Dublin Core
Title
Box 7, Folder 18, Document 18
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From The Atlanta Journal Monday, April 24, 1967
The New Commission
ATLANTA'S new and official Conimunity Re-
lations Commission has made a fast start
in its work to further communications across
the city and in effect bring democratic proc-
esses into fuller use by those who have been
largely beyond them.
The commission was created by the mayor
and Board of Aldermen last November. Its
20 members, representing a wide range of
community leadership, were appointed in De-
cember. In January the commission chose as
executive director Mrs. Eliza Paschall, a
respected veteran of human relations work
whose familiarity with the immediate prob-
lems before the commission is deep and of
long standing.
The commission, despite the small size
of its financial resources, has moved im-
mediately (though cautiously and with cir-
cumspection) into some of our most pressing
problems. It consequently will annoy some of
those who would rather not look at those
problems at all, or who feel that they are
the special property of standing bureaucracy.
We are especially impressed by the out-
come of the first hearings held by the com-
mission in the slum areas. Through this open-
ing of channels and this offering of a forum
to people whose views otherwise might not
be heard in the counsels of city government,
the commission has increased the contact be-
tween city government and a very large part
of the population of the city.
Already there is the kind of feedback that
is badly needed. What the people in Vine City
are thinking about recreational needs there,
what the people of the Pittsburgh area need in
the way of police protection, what Summer-
hill’s people have to say about housing condi-
tions—these are important feedbacks from the
commission’s work so far.
The commission also has a role to play,
and is beginning to play it, in areas that have
been in racial transition residentially and
need a stabilizing ‘influence.
We think the commission is off to a good
start. It deserves strong support from the
Board of Aldermen and the city at large.
The New Commission
ATLANTA'S new and official Conimunity Re-
lations Commission has made a fast start
in its work to further communications across
the city and in effect bring democratic proc-
esses into fuller use by those who have been
largely beyond them.
The commission was created by the mayor
and Board of Aldermen last November. Its
20 members, representing a wide range of
community leadership, were appointed in De-
cember. In January the commission chose as
executive director Mrs. Eliza Paschall, a
respected veteran of human relations work
whose familiarity with the immediate prob-
lems before the commission is deep and of
long standing.
The commission, despite the small size
of its financial resources, has moved im-
mediately (though cautiously and with cir-
cumspection) into some of our most pressing
problems. It consequently will annoy some of
those who would rather not look at those
problems at all, or who feel that they are
the special property of standing bureaucracy.
We are especially impressed by the out-
come of the first hearings held by the com-
mission in the slum areas. Through this open-
ing of channels and this offering of a forum
to people whose views otherwise might not
be heard in the counsels of city government,
the commission has increased the contact be-
tween city government and a very large part
of the population of the city.
Already there is the kind of feedback that
is badly needed. What the people in Vine City
are thinking about recreational needs there,
what the people of the Pittsburgh area need in
the way of police protection, what Summer-
hill’s people have to say about housing condi-
tions—these are important feedbacks from the
commission’s work so far.
The commission also has a role to play,
and is beginning to play it, in areas that have
been in racial transition residentially and
need a stabilizing ‘influence.
We think the commission is off to a good
start. It deserves strong support from the
Board of Aldermen and the city at large.
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