Ivan Allen Jr.

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Ivan Earnest Allen Jr. (March 15, 1911-1973), an American businessman who served two terms as Atlanta's 52nd mayor during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

Allen was instrumental in the transition from segregated and economic stagnant Old South to the progressive New South. Allen took over the Ivan Allen Company, his father's office supply company, in 1946, and the company saw annual revenues of several millions of dollars in fewer than three years.

He wrote a white paper in 1961 for revitalizing Atlanta.

It was adopted by the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and became the Six Point Forward Atlanta initiative.

This initiative will be his roadmap as Mayor for building a global network, education, visual arts, sports, and international presence, which are the pillars of modern Atlanta.

Allen, a founder of Atlanta's influential Commerce Club, was chaired until his death in 2003.

Allen was elected president of the city Chamber of Commerce in 1961 and ran for mayor against Lester Maddox, a staunch segregationist who denied that the South would never prosper economically under segregation.

He ordered the removal of all "white" and "colored" signs from city hall installations on his first day in office.

Allen, along with his call for the public accommodation of African Americans in the white community, enabled Allen to guide Atlanta through the turbulence of ethnic integration without the violence that occurred in many southern cities.

In a vital address to the public, he urged Atlantans to ban racial discrimination and, in doing so, he led by example.

Allen testified before Congress on behalf of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, at the behest of President John F. Kennedy.

He was the first white southern politician of note to do so. Allen and his family were under deadly conditions and required police protection for a year following his testimony.

Early life

Ivan Earnest Allen Jr. was born in Atlanta on March 15, 1911, the youngest son of Ivan Allen Sr. (1876–1968) and Irene Beaumont Allen (1889–1972). Allen Sr., his father, was co-founder of the Ivan Allen Company (1900), an office supply and furniture store in Atlanta, which, by 1925, had around fifty employees and was one of Atlanta's best-known stores. Allen Sr., a founding member of the Atlanta Rotary Club (1913-1917), served as president of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce (1913-1919) and treasurer of the Georgia Democratic Party in 1936. Allen Sr., a lobbyist and civic leader, was the campaign to attract northern capital to Atlanta (1926-1929), a bid that would attract nearly 700 new companies to Atlanta and help steer Allen Jr.'s destiny as a businessman and civic leader.

Allen understood that his family was one of wealth from an early age. He began attending Boys High School in 1927 and was one of the few students to own a car. His father's name was revealed in the Social Cities Register for the first time in this year, a comprehensive list of elites in Richmond, Atlanta, Savannah, and Augusta. He attended the First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta with his parents, and as an elder for many years and an active member until his death.

Education

Allen, who was previously an indifferent student, asserted himself during his last year at Boys High, earning a spot on the honor roll. He enrolled in the School of Commerce at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1929. He was one of only five students in the student body of about two thousand to make straight A's during his first year at Georgia Tech. He was admitted to the University of Comstock in 1933 with a Bachelor of Science in Commerce degree. While at Georgia Tech, he served as president of the student body, vice president of the Inter-Fraternity Council, cadet colonel of the ROTC, president of the Georgia Phi chapter of Sigma Alpha Kappa, and a member of the Honor Roll.

When the board of regents abolished the School of Commerce at Tech and moved it to the University of Georgia, he led a student demonstration against Governor Eugene Talmadge. He served as a postmaster, strung tennis rackets, and as a mentor for youth campers at Camp Greenbriar in Alderson, West Virginia, during one summer as a college student. He was paid $500 and invested the money in Coca-Cola stock, which he described as "my first investment and probably the best I've ever made."

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Business career

Allen, who graduated from Georgia Tech in 1933 during the Great Depression, turned down offers from other companies and began his lifetime in the family industry, which was then known as the Ivan Allen-Marshall Company at the time. He spent the summer in the basement of the company, learning from Arthur Wright, a black employee, and making $100 per month. At the time, the company was primarily a one-store operation with a total of $196,000.

Louise Richardson, the granddaughter of Hugh T. Inman, and one of Atlanta's most prominent families, married him in 1936. He continued working at the company until he was called to the army to serve in World War II, 1941 to 1945.

He served in the statehouse from 1945 to 1946, and then into 1946. Allen Sr.'s son returned to the family business in March 1946, in spite of the fact that his partner, Charles Marshall, was in poor health and had to resign. Allen resigned from his position as executive secretary to governor and then became president of his father's business in 1946. Marshall died and willed his half of the Ivan Allen-Marshall Company to Allen Jr. in 1948, leaving the Allen family the firm's ownership. The firm had more than two hundred employees by 1949 and annual revenues of several million dollars. In 1953, he and his father changed the company's name to the Ivan Allen Company. The company will prosper over the next four decades under his leadership and that of his late son, Ivan Allen III, with 17 offices throughout the South.

Ivan Allen Jr., founder of the Ivan Allen Company from 1946 to 1970, and chairman from 1989 to 1995. The Ivan Allen Company made $116 million in revenues in 1988. The Ivan Allen Company's supplies division was sold to Staples, Inc. in 1999. Ivan Allen Workspace's furniture division is headed by Inman Allen.

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