so on average.

The main reason for this trip was this year's Association for the Study of African-American Life and History (ASALH) meeting at the Hilton Atlanta (because apparently "Atlanta Hilton" would not be pretentious enough). I gave a paper on a panel on the Congress of racial Equality (CORE) put together by a very sharp young historian who wants to use the papers in our panel as a springboard to putting together a book on CORE. Given that August Meier and Elliot Rudwick's landmark study appeared more than thre decades ago, we think it is time that new directions in CORE scholarhsip begin to emerge. We received great feedback from our papers from the panel chair and met for a while afterward to discuss the potential book project. I also had a very fruitful meeting with a press about my next book project, so all in all it was a productive weekend.

Even better than the conference was catching up with old friends. Tootle now makes his home in Atlanta and I was able to spend a couple of evenings catching up with him. I stayed in Decatur with another of my best friends, Dave, with whom I became close when I lived in South Africa back in 1997. He is a Canadian and one of the smartest people I ahve ever known. Over the years he and I have engaged in much debauchery, but I guess we've grown up at least a bit now, as the debauchery this weekend was usually done before the small hours of the morning. Finally, I was able to catch up with a former college teammate and another dear friend, Stuart, aka Boogie, who runs his familiy's business at the airport. We reminisced about glory days and just caught up. My only regret is not being able to get together with greg, a college classmate who is knee deep in babies and suburban living.

I had come to the decision some time ago that I would avoid the AHA meeting each year unless I either was interviewing or conducting interviews, but it is being held in Atlanta this year, and so even if I have no need to go, I might just make the trip anyway and break my rule.