Alan Drennen

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Alan Travis Drennen Jr (born April 29, 1925 in Birmingham; died November 23, 2016 in Birmingham) was an insurance agent and Birmingham City Council member.

Drennen graduated from Phillips high School, and then enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in the Pacific theater during World War II. He earned his bachelor's degree in political science at the University of Alabama in 1949 and married the former Rachel Kracke in 1950. The couple had three children: Mary, Virginia, and Alan III.

As a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, Drennen returned to active duty during the Korean War. He began his career at the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, and later worked for the Protective Life Insurance Company. He headed the "Drennen-Schulhafer Agency" and retired as a vice president of sales.

In the 1963 election, Drennen won a two-year at-large term on the first City Council, which served alongside the outgoing Birmingham City Commission while the change in government was being challenged in the courts.

On the council, Drennen was part of a five-member majority that represented a moderate approach to accommodating equal rights for African American citizens. He proposed many progressive policies such as recruiting African Americans to the Birmingham Police Department, issuing bonds to improve schools and build a new arena, and fluoridating the city's drinking water. He urged the council to be proactive on racial issues to avoid the politically dangerous appearance of caving to pressure from Fred Shuttlesworth and black protesters.

Drennen was a supporter of the 1964 One Great City campaign to combine municipal governments, heading a City Council committee charged with winning consent from independent suburbs. He argued that without the merger, "Birmingham by 1980 could be politically controlled and operated by members of the colored race." Emory Jackson, publisher of the Birmingham World railed against the statement, which he interpreted as baseless fear-mongering.

Drennen was re-elected to a full four-year term in the 1965 Birmingham City Council election, but did not run for re-election in 1969. In announcing his retirement from public life, Drennen cited several accomplishments of the City Council, as well as some failures. Among the latter, he emphasized the crucial importance of regional cooperation and the establishment of home rule to reduce the effect of state legislature which often undermined the city's initiatives.

In June 1968, after the death of R. W. Douglas. Arthur Shores attended a private meeting at Drennen's home where he was asked to accept an appointment to fill the vacancy and become the city's first African American council member.

Drennen and James Cotton were co-founders of Partners in Neighborhood Growth. He also served on the boards of the Birmingham Public Library and the Birmingham Airport Authority.

References

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