City in a city: the 63,000 people who run the world's busiest airport

Georgia’s biggest employer is not CNN or Coca-Cola – it is Hartsfield-Jackson airport, which since the 1970s has grown into a unique economic ecosystem

Portraits by Bita Honarvar

When Maynard Jackson introduced affirmative action as mayor of Atlanta in 1973, it “constituted a political revolution in the heart of the south”, according to his 2003 obituary in the New York Times. “Seemingly overnight, it transformed Atlanta into a mecca for talented, aspiring blacks from across the country.”

The centerpiece of his policy? Hartsfield-Jackson airport, at the time a relatively sleepy domestic hub.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2EL0ibA

Comments