The Man Too Busy to Hate
The Man Too Busy to Hate
van Allen
Jr. was born in 1911 in a house on Atlanta's fashionable West Peachtree
Street, delivered by a black midwife because the white doctor did not
arrive in time. The delivery was to have a dramatic impact later when,
as mayor of Atlanta in the 1960s, Allen led the city through a period of
racial adjustment.
As Atlanta's mayor, Allen was debating whether to cross racial boundaries by attending a black Community Chest fund-raiser. He decided to go, and the atmosphere was tense. Suddenly, to his surprise, a black woman wrapped her arms about him in a huge hug and cried, "This is my baby!" Allen was being embraced by a woman he hadn't seen in years--the midwife who had delivered him. The tension vanished and Allen knew he had made the right decision for himself and for Atlanta.
Allen's plan for Atlanta's economic growth and cultural development helped spur one of the nation's great success stories. Under his leadership, Atlanta's civil rights movement was successful--while other Southern cities exploded with racial tension--helping Atlanta earn the sobriquet: "the city too busy to hate."
His father, Ivan Allen Sr., was an office machinery salesman who founded the Ivan Allen-Marshall Co., Atlanta's landmark office furniture chain. Allen Sr. was a Georgia state senator in the 1920s and active in the Rotary Club, the Chamber of Commerce and the Boy Scouts.
Allen followed his father's footsteps in the family business and is chairman of the Ivan Allen Co. He married Louise Richardson of Atlanta in 1936. Their son, Ivan Allen III, currently directs the firm.
"My father always said to get involved in civic affairs, and so I did," says Allen, whose days at Tech were early indicators of his political talents. President of the student council and the SAE fraternity, he was also elected to membership in the honorary fraternities Phi Kappa Phi, ANAK, Omicron Delta Kappa, Theta Nu Epsilon and Beta Gamma Sigma. He played on the freshman basketball team and graduated among the top five in his class.
Allen remained active with Georgia Tech and later became president of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association. He has received both the Georgia Tech Alumni Distinguished Service Award and the Exceptional Achievement Award.
n the shelves of
his downtown office, the 79-year-old Allen has several scrapbooks filled
with news clippings which document some of the highlights of his
political life. They go back to his college days.
"I was in the old School of Commerce when the Board of Regents decided to move it to the University of Georgia back in the '30s, and we had 450 students marching in protest!" recalls Allen, who graduated with a commerce degree in 1933. "It caused quite a stir back then."
A scrapbook is open to the front- page photo of the event from an old Atlanta Georgian. "That was only the beginning of student protests," he adds.
Allen partially credits good preparation in commerce and business administration at Tech for his later success in business and politics. "Georgia Tech has had a tremendous impact on the city of Atlanta and on the whole economy of the South," he says. "I can remember staying close to Tech alumni for years, and not just the people from my class of '33, but from other years. The rapid technological change we've seen over the last 30 years and the explosive growth of jobs in Atlanta have been beyond any of our wildest dreams. They were heavily influenced by Georgia Tech graduates on all levels."
As mayor of Atlanta from 1962-70, Allen spearheaded major change in the city and was forced to respond to other changes beyond his control. As president of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, he wrote a "six-point plan" for development of the city including urban renewal, schools, modernization of transportation facilities, the construction of a public transit system, the building of an auditorium and a coliseum, and a "Forward Atlanta" campaign aimed at promoting the city to the rest of the country.
It was Allen's diplomacy in getting city business leaders to talk to black students staging sit-ins at Rich's that led to his city-wide popularity and election as mayor. His active dialogues with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. kept Atlanta together during those tumultuous times, and his good business approach to improving race relations unified opposing extremes where others had failed.
llen helped make
Atlanta a major-league city with the arrival of the Atlanta Braves, and
he was instrumental in promoting the development of the MARTA system,
the growth of Hartsfield Airport, and the rebuilding of the Atlanta arts
community after the tragic Air France accident that killed 106 of the
city's cultural leaders overseas.
Allen's name has become a permanent part of Georgia Tech in the newly formed Ivan Allen College of Management, Policy and International Affairs. "I'm very honored to have the new college named for me," says Allen. "It's building toward the future and has lots of potential.
"Atlanta has been very lucky to have Georgia Tech located right here," Allen adds.
"Her alumni have in may ways dominated the business community here, and the city and the institute really have grown up together. My generation helped to bump Atlanta up to a new level of growth, and I guess yours will see her into the future."