The legacy of the late Ivan Allen Jr., COMM 1933, former mayor of Atlanta and namesake of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, is well known to those who lived in the city and the region during the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s.
Allen was largely responsible for building Atlanta’s reputation as an international city through strong support for the business community, development of vibrant arts programs, and the recruitment of professional sports teams. For all this to be possible, though, Allen first had to address the issue of racial segregation and the increasing tensions resulting from it.
In the summer of 1963, President John F. Kennedy called upon Allen to testify before Congress in favor of civil rights legislation to allow equal access to public accommodations for African-Americans, still a highly controversial idea in the South. Nearly all those whose counsel Allen sought strongly advised against testifying, warning the mayor that doing so would be politically damaging.
Despite the conventional wisdom being offered to him, Allen felt it was vitally important to support the civil rights legislation, not only to establish Atlanta as the “city too busy to hate,” but more importantly because Allen genuinely believed that doing so was a moral imperative. Ultimately, Allen was the only southern elected official who testified in favor of the legislation, a stunning act of social courage in 1963 that led to threats
of bodily harm and being ostracized for decades by many of his peers and lifelong friends.
In recognition of Allen’s legacy of social courage and humanitarian concern, Georgia Tech and the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts have established the Ivan Allen Jr. Initiative, which will encompass two defining elements: the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage and the Ivan Allen Jr. Institute for Advanced Studies.
Beginning in 2011, the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage will replace the existing Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Progress and Service, which has been awarded since 2001 to prominent individuals for a lifetime of achievement and with strong connections to Atlanta or Georgia.
The new Allen Prize will be international in scope and will recognize individuals who, by standing up for a clear moral principle in the social arena, have positively affected public discourse at the risk of their own careers, livelihoods, and even their lives. The Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage will be accompanied by a $100,000 award to be funded by the income from a $2 million commitment made in 2008 by the Wilbur and Hilda Glenn Family Foundation.
“What we envision for the recipients of the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage goes far beyond being honored with the award at the annual Founders Day celebration,” said Ivan Allen College Interim Dean Kenneth J. Knoespel, who joined the College’s faculty in 1983 and also serves as McEver Professor of Engineering and Liberal Arts. “We anticipate having the recipient share a wealth of personal and professional experience with students and faculty during an extended stay on campus. The recipient’s presence will be reinforced through workshops, conferences, and other activities.”
It is also expected that the award recipient will interact with the greater Atlanta community, thereby extending the celebration of Mayor Allen’s principles to the city he so ably served. The Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage will stand as the preeminent prize offered by Georgia Tech and will draw attention to the very mission of the Institute in Georgia, the nation, and the world.
“My father was always the kind of man who was guided by his conscience above any other consideration,” said H. Inman Allen, son of Ivan Allen Jr. and chairman of Ivan Allen Company. “I know there are many more Ivan Allens around the globe standing up for what they believe is right regardless of the risk, and I want this award to help bring the continuity of their examples to light.”
The legacy of former Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. will live on at Georgia Tech in far-reaching ways that will cover the entire institution. The centerpiece of that legacy will be the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize in Social Courage, which will be awarded to a national or international leader every year. That leader will receive $100,000 along with the prize.
Tom Glenn, president of the Hilda and Wilbur Glenn Family Foundation, made the $2 million gift to Georgia Tech in Ivan Allen’s memory. Allen is credited for being a progressive Southern mayor during the volatile days of integration and for helping keep the peace in Atlanta. He was the only elected official from the South to testify before Congress in favor of the Civil Rights Bill and the public accommodations provision.
It is such a lesson in leadership that Georgia Tech now plans to incorporate it through all its areas of study.
“We have been entrusted with the responsibility to perpetuate the legacy of Ivan Allen Jr., and we take that very seriously,” Georgia Tech President Bud Peterson said. “This is an institute-wide initiative that will cut across all our fields of study.”
Allen received his degree from Georgia Tech in 1933. Through a then-anonymous gift, Georgia
Tech established the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts in 1998. The Ivan Allen Initiative “will be broader than the boundaries of a single college,” Peterson said.
Georgia Tech intends to have an Ivan Allen lecture series, public policy initiatives with visiting scholars-in-residence, public and community service opportunities for students, and enhanced work in the areas of quality growth and regional development.
“To have a role model that we can point to like Ivan Allen and an initiative like this makes me very proud,” Peterson said. “It will require some resources, and we are committed to identifying those resources.”
The “cornerstone” of the Ivan Allen initiative will be the Ivan Allen Prize in Social Courage, which will begin to be awarded in 2011 — the 50-year anniversary of the peaceful integration of Georgia Tech and the 50th anniversary of the election of Allen as Atlanta’s mayor.
In a recent private gathering of Atlanta leaders, Glenn explained why his family foundation was so committed to honoring the former mayor. “The Ivan Allen legacy is about many things: about the man’s greatness as a leader, a civil servant, as a devoted husband, and as a kind and loving father. But the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage is about one specific quality: the man’s courage,” Glenn said.
“To understand just how courageous Ivan Allen was, we should begin by noting that there was a time when vast numbers of people hated him intensely because of hi stand on integration, so much so that the Allens had police protection in their home for a time,” Glenn added.
“And these feelings were not limited to the raw fringes of society. They were present at all social levels, up to and including the elite members of Atlanta’s power structure of which Ivan Allen was a notable member.”
Glenn went on to say: “It’s one thing to do battle with a distant enemy when those around you are supportive. It is altogether different when those closest to you are against you.”
Although Allen died in 2003, Glenn said the former mayor’s legacy is too valuable to die with him.
“His courage should continue to be a source of inspiration for others who are willing to stand up for their beliefs in a worthy cause,” Glenn said. “And that is the objective of the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage — to inspire others to display the kind of courage demonstrated by Ivan Allen Jr. for generations to come, long after those of us who can appreciate just how brave and selfless he was, are dead and gone.”
Inman Allen, son of the former mayor, believed Georgia Tech was the best institution to honor his father. Allen passed away 10 days after former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson passed away. As a way to remember Atlanta’s first African-American mayor, the airport was renamed in his honor to the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
It was important to many leaders in Atlanta that Allen also received a lasting tribute for his
contributions to the city.
“It makes abundant good sense for Georgia Tech to take a leadership role in the legacy of Ivan
Allen Jr.,” said Bill Todd, chairman of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association. “It is my hope that the University can teach, nurture and promote the style of courageous leadership that defines Ivan Allen Jr.”
Peterson said that while many Atlantans know the story of Allen’s leadership and courage, many others do not. The goal of the Ivan Allen Initiative and the annual prize will keep the story alive.
“It’s so important to continue protecting and expanding Mayor Allen’s legacy because there’s a whole generation that’s not aware of what he did,” Peterson said. “We are trying to ensure that many of the things he stood for are not lost.”
Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr., COMM 1933, believed that testifying before Congress in 1963 in support of civil rights legislation would end his political career. Allen, who was up for re-election the following year, had been asked by President John F. Kennedy to come to Washington and testify before Congress in support of the landmark legislation that would provide legal access to public accommodations for African-Americans.
Many of those whose advice Allen sought on the matter counseled him not to testify, believing as Allen did that his political life would be over. Even some African-American leaders in Atlanta were against Allen giving testimony for fear of losing a sympathetic mayor in the coming election cycle.
However, two very special people were supportive of the idea: close friend and Coca-Cola magnate Robert W. Woodruff and Allen’s wife, Louise, who reportedly told her husband that if he thought testifying was the right thing to do, then he should do it.
For Allen, who died in 2003, his belief in the moral imperative of publicly supporting the civil rights legislation ultimately outweighed worries about his political fortunes. While the initial reaction to his testimony was negative—especially in the South—public opinion soon shifted and Allen handily won re-election the following year as well as accolades for his beloved city.
The courage Allen displayed nearly half a century ago has inspired the Wilbur and Hilda Glenn Family Foundation to make a commitment of $2 million to endow the Ivan Allen Prize for Social Courage within the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. The new prize will replace the existing Ivan Allen Prize for Progress and Service, which has been given since 2001 largely to prominent individuals for a lifetime of achievement and with strong connections to Atlanta or Georgia.
The new award will be international in scope and will recognize individuals who, by standing up for a clear moral principle in the social arena, have positively affected public discourse at the risk of their own careers, their livelihoods, and even their lives. Consequently, the prize might go to someone already well known, or to someone whose social courage has yet to be widely recognized. The Ivan Allen Prize for Social Courage will be accompanied by a $100,000 cash award to be funded by income from the new endowment.
“My father was the kind of man who was always guided by his conscience above any other consideration,” says H. Inman Allen, HON 2007, son of Ivan Allen Jr. and chairman of Ivan Allen Company. “I know there are many more Ivan Allens around the globe standing up for what they believe is right regardless of the risk, and I want this award to help bring the continuity of their examples to light.”
“This prize also will serve to highlight our unique role as a liberal arts college in a technological university,” notes Sue V. Rosser, dean and Ivan Allen Jr. Chair in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. “Today, it’s important but ultimately not enough to educate students to be superb engineers or business leaders. We must also inform their sense of professional responsibility and motivate their sense of social justice. The Allen Prize not only will provide examples of the kind of leaders we seek to develop, but it will also inspire students here and elsewhere to discover their own sources of social courage.”
To inquire about making a gift in support of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, contact Director of Development Ski Hilenski at 404.894.9539 or ski.hilenski@iac.gatech.edu.
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The international prize will honor individuals whose life and work embody the moral courage personified by former Mayor Allen. Funded in perpetuity by a grant from the Wibur and Hilda Glenn Family Foundation, the prize carries with it a $100,000 stipend and will be awarded for the first time in 2011.
“Mayor Allen was well known to those who lived in the city and the region during the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s,” said Georgia Tech President G.P. “Bud” Peterson. “The Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage will recognize those who represent the values of the former Atlanta mayor and who lead with integrity, compassion and courage.”
Allen was largely responsible for building Atlanta’s reputation as an international city through strong support for the business community, development of vibrant arts programs and the recruitment of professional sports teams. For all this to be possible, he first had to address the issue of racial segregation and became a pivotal leader influencing the passage of America’s civil rights bill.
The new prize replaces the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Progress and Service, which was awarded from 2001-2010. Georgia-affiliated recipients of that prize include former President Jimmy Carter, former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, civil rights activist Jesse Hill Jr., and Georgia Cancer Coalition CEO William J. Todd.
In addition to Georgia Tech academic leaders, the nominating committee will be chaired by the Honorable James T. Laney, former ambassador to South Korea and former president of Emory University, and include Charles H. “Pete” McTier, retired president of the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation; Inman Allen, Chairman and CEO, Ivan Allen Industries, Susan Eisenhower, chairman emeritus, the Eisenhower Institute; Helene D. Gayle, PhD, CEO, CARE USA; and Former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, director, Nunn Institute for Non-Proliferation of Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Weapons.
]]>The legacy of the late Ivan Allen Jr. lives on. On his birthday, March 15, the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at Georgia Tech held the 10th annual Founder’s Day luncheon when it awarded William J. Todd, the 2010 recipient of the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Progress and Service. Todd is president of the Georgia Cancer Coalition, and he has spent 38 years involved in health care and technology development in metro Atlanta. Todd, an alumnus of Georgia Tech (1971), also is immediate past chair of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association.
This will be the last Prize for Progress and Service that the college will award because Georgia Tech is enhancing its identification with the late Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr.
Starting in 2011, Georgia Tech will launch the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage. The new prize will recognize an individual who has demonstrated moral and ethical courage consistent with Mayor Allen’s values.
The international prize, which is being endowed with a $2 million gift from the Wilbur and Hilda Glenn Family Foundation, will include a $100,000 monetary stipend.
During the Founder’s Day lunch, Todd spent most of his talk describing the leadership that Mayor Ivan Allen displayed during the 1960s, when he was a progressive voice in the South who supported integration.
Todd also responded to Georgia Tech President Bud Peterson’s challenge to imagine what the university could look like in 2035. Todd said he would want Georgia Tech to “create a leadership initiative” that would have a “profound and lasting impact on our nation.”