Arrington, Sr. The race was known for its emphasis on the racial overtones often not publicly seen in the African-American community, with Campbell being the lighter-skinned candidate and Arrington the darker complexioned.
His term was from January to January Campbell would later be criticised for deploying anti-Black racist messaging in an attempt to deflect criticism of his record as mayor. Campbell was succeeded by Shirley Franklin. Following his tenure as mayor, he moved to Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, where he worked as a practising attorney. He was disbarred by order of the Supreme Court of Florida as a result of his tax evasion conviction. Scathing reports from both the U.
Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs revealed corruption, waste, bureaucratic incompetence, and specifically called out interference by mayor Campbell. The charges came from a five-year federal investigation into possible corruption during his time as Mayor of Atlanta. Campbell was later acquitted on all charges relating to the indictments; although on March 10, , a federal jury convicted him on three counts of tax evasion. He was sentenced by U.
District Court Judge Richard Story to 30 months in prison for the three counts on tax evasion. Campbell was released from prison in February after receiving a shortened sentence by enrolling in a drug treatment program. This came just a short time after he told a federal judge that he was not struggling with a substance abuse problem. Campbell submitted such proof. Campbell statements to the judge wasn't used to determine whether or not he could enter the program.
After leaving prison he lived in a halfway house until October 21, Sticky Facts. What is Bill Campbell's full name? William Craig Campbell. Where was Bill Campbell born? Not surprisingly, he won his own support. Bucharest is in Romania. White, black, male, female, gay, straight—every constituency had one or more dubious riders on this runaway train.
Fortunately for Atlanta, there were still a few bright spots. Jackson, had just been returned to office after an eight-year absence, and he was doing his best to keep the locomotive from flying off the tracks. A few city council members also seemed flabbergasted by it all. Department of Justice before being elected.
Over the next five years, I made my journalistic career shooting fish in a barrel of dirty politics—with Campbell, elected mayor in and then reelected in , at times quietly encouraging me. Meanwhile the city was crumbling: During a raging thunderstorm in , after years of warnings and never-funded plans to address them, a decrepit sewer line under a hotel parking lot near Georgia Tech collapsed into a foot-deep sinkhole—sucking two hotel workers into the earth with it.
They drowned in a raging torrent of mud; one body, packed with silt, was found near a sewer system outlet two miles downstream. By the end of , six people, including Ira Jackson, one of the first black politicians to win any office in Atlanta, and D. Arrington said the money was for tickets to his annual birthday party, and presented documentation he had deposited the money into a campaign account. Accepting the conventional wisdom, I did my best to nail him, running down claims and curious threads everywhere in the gorgeous neo-Gothic corridors of City Hall.
The threads never led to Jackson, though. He made mistakes—especially by appointing some people who abused his trust. But personally he was as clean as politicians come. When the big corruption cases began surfacing, he let the cards fall—even when people he had once had great faith in were clearly going to be crushed.
He was a sterling individual. He had always been a bit caustic and often unbearably arrogant. Even as a councilman, he would erupt over perceived slights. Early in the mayoral race, he called me in a rage over a brief in the AJC. But Campbell was also smart, driven, and, it seemed, ethically clean. Over and over again, Campbell had opposed the interests of companies involved in payoffs.
Campbell won the election and became mayor in He was a good one—at least initially. During his first term, his cabinet was eclectic, racially diverse, and, for the most part, highly effective. Campbell passed a major bond issue to pay for infrastructure improvements leading up to the Olympics. Most striking was what happened with crime. Campbell campaigned on a promise of community policing and huge numbers of new officers. He fell short on the hiring goals. No one can prove exactly what causes these things to change, but violent crime rates reversed and continued falling throughout his tenure.
He could charm little old white ladies and business owners on the Northside when he wanted to. Could he be the post—civil rights movement black politician who would leverage the economic rebirth of Atlanta, build a bridge to white voters, and become a U.
Or more? And Atlanta felt like the place where that figure could—and should—rise. Everyone has demons, of course. In public he was a ramrod: no alcohol, beaming smiles, perfect in every picture. Then there was Freaknik, the black student street party that swelled into a massive, raucous event in the mids.
It brought gridlock, mayhem, and lewd displays for some city residents—and a very good time for a lot of others. Initially Campbell and his police leadership worked with students to clean up the event.
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