From Julian Bond and Ben Brown to T. J. Curry, 7 February 1968

February 7, 1968

Mr. T. J. Curry President Westside Voters League 968 Lena Street, N. W. Atlanta, Georgia

Dear Mr. Curry:

We were surprised to learn from reading Sunday's edition of the Atlanta Daily World that we have been invited to attend a meeting of the Westside Voter's League on Thursday, February 8th. Neither of us has received an invitation and it is a surprise to learn of the meeting and our invitation through a newspaper. We hope, however, that if our measure is discussed in your meeting that your deliberations will not be guided by the misinformation contained in an editorial in Sunday's Atlanta Daily World.

The editorial mistakenly states that our bill deals with the Board of Education; it does not.

The editorial mistakenly says that our bill would lead to corrupt politics; it would not.

The editorial mistakenly says that our bill would make it difficult for Negroes to exercise restraint over the Board of Aldermen; this is not so.

The editorial states that we should contact leaders of the Negro community before proceeding further with our bill; we have done so, and until Sunday's Atlanta Daily World appeared, we received unanimous support for this bill from the Negro community.

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Under our bill, the Negro community will exercise the same control as it does today over eight members of the Board of Aldermen and the President of the Board, all of whom will continue to be elected city-wide.

What our bill will do is to provide that half of the members of the board will be elected by voters in the wards from which they qualify.

This would mean that Negro voters in the 3rd, 4th, 7th, 1st and 6th wards could elect a Negro alderman, and that voters in every ward could be assured that their alderman would be responsible to them. Presently, there are members of the Board of Aldermen serving today who lost in their wards, but were elected by voters in other wards in the city.

Finally, there are enough Negro voters in all but two of the wards to insure that any candidate, white or Negro, elected ward-wide or city-wide, could be elected without having to appeal to Negro voters.

The Board of Education elections referred to are covered in another bill, introduced by Rep. John Hood.

Sincerely,

Rep. Ben Brown of the 135th District

Rep. Julian Bond of the 136th District

BB:JB:lcm