The Community Relations Commission
August 3, 1966: A resolution by the Mayor and Board of Aldermen calling for the formation of a committee to investigate and facilitate change in underserved areas of Atlanta. This committee, the Council on Human Relations, would become the Community Relations Comission in 1967.
Highlight: "Whereas, investigation and survey of various areas of the City of Atlanta show that many of said areas are substandard and lacking in certain essential features..."
April 8, 1967: Minutes of a meeting of the Georiga State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Highlight: "There is de-facto segregation in new housing."
April 9, 1967: New York Times article on the founding of an organization similar to the Community Relations Commission in New York City.
Highlight: "Acting early to keep the city's summer a 'cool' one, Mayor Lindsay yesterday appointed a Summer Task Force of top city officials to coordinate recreation and community development programs in depressed neighborhoods."
April 24, 1967: Article from the Atlanta Journal Constitution about the founding of the Community Relations Commission.
Highlight: "...has made a fast start in its work to further communications across the city and in effect bring democratic processes into fuller use by those who have been largely beyond them."
May 1967: A five-page set of documents relating to Ku Klux Klan activity in Atlanta, including a letter dated May 15, 1967 concerning the route of an upcoming KKK parade and a letter from the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan addressed to the "Citizens of Atlanta" about the Community Relations Commission.
Highlight: "You can help the United Klan of American in our fight to abolish the CRC..."
"The account of an encounter with the City of Atlanta police" given to the Community Relations Commission about an arrest on May 2, 1967.
Highlight: "I began yelling, 'Help! I don't know who these two guys are. Somebody help me!"
May 11, 1967: Letter from Executive Director of Community Relations Committee to the manager of the Hoffbrau Restaurant regarding refusal to serve black customers.
Highlight: "It has been reported to this office that several Negroes who went to your restaurant last week was denied service because of race."
May 15, 1967: "Case of Robert Lee Baynes," a statement provided by Baynes to the Community Relations Commission on his arrest, imprisonment, and mistreatment by Atlanta police.
Highlight: "When I got to Grady again the Doctor told me that I would die if I didn't get some food. He gave me a shot...They carried me back to jail."
Statement given to the Community Relations Commission by a medic who witnessed police beating a suspect in need of medical treatment during an incident on May 20, 1967.
Highlight: "I tried to pick him up and put him on the stretcher, no one would help me."
June 13, 1967: Report on a "police incident" given to the Community Relations Commission.
Highlight: "...all five beat and kicked me."
Staff report by the Community Relations Commission on discriminatory housing practices in trailer parks in the city of Atlanta.
Highlight: "In conclusion, we can simply say that presently, there is no Negro living in any trailer park in Atlanta."
June 19, 1967: "Minutes of the Community Relations Commission Hearing in the Dixie Hills Area" describing the range of concerns within the community following recent riots including the need for expanded youth recreation, economic and housing discrimination, inequity in city services and infrastructure, and police brutality. Residents are also asked their opinion of Stokely Carmichael, the president of SNCC who was arrested following the Summerhill riots in September 1966.
Highlight: "He thought that this thing would come about eventually, even if Mr. Carmichael did not come into the area."
July 12, 1967: "Report on Dixie Hills Episode" by Community Relations Commission concerning events in Dixie Hills area from April to July, including riots and police shootings in June.
Highlight: "The policeman pulled out his pistol and shot the boy."
October 1967: Community Relations Commission Staff Report on discriminatory policing incident, police brutality, and community response in Vine City.
Highlight: "The policemen forced people off the streets, out of their yards, off of their porches and into their homes by threatening to arrest them."