It was their blood-soaked inheritance from long-free labor. There is a cause-and-effect link between Freaknik, segregation, Civil Rights, and the history of Atlanta. The next generation of the civil rights movement wanted FREAKNIK. Instead, they got blasted by regentrification’s sabotage and distortion “smoking gun”.

Any correct understanding of FREAKNIK requires understanding Atlanta in terms of race, elitism, and politics. It is a subplot to a complicated, otherwise alarming, fascinating, and shameful story. What began for Atlanta University students to be a way to make the best of being stranded in town over spring break. A 1970s free picnic party in a neighborhood park in the community. After that, a different group of students each year after year, adding to what became the popular, much-anticipated Freaknic into the beginning of 1990. 1994 it became a much bigger thing: “FREAKNIK,” a phenomenon that only happens in America. That transformation, while impressive, portended a threat to long-established politically and culturally colonial institutions in Atlanta and more excellent Georgia. The blowback is ominous.