.Njc2Ng.Njc2Ng

~ind fil4rhdiau fil4urt4 (D I SCIPLES OF CHRIST) NORTH CLEVELAND AT SOCIETY AVE. ALBANY, GEORGIA Se pt em ber 12 , 1966 RALPH LYNWOOD SMITH, MIN I STER CHURCH OFFICE: 436· 1054 PARSONAGE : 432-2108 Mr . I van All en, J r. C~ty of Atlant a Court House 68 Mitchell Stre e t,S.E . Atl anta, Ge or gi a Dear May or Allen, '· My wi fe and I were in your c ampa i gn .. headquarters on the n i ght of y our first e l ection as ma yor of Atla n t a. We gave y ou our sup port. You have more t han lived up to the ex pect ations t hat we ha d in y ou a s a person a nd y our a dmi n i s tra t i on . As you c a n s e e by t he addres s , We a re n ow servi ng i n Albany , Ge or g i a o Our heart s r emai n in At l ant a and we h ope some 'day t o re turn to se rv e a ga i n . Your r ecent heart ache an d fr ustration over the s udden out burs t of v i olenc e is als o ours. Yo ur courage to ent e r th e areas of t rou bl e and a t tempt to minis~er to the peopl e is mos t c ompassi ona t e . We deeply appreciate your stand for l aw and order an d a t t he same time justice for white and black . Please kee p your fait h and remember the poem by Kip l ing "If you c an trust yourself when al l men a bout you doubt you" ( misquot ed ), "You will be a man my son ." . Mayor Al len you are indeed a man . I wish tha t I had an easy answer. I wish 1 that y ou did. You said that we needed to build better c i ties . I a gree but even more basic we need to build better people. All of this is an inditement of the Church and our failure to become what God intended us to become. Parents, teachers, ever~(!)J]'.'teof us is involved or should be and should have been. My prayers are the friends as They are sound imperfect. u (PS: with you, your family, your administration, and with well as enemies of your basic principles of g overnment. and only imperfect as each of us as human beings are have my respect and support. lease pardon the appearance of this letter ••• today I am my own s e c re ta ry • ) �