The Omaha guide., 1934-10-06
ATLANTA UNIVERSITY HOUSING
PROJECT BEGUN BY SECY. ICKEs
DdIanced economy

Secretary Ickes, who came to Atlanta for the ceremonies o..
tered inc platform on the Spellman College campus at $40 o,coct
and as the assembly cheered, was greeted by President .Tobn H h.
chairman Of the University housing advisory committee. who nre-
slded me Doxology was sung, and Colonel A. 7. Walden welcomed
a. secretly and his party, including Colonel Horatio B. IIackett,
director p the housing division Of the PWA, and the architects
and engineers OF the University project. The great audience Join
~ - inc singing o. n Negro National Anthem, "Lift Every Voice
ana Sing under the direction of Professor Kemper Harreld. The
Secretary was itroduced by President Hope as one who for many
years worked for a squire deal, a New Deal, a common honesty
that would guarantee and promote decent treatment and broad free
dom for all men whether white or black.' The Secretary spoke
t save his real message for the national broadcast which followed
at II O'Clock. A brief prayer by Dr. Willard a. Fountain A NJ. r.
Bishop Of Georgia, followed.
After the singing Of "Great Day. which along with the Ma
tional Negro Anthem was recorded by sound cameras, the detonator
dmoltlon was placed on the platform. AS movie cameras ground
from every possible point of vantage and the audience stood with
bated breath, the Secretary pressed the plunger and across the street
below the campus a small red-painted cottage rose in tn air and
I'll into a mass Of disordered timber, bricks, and broken glass. A
great cheer arose. The Atlanta University housing project, first
enterprise of its kind ever to be entered upon by the national govern
ment, had formally begun. --
Later the Secretary went to the fleetwood project for white
families and formally demolished the first house n that tract.
Mr.. Ickes was the center Of all interest as he arrived on the
Spelman College campus and was escorted through a long lane
up to the platform. Throughout the brief progr'm he watched with
attention and deep interest In the course Of bis remarks which he
prefaced by an amusing account Of his CONSERVATION on hearing Of
his long and detailed program an Atlanta, ne paid high tribute 70
the colored population of the city and the Institutions in whose very
dooryarl the new housing project is to be built.
eff this should be my only contact with Atlanta, tins meeting
here today, I would 60 back TO Washington with an mspnstlon !
didn't have when 7 came here" M. Iek 9a saId. = l think 1t IS per
many III my Efel have struggled with one o r two on my own
account, and have not seen anything greater mah MS same az
lanta University that many Of you have the privilege OF attending
as students" ~
After stating that he would make his real speech in his ma
tional broadcast over the NBC network at Il O'Clock, Secretary
here. This program we are here to inaugurate Is inspiratonaL Today
Iekes concluded{ II want to say again what a pleasure II Is 70 Pc
for the first time in the history o. the United States, the federal gov
eminent il cooperation and with he cordial assent Of the municipal
itv. IS about 70 erect On these areas, instead of dnapidated buildings
modern uptodate houses that viii be available to those in the low
es income classes"
La behalf az the citizens of Atlanta, Colonel A. 7, Walden wei
coined the Secretary and his party with . pledge that Alfalfa would
do It's part toward making this epochal experiment a success, lie dc,
caared that the housing project would be an ocular demonstration ana
3hbiect lesson in decent housing which studets - the adjoining mstF
4ufions would carry with them into the hinterlands into which they
continually 60.