The Archdiocese of Atlanta has joined more than 50 metropolitan Atlanta organizations and individuals as co-sponsors of the Atlanta Metropolitan Committee on Equal Opportunity in Housing.

“The objective of the conference will be primarily educational,” Father Noel C. Burtenshaw, chancellor and a member of the executive committee, said.

“The subject of equal opportunity in housing is one on which most people have strong feelings, but very little knowledge and experience.”

“The conference will seek to bring those of different background and viewpoints around the table to discuss the problems. Its purpose is to have Atlanta people talk to Atlanta people.”

“We expect this dialogue and interchange will establish necessary communication and provide some answers to the housing problems facing greater Atlanta.”

With the announcement of the committee’s formation was the appointment of Mrs. Kathleen Wood as executive director, with offices at room 248, 50 Seventh Street, Atlanta.

Formal announcement of the committee followed by days the signing by President Lyndon B. Johnson of the civil rights bill which contains open housing provisions.

“To begin to fulfill its purposes,” Mrs. Wood said, “we have established six areas of work.” It is the Committee’s plan to: (1) Analyze all available information concerning open housing in the Atlanta metropolitan community, since there can be no equal opportunity in housing unless there is open housing.

(2) Analyze property depreciation, deterioration resulting in blighted areas, and the effect of blighted areas on the economic development of the metropolitan community.

(3) Create a climate whereby existing organizations can coordinate their efforts toward making equal opportunity a fact in the metropolitan community.

(4) Develop ideas for implementing action on equal opportunity in housing.

(5) Explore ways and means of informing the entire public concerning the problems and potential solutions available to the Atlanta metropolitan community.

(6) Assess the potential effect of equal opportunity in housing on the total community.

The co-sponsors of the committee, said Mrs. Wood, are American Friends Service Committee; American Institute of Planners, Georgia Section; American Jewish Committee, Atlanta Chapter; American Veterans Committee, Atlanta Chapter; Anti- Defamation League of B’nai B’irth; Atlanta Federal Executive Board; Atlanta Jewish Welfare Federation; Atlanta Labor

Council, AFL-CIO; Atlanta Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends; Atlanta Presbytery, Church Extension Committee; Atlanta Summit Leadership Conference, Inc.; Atlanta University; Atlanta University Center Corporation; Atlanta Urban League, Inc.; Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta; Central Presbyterian Church; Christian Council of Metropolitan Atlanta, Inc.; Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Sixth District; Church Women United in Atlanta; Citizens Advisory Committee for Urban Renewal; City of Atlanta; Clark College; Community Relations Commission of Atlanta; Coordinating Committee of the United Presbyterian Churches of Greater Atlanta; Druid Hills Fair Housing Committee; East Lake Methodist Church; Economic Opportunity Atlanta, Inc.; Empire Real Estate Board; Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta; Executive Board of DeKalb Council of Church Women United in Georgia; Georgia Council of Churches; Georgia Council on Human Relations; Bishop Ernest L. Hickman; Housing Resources Committee of the City of Atlanta; Interfaith, Inc.; League of Women Voters of Atlanta-Fulton County; League of Women Voters of DeKalb County; League of Women Voters of Georgia; Metropolitan Atlanta Summit Leadership Congress, Inc.; Morehouse College; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Atlanta Branch; National Conference of Christians and Jews, Inc.; National Council of Jewish Women, Atlanta Branch; North Georgia Conference of Christian Social Concerns of the Methodist Church; Northside Fair Housing Committee; President’s Committee on Equal Opportunity in Housing; Bishop John Owen Smith; Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Southern Regional Council, Inc.; Southwest Atlantans for Progress; Spelman College; Unitarian-Universalist Congregation of Atlanta; Urban Training Organization of Atlanta; Wheat Street Baptist Church; and the Young Women’s Christian Association.