.MTU4NQ.MTU4NQ

For Release: Thursday PM, January 2, 1968 From: Community Relations Commission 1203 City Hall, Atlanta, Georgia 30303 BENNY T. SMITH NAMED FIELD REPRESENTATIVE FOR COMMUNITY RELATIONS COMMISSION Benny T. Smith, widely known community leader, has been named field representative for the Atlanta Community Relations Commission and will assume his new duties immediately. It was announced today by Nat Welch, executive director for the Commis siono As field representative, Smith will head up CRC's .expanded Town Hall Meeting Program for 1969 and will act as a communications link between the Neighborhoods and the Commission. "We have expanded the scope of this position and are delighted to have secured the services of such an able and experienced leader as Benny T. Smith," stated Welch. Smith was raised in Vine City and educ a t ed at Booker T. Washington High School, Morris Brown Coll ege and the Blayton School of Accounting. · With funds h e won on the national TV show, "Strike It Rich, 11 in the mid fifties, S~ith op ened and operated a dry cleaning firm in Vine City . He �Page 2 Press Release January 2, 1968 Benny T. Smith later was the proprietoi· of a neighborhood grocery store in the Poole Creek Community. Smith was subsequently employed by the U.S. Postal Data Center and the Georgia Department of Labor where he played a key role in the J obmobile Program in cooperation with the National Alliance of Businessmen. Smith was a prime mover in the organization of the Community R e lations Commission some two and a half years ago. He helped organize the Price and the the Pittsburgh EOA centers and the Model Cities Program. He is a former vice president of the All Citizens R e gistration Committee, former president of the Metropolitan Atlanta Grassroots Council, president of the Southeast Community Council, board member of the Metropolitan Atlanta Summit Leadership Cong~e ss , and form e r vice pr esid ent of the Fourth Ward Improvement Council. He served as chairman of the transportation committee for the Poor People's Campaign to Washington. CRC I s new fie ld represent ative has r ece ived awards for community servi ce and leadership from the Peoplestown Civic League, the Atlanta brancb of the NAACP, the Exc e l sior Knight Civic and Socia l Club, the Southeast Community Council and the V e t e rans I Administration Hospital. Mr. Smith is a member of the Wheat Stre e t Baptist Church and Princ e H a ll M as ons . He resid es a t 2 09 Arc h crest D r ive . �