Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), which would take over the old Atlanta Transit system and build the MARTA rail system. The $13 million Memorial Arts Center (now the Woodruff Arts Center) was established as a memorial to the victims of the 1962 Orly plane crash. The $10 Million Atlanta Civic Center and the $100 million Peachtree Center complex were all built during Allen's mayoralty. Between 1965 and 1969, convention business in Atlanta doubled, with 400,000 delegates spending $60 million. Mayor Allen also played a key role in bringing Major League Sports to Atlanta. In a politically risky move, he backed the construction of the $18 million Atlanta-Fulton Stadium, which attracted the Milwaukee Braves baseball team in 1965, the new NFL franchised Falcons football team in 1966, and the St. Louis Hawks basketball team arrived in 1968 Local Black leaders criticized him for demolishing a Black neighborhood to build it. His building program, with its emphasis on developing downtown, was opposed by some of Atlanta's black leaders as not adequately meeting the need for low-income housing. Despite the criticisms, however, there was more low-income housing built during Allen's eight years as mayor than the entire thirty years prior to that. Allen wrote, "It is wonderful to be idealistic and to speak about human values, but you are not going to be able to do one thing about them if you are not economically strong. If there is any one slogan I lived by as mayor of Atlanta, that would be it". Civil rights and desegregation As mentioned earlier, Allen had initially been a segregationist. However, his business pragmatism led him to become an advocate for African American rights. He believed that to flourish, Atlanta must address its racial issues. Eventually, however, Allen was deeply affected by daily, firsthand dealings he faced with racial issues, as well as the profound questions African American citizens posed to him about their humanity and the cultural system that refused to recognize them. His pragmatic support of racial integration transformed rapidly into a conviction about the moral rightness of racial equality – a belief would lead Allen to place himself at the center of a firestorm. Even before becoming mayor, Allen was involved in efforts to bring desegregation to Atlanta for the sake of Atlanta's businesses and city image. As president of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, he worked closely with Judge A.T. Walden, longtime African-American leader;