Box 20, Folder 1, Document 2

Box 20, Folder 1, Document 2

Decatur, Area Mayors _
Blast Allen On ‘Rights’ —

Decatur Mayor Jack Hamilton says Atlanta Mayor Ivan
‘Allen was not “speaking for a metropolitan city of 1,000,000”
when he told a’senate committee the other day that “his

people” favor

the public accommodations section of Presi-

dent Kennedy’s proposed civil rights legislation.

Other mayors. of the area com-
monly referred ito as Metropolitan
Atlanta, for which officials of ithe
City of Atlanta often purport to
speak, agree with Mayor Hamilton
that Mr, Allen was off base.

The population of Atlanta
proper is 504,000,

In. a_ statement
Mayor Hamilton, who is the Fifth
District director of the Georgia
Municipal Association, said Mayor
Allen’s testimony at the senate
hearing was ‘-ill timed and un-
fortunate,

“If Mayor Allen was going to
speak for ‘the metropolitan area
of a million or more, which in-
cludes Decatur, it would have been
well tto have checked with all of
vthe municipalities before presum-
ing on, their position,” he said.

‘Think He’s Nuts

Other DeKalb mayors who were

asked by The New Era to com-

ment disagreed with the Atlanta)

executive to @ man.
“Ivan Allen is nuts,” snorted

—

Wednesday,



one DeKalb mayor. ;

“Mayor Allen. was .speaking
representative of a minority group
in ‘the City of Atlanta. His state-
ment definitely does not represent
the sentiment of the metro area,”
commented Mayor Ois Stephens of
Fast Point, :

Not For Hapeville

“Yes, Mr. Allen was speaking
for one or ‘two of our people, but
we have 11,000 others whom he





.

did not speak for,” said Mayor
Frank E. Coggin of Hapeville.
Mayor Coggin is also a state sena-
tor from Fulton County. an
Mayor Hamilton said he ¢ ht
Governor. Carl Sanders, who fol-
lowed Mayor Allen before’ the
senate committee, “adequately 're-
futed” the Atlanta official’s testi-
mony on ‘the civil rights issue,’
Mayor Harvey Armistead. of
Clarkston ‘commented: | “Mavyor
Allen may have ibeen speaking for
the 40,000 Negro bloc vote iin his
own itown, ‘but -he certainly wasn't
speaking for Clarkston or ‘the rest
of the metropolitan area.” —
Mayor Hamilton said the area
mayors were especially displeased
at Mayor Allen because he attend:
eda luncheon of itheir group only
one day before giving his testi-
mony fin Washington. :
“He talked about everything
else but civil rights during the
luncheon. We had no idea he was
planning to represent himself as
our spokesman,” said ‘the Decatur
executive.

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