Concerned Voters

For someone who voted for a mayor, there is an expectation that they will represent your personal interests and needs. You expect them, at least to some degree, to carry your values, your fears, your hopes. However, no mayor can ever realistically represent the interests of every voter. Mayor Ivan Allen Jr., human as he was, was no different. Given this disconnect between voter expectation and reality, a vocal group of voters wrote to Mayor Allen to voice their concerns on specific issues. How much effect these letters had on Allen’s decision making is impossible to measure, but if their authors didn’t think their words would have at least some effect on the mayor, they would have never written in the first place.

Some such issues were reactive, written in response to a striking event. One such moment was the shooting of a black man and child by white police officers in 1967. In an unsigned letter to the mayor, the author wrote: “Mr. Ivan Allen, it seems to us that you are more interested in the problems of these people than you are in the white cop that killed this negro man and wounded a little negro boy 9 years old.” They go on to say, “if it was a white man the police shot it would have been handled differently,” and “you and Chief Jenkins could find the cop if you and him wanted to.” The author was outraged by the mayor’s handing of the incident and his silence on the matter was perceived as trying to cover Atlanta’s image. Through this letter, the author hoped to stir the mayor to action.

Other such letters were more mundane. A letter written in 1967 to the mayor complained about the signage on Jackson Parkway. Other such letters complained about road conditions, park infrastructure, zoning regulations, the various inconveniences of daily life. While it is again impossible to tell how much of these the mayor read and reacted to, they no doubt served to remind him that he was responsible to the citizens and that they looked to his leadership to make the city better.