Ivan Allen, Jr.

Who was Ivan Allen, Jr.?

Ivan Allen, Jr., was an American businessman who served two terms as the 52nd Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, during the turbulent civil rights era 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 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. It was adopted by the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and became the Six Point Forward Atlanta program. This plan would become his roadmap as mayor for creating an economic surge that established the infrastructure, business, education, arts, sports, and international presence that are the foundations for modern Atlanta. Allen was a founding member of Atlanta’s influential Commerce Club, which he chaired until his death in 2003. He became President of the city Chamber of Commerce in 1961 and during this same year ran for mayor, defeating the staunch segregationist, Lester Maddox.

Convinced that the South could never thrive economically under segregation, Allen supported the demands of African Americans for their accommodation at public facilities. On his first day in office, he ordered the removal of all “white” and “colored” signs from facilities in city hall. Racial alliances forged by Allen with Martin Luther King, Jr. and others in the African American community, along with his advocacy for the public accommodation of African Americans in the white community, allowed Allen to guide Atlanta through the turbulence of racial integration without the violence that occurred in many southern cities. In a key address to the public, he asked Atlantans to eliminate racial segregation and in doing so, to set an example to inspire “all the world.” At the behest of President John F. Kennedy, Allen testified before Congress on behalf of what became the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 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.