GA (especially Atlanta) has never quite had as bad race relations as the other Southern states.
This is false
First of all : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_United_States_presidential_election_in_Georgia
GA also had one of the strictest Jim Crow laws out their and Talmadge was worse than anybody in MS or AL.
Also the Atlanta suburbs were very Republican in the 1990s, it was the fact that Dems still did very well in rural GA in statewide races that saved them while in other states Dems had already collapsed in Rural areas in statewide election by the mid 90s.
Alabama literally had George Wallace.
You responded with a simplistic anecdote (shocker) to what was clearly a more nuanced and deeper point.