What did Ivan Allen do in the 1960s?
Ivan Allen Jr. Ivan Earnest Allen Jr. (March 15, 1911 – July 2, 2003), was an American businessman who served two terms as the 52nd Mayor of Atlanta, during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Allen provided pivotal leadership for transforming the segregated and economically stagnant Old South into the progressive New South.
What did Ivan Allen do as mayor of Atlanta?
Ivan Allen Jr. served as mayor of Atlanta from 1962 to 1970. He is credited with leading the city through an era of significant physical and economic growth and with maintaining calm during the civil rights movement.
How did Ivan Allen change Atlanta?
Allen took the helm of the Ivan Allen Company, his father's office supply business, in 1946 and within three years had the company bringing in annual revenues of several millions of dollars. In 1961, he authored a white paper for revitalizing Atlanta.
What did Marcus Allen do for the Civil Rights Movement?
(March 15, 1911 – July 2, 2003), was an American businessman who served two terms as the 52nd Mayor of Atlanta, during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Allen provided pivotal leadership for transforming the segregated and economically stagnant Old South into the progressive New South.
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Was Ivan Allen Jr black?
He was the only white southern politician of significance to do so. After his testimony, Allen and his family were under death threats and required police protection for a year.
What has Ivan Allen Jr done in his life?
A man of extraordinary courage, Ivan Allen Jr. (1911-2003) was a pivotal leader in the struggle to establish civil rights for African-Americans. As Mayor of Atlanta in the 1960s, Allen risked his life and political future to ensure the enactment of America's civil rights legislation.
Who brought professional sports teams to Atlanta?
Mayor Allen played a pivotal role in bringing several sports teams to Atlanta, but his impact reached beyond the playing field. Mayor Allen guided the city through the turbulent 1960s, and his political leadership helped to transform Atlanta into a progressive metropolis and international city. Ivan Allen Jr.
Who brought the Braves Falcons and Hawks to Atlanta?
Former Braves owner Bill Bartholomay, who brought the team and major-league sports to Atlanta in 1966, died Wednesday night at age 91.
Who was the first African American mayor of Atlanta?
Maynard JacksonJackson, Jr. Maynard Jackson was Atlanta's first African American mayor; he serve two consecutive terms (1974-1978; 1978-1982) and was elected for a third term in 1990.
Who called Atlanta the city too busy to hate?
During Allen's administration, Atlanta was dubbed "the City Too Busy To Hate." In the summer of 1966, Allen tried to live up to that image by going into the black inner city community of Summerhill to try to calm racial tension. In 1981, Coretta Scott awarded Ivan Allen, Jr.
What is the biggest sport in Atlanta?
Major league sportsClubSportLeagueAtlanta FalconsFootballNFLAtlanta HawksBasketballNBAAtlanta UnitedSoccerMLSAtlanta DreamBasketballWNBA1 more row
Who helped improve civil rights for Georgians?
Leroy Johnson. Leroy Johnson desegregated the Georgia General Assembly when he won his seat in 1962 and went on to become one of Georgia's most powerful state senators. During his tenure, Johnson revised the literacy test for voting rights, making voting more accessible to all citizens of Georgia.
Has any Atlanta team won a championship?
ATLANTA, 24 YEARS Atlanta has teams in all four big leagues, but has won few championships.
Who was responsible for bringing the amazing Braves to Atlanta?
Their years included Aaron breaking the home run record, hosting an All-Star game and Ted Turner purchasing the team in 1975. Ted Turner owned the Atlanta Braves and decided to become the team manager during a 17-game losing streak.
What sports teams did Ivan Allen Jr bring to Atlanta?
In 1966, Allen brought the Braves to Atlanta from Milwaukee and built a new, stadium for them. The year 1968 saw the Hawks basketball team arrive. Allen had managed to make his city a sports center, part of a long-time effort to enhance the city's appeal. He was always, like his father, the city booster.
Who helped Atlanta become the transportation hub of the south?
Clay's leadership brought Interstates 75, 85, and 20 through Atlanta, cementing the city's destiny as a transportation hub.
What college did Ivan Allen Jr. attend?
He was president of the Student Body and the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, to which he offered lifelong support. For many years, he hosted the annual Ivan Allen Rush Party for his fraternity in the meadow behind his home. In 1990, the liberal arts college at Georgia Tech was renamed the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.
When did Ivan Allen change his name?
Together with his father, he changed the name to the Ivan Allen Company in 1953. The company would flourish over the next four decades under his leadership and that of his late son, Ivan Allen III, becoming the region's preeminent office supplies and furniture dealer, with 17 offices across the South.
What did Allen believe about Atlanta?
However, his business pragmatism led him to become an advocate for African American rights. He believed that to flourish, Atlanta must address its racial issues. Eventually, however, Allen was deeply affected by daily, firsthand dealings he faced with racial issues, as well as the profound questions African American citizens posed to him about their humanity and the cultural system that refused to recognize them. His pragmatic support of racial integration transformed rapidly into a conviction about the moral rightness of racial equality – a belief would lead Allen to place himself at the center of a firestorm.
What was Allen Jr's plan to attract business to Atlanta?
In an effort to attract northern capital to Atlanta, Allen Sr. headed the Atlanta chamber's "Forward Atlanta" booster campaign (1926–1929), a strategy that would lure almost 700 new businesses to Atlanta and serve to influence Allen Jr.'s future as a businessman and civic leader.
What was Allen's business called?
After graduating from Georgia Tech in 1933 during the depths of the Great Depression, Allen refused offers from other companies and began his lifetime of work in the family business, which was at the time called the Ivan Allen–Marshall Company.
Where is the Ivan Allen statue?
A memorial statue of Ivan Allen Sr., Ivan Allen Jr., and Ivan Allen III was commissioned for the 1996 Olympic Games and stands in Centennial Olympic Park, adjacent to the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce headquarters. The Atlanta Braves museum and hall of fame at Turner Field is named in his honor.
Who was the mayor of Atlanta during the Civil Rights Movement?
World War II. Ivan Earnest Allen Jr. (March 15, 1911 – July 2, 2003), was an American businessman who served two terms as the 52nd mayor of Atlanta, during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Allen provided pivotal leadership for transforming the segregated and economically stagnant Old South into the progressive New South .
When did Allen say he was deeply involved in the Civil Rights Act?
Speaking about his first administration, Allen commented that “from the time I walked into City Hall in January 1962 until the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, I was deeply involved day after day and hour after hour in trying to solve the racial problems.
What was the positive change in Atlanta?
Positive change to the racial climate in Atlanta came in the Allen administration: hiring of black firemen, allowing black police to arrest whites, African American appointments to policy boards, desegregation of theaters (1962), swimming pools (1963), the city hall cafeteria (1963) and more restaurants and hotels.
Overview
Ivan Earnest Allen Jr. (March 15, 1911 – July 2, 2003), was an American businessman who served two terms as the 52nd mayor of Atlanta, during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Allen provided pivotal leadership for transforming the segregated and economically stagnant Old South into the progressive New South.
Allen took the helm of the Ivan Allen Company, his father's office supply business, in 1946 and w…
Early life
Ivan Earnest Allen Jr. was born in Atlanta on March 15, 1911, the only son of Ivan Allen Sr. (1876–1968) and Irene Beaumont Allen (1889–1972). His father Allen Sr. was co-founder of the Ivan Allen Company (1900), an office supply and furniture store that, by 1925, had about fifty employees and was one of Atlanta's best-known businesses. Allen Sr. was also a founding member of the Atlanta Rotary Club, served as president of the new Atlanta Convention Bureau (1…
Education
Initially an indifferent student, Allen asserted himself during his last year at Boys High, earning a spot on the honor roll. In 1929, he enrolled in the School of Commerce at the Georgia Institute of Technology. During his first year at Georgia Tech, he was one of only five students in the student body of about two thousand to make straight A's. He graduated cum laude in 1933, with a Bachelor of Science in Commerce. While at Georgia Tech, he served as president of the student body, vic…
Business career
After graduating from Georgia Tech in 1933 during the depths of the Great Depression, Allen refused offers from other companies and began his lifetime of work in the family business, which was at the time called the Ivan Allen–Marshall Company. That summer, he worked in the basement of the business, learning from a black employee named Arthur Wright and earning $100 per month. At the time, the business consisted of one Atlanta store and grossed $196,000.
Political and civic involvement
In 1936, Allen actively campaigned for Georgia Governor Eurith D. Rivers, serving in a number of state-government positions during the Rivers administration between 1936 and 1940. As treasurer of the State Hospital Authority, he raised $2.5 million by passing the state's first revenue certificate bond issue to rebuild the white section of the old state mental hospital at Milledgeville.
When Pearl Harbor was struck in late 1941, he was called into the army as a reserve officer. Durin…
Bids for governor
In 1954, Ivan Allen Jr. made a brief bid for Georgia Governor on a segregationist platform. In a field of nine candidates, he lost to segregationist Marvin Griffin.
In 1957, Allen resigned from his position as president of the Georgia State Chamber of Commerce, hired a press agent, and delivered speeches across Georgia as a potential candidate for the 1958 Gubernatorial Election. Again, he ran on a segregationist platform, but emphasized …
Mayoralty
In 1961, he ran for Mayor of Atlanta against Lester Maddox, a 45-year-old restaurant owner and staunch segregationist. Allen was carried to victory by 63,522 votes, while Maddox received 35,922 votes. Allen gained much of his support from the black community, which made up 40 percent of the city's population at the time. He took office in early 1962, replacing outgoing Atlanta Mayor William B. Hartsfield, who was retiring after 23 years in office.
Family
Ivan Allen Jr. married Louise Richardson Allen (1917–2008), granddaughter of the influential Atlanta businessman, Hugh T. Inman, on New Year's Day in 1936. They were married for sixty-six years before Allen's death. They had three sons, Ivan Allen III (1938–1992), Hugh Inman, and Beaumont (1951–2014). At the time of Allen Jr.'s death, he was survived by his wife, sons Hugh Inman and Beaumont, daughters-in-law Margaret (Mrs. Ivan Allen III), Tricia (Mrs. Hugh Inman Al…