Box 19, Folder 18, Document 31

Box 19, Folder 18, Document 31

VOICE OF EXPERIENCE



Mayor Allen Explains Why He
Spoke On Civil Rights Bill,

“We cannot dodge this is-
sue... We must take action
now to assure a greater fu-
ture for our citizens and our
country.”—Mayor Ivan Allen,
before the U.S. Senate Com-

_mittee on Commerce.

NOT EVEN considering its con-
siderable political implica-

tions, Mayor Ivan Allen's en-
dorsement of ‘
the Kennedy
public accom-
modations leg-
islation was
one of those
sort of sur-
prise news
stories of the
highest signifi-
cance.

I was in
trigued with the question of
why he did it.

In the past, he has not sounded
off to any great public extent
on the essentials of civil rights,
sticking instead to specifics of
local situations. He was not one
of those on either side with
stock reactions easily predicta-
ble. His credentials in the blue-
chip community of business
(whose freedoms are supposed
to be so threatened by the legis-
lation) are well known.

INFLUENCE

And his stand flew in the face
of a unanimity of virtually all
the rest of the state's political
leadership against’ the legisla-
tion.

(The importance of all these
factors on the influence of his
stand in the climate of public



By PAT WATTERS

opinion shouldn’t be overlooked.
As a leadership and prestige
influence, they say to people
puzzled and troubled over the
measure that it is possible to
be for the historical impera-
tives and morality involved with-
out being hounded as a hope-
less idealist or Communist or
something.)

He didn’t have to speak out.
His stand was bound not to sit
well with some. I finally went
over and asked him why he
did it.

In effect, he said he did be-

eause he was qualified to. No
other political officials in
America, he pointed out, have
had to face full-blast the prac-
tical job of the civil rights
revolution as have city officials
like himself. (And not all city
officials either, he said—which
is true over most of Georgia.)
_ He is convinced from such ex-
perience, he said, that it is high
time, nine years after the
school ruling, that the federal
government help out with the
problems created by the man-
dates of the federal courts, This,
he said, is the “biggest social
problem in my lifetime,” and
Congress needs to act as it fi-
nally had to in comparable social
upheavals of the past. He listed
as comparable child labor,
women’s suffrage and the labor
struggle. |

“The country’s in the biggest
mess it's ever been in, and Con-
gress has not taken a single
step to help clarify things .. .
Congress can’t expect local gov-

ernments to handle as difficult
a problem as this . . . with no
help, no definitions, no support.
It’s been damn unfair.”

He cited ten recent desegrega-
tion steps Atlanta has made as
an. example., (These were listed
in his statement to the commit-
tee, along with, incidentally, an
assessment of our achievements
and sstill-serious shortcomings
better than any I've ever seen,
\a portrayal of Atlanta to the
nation and world more honor-
able and in the real sénse more
favorable than any in some
years. )

IN MIDDLE

In most of those ten steps,
Mayor Allen pointed out, he was
caught in the middle—working
for “logical agreements.” His
point was that so much of it
shouldn’t be on a mayor and
city officials, and that often to
the hurt of a city and the na-
tion, officials duck out of such
responsibility. ‘You never please
many with any decision” in the
situation, he said.

His decision to speak, then,
and what he said came out of
the pragmatic knowledge of first-
hand experience such as few
in America have of a situation
about which many have opin-
ions. As such, what he said was
significant. His decision to say
it may be even more important
at this crucial midpoint in his
first political office—for what it
says of his character and his
concept of his responsibility.
Out of such decisions come
important leaders,