Donnie Summerlin – Page 28

Atlanta mayor Ivan Allen Jr. was born on this day in 1911. In honor of the 100th anniversary of his birth, we highlight a few of the primary resources found in the Digital Library of Georgia related to Allen and the life he devoted to Georgia’s capital city throughout most of the twentieth century.

Ivan Allen Jr. was born on March 15th 1911 in Atlanta to parents Ivan Allen Sr. and Irene Beaumont Allen. Below is his birth announcement from the March 16th issue of the Atlanta Georgian which can be found in the Atlanta Historic Newspapers Archive. During the first half of the twentieth century, his father was a prominent businessman in Atlanta and after he graduated from Georgia Tech, young Ivan joined the family business. He eventually took over the Ivan Allen Company upon his father’s retirement in 1946. His influence in the city’s business community grew and in 1960 he was elected president of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.

In 1961, Ivan Allen Jr. ran for the open mayoral position in Atlanta and won the office over future governor Lester Maddox. The political cartoon to the right (from Richard B. Russell Library’s Baldy Collection) depicts the first of many political battles the two would wage in Atlanta. The division between Allen and Maddox throughout most of the decade was representative of the split in the Democratic Party in the South during the 1960s.

Atlanta experienced a period of great economic and infrastructural growth during Allen’s two terms as mayor. Under his leadership, over fifty new buildings were added downtown, interstate highways were introduced, the Hartsfield International Airport was expanded, and 22,000 new jobs were added to the city’s workforce each year. Allen also oversaw the construction of what came to be known as Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium (below) and in 1965 he coaxed the Milwaukee Braves into moving to Atlanta to play there. The Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta Hawks were also established in the city during his tenure as mayor.

Ivan Allen Jr. was well known for his progressive stance in regard to civil rights in Atlanta. As president of the city’s Chamber of Commerce, before becoming mayor, he worked with the city’s business leaders to desegregate lunch counters. Upon taking office, he embraced former mayor William B. Hartsfield’s lead in promoting Atlanta as “the City Too Busy to Hate.” During his first year as mayor, he desegregated City Hall and removed racial barriers in the city’s police and fire departments. In 1963, he was the only southern elected leader to support the public accommodations section of what would become the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and he testified before Congress to convey that support. Allen was also an ardent supporter of the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and had the unfortunate duty of notify Coretta Scott King of her husband’s assassination in 1968. Below is a video from the Civil Rights Digital Library of Allen escorting Mrs. King to the airport after she received the news.

Allen stepped down as mayor in 1970 after serving two terms, but continued his work as an advocate for the city of Atlanta until his death on July 2, 2003. To learn more about Ivan Allen Jr., take a look at his article in the New Georgia Encyclopedia. He also wrote an autobiography in 1971 called Mayor: Notes on the Sixties about his experiences as the mayor of Atlanta during one of the nation’s most turbulent decades.

You will find every single American president somewhere in the Digital Library of Georgia, whether it be in the newspaper archives, the Georgia Government Publications site, or the Vanishing Georgia Collection. Below we present just a few presidential items you might come across in your digital library adventures.

To the right is an image of a speech given by John Quincy Adams on May 25, 1836. The speech was given during his stint as a U.S. representative from Massachusetts after his one term as president. He is the only American president to return to Congress after serving in the highest office in the country. In the speech, he addresses a resolution to provide aid to citizens of Georgia and Alabama who were displaced by Native American “hostilities.” He states his intention to vote for the bill, but also scolds those who were responsible for inciting the violence through their cruel treatment of the Native Americans. The seven page speech is part of the Southeastern Native American Documents Collection. If you click on the image to the right, it will redirect you to the collection, where the full text of the speech is available in image and transcribed form.

To the left is an image of Calvin Coolidge’s obituary from the January 12th, 1933 issue of the Calhoun Times. As Warren Harding’s vice-president, Coolidge ascended to the presidency following Harding’s death and served in the office from 1923 to 1929. At the time of his death, Coolidge was the only living former president. The obituary is part of the Gordon County, Georgia Obituaries collection. The obituaries in the collection were collected and pasted on index cards and have been digitized in conjunction with the Calhoun-Gordon County Public Library. The collection is comprised of over 46,000 clippings and includes obituaries from local citizens and Georgians of national prominence, including Eugene Talmadge and Margaret Mitchell.

On the right is an image of Dwight D. Eisenhower playing golf at the Glen Arven Country Club in Thomasville, Georgia, during his presidency in early 1956. Ike was an avid golfer and frequented the most prestigious golf courses in the Georgia. There is even a cabin at the Augusta National Golf Club bearing his name. The cabin was built specifically for the president to accommodate his frequent visits. The image is from the Vanishing Georgia Collection.

The political cartoon to the left depicts candidates in the 1976 presidential election as beauty pageant contestants. The candidates from left to right are George Wallace, Jimmy Carter, Henry “Scoop” Jackson, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan. Carter eventually defeated Ford in the general election and Reagan would have his chance four years later. The cartoon is from the Baldy Editorial Cartoons Collection in the Richard B. Russell Library.

Author: Donnie Summerlin

Ivan Allen Jr.

American Presidents