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Benjamin Mays
Benjamin MaysBenjamin Mays was the longtime president of Morehouse College and a noteable black minister, educator, scholar, and social activist. Although he is mostly known for being a mentor to Martin Luther King Jr., he was an outspoken critic of segregation before the modern civil rights movement. -
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Lester Maddox
Lester MaddoxLester Maddox was a restuarant owner and Georgia governer. Maddox owned a whites-only restuarant called the Pickrick and although he had black employees, he refused to serve anyone else but whites. This continued even after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, saying that he would rather close down his restuarent than to serve blacks. Maddox campaigned hard for states' rights and maintained a segregationist stance while in office, even so, he urged state troopers to address blacks as Mr. or Mrs. -
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Herman Talmadge
Herman TalmadgeThe son of Eugene Talamdge, Herman Talmadge, served as governer of Georgia from 1948-1954. He enacted the states's first sales' tax which helped fund public schools and was a supporter of the growing timber industry in Georgia. However, Talmadge was a steadfast segregationist who resisted all attempts to integrate public schools. He was also a loud critic when the supreme court ruled segregation unconstituional, and went as far to write a book called You and Segregation. -
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Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr.Martin Luther King, Jr. was a social activist and a important person during the Civil Rights movement. His teacher, Benjamin Mays, and Gandhi inspired him to use nonviolent teqniques in his protests and boycotts. He was the mind behind events such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the March on Washington, which helped bring the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. -
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Andrew Young
Andrew YoungAndrew Young was a politician, human rights activist, and businessman. He was a pastor before he left his postion to work with the SCLC, a church-centered civil rights organization led by Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta.Young assisted in "citizenship schools" that taught nonviolent organizing strategies to local people who were recognized as potential leaders. Young became a trusted aide to Martin Luther King Jr.. After King was assinated, he joined Georgia's House of Representatives. -
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Maynard Jackson
Maynard Jackson was the first black man to serve as mayor of Atlanta and served for eight years. He was a highly influential force in city politics even after he left office and he also helped bring the Olympics to Atlanta in 1996. He also helped expand Georgia's airports. -
End of the White Primary
PreziThe white primary was a system used by Southern whites to keep blacks from participating in elections. Dr. Thomas Brewer and Primus E. King attempted to vote in the white primary in Columbus GA. King and Brewer were told they could not vote and were forcefully removed from the court house. Brewer and King along with several others sued the state in the case of King v. Chapman. The court ruled in favor of King and said white primary was unconstitutional, and Governor Arnall did not fight it. -
1946 Governor’s Race
The 1946 Governor’s Race was surely the most bizarre and strange political episode that America had ever seen for a period of time, Georgia had three governors. It started when Eugene Talmadge had won his fourth term as governor, but had died before he could be inaugurated. Herman Talmadge was appointed by the state Legislature, but Melvin Thompson elected to the newly created office of lieutenant governor, and he claimed to be governor as well and Ellis Arnall refused to vacate office. -
1946 Governor’s Race Cont.
After the legislature chose Herman Talmadge, he ordered state troopers to remove Arnall from the governor’s office and the two men occupied the governor’s suite with their families. The Georgia Supreme Court ruled that Thompson would act as governor until a special election was held in September of 1948, which Herman Talmadge won. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education Video
The Brown v. Board of Education case made the unanimous decision that the separate school facilities were unequal, and racial segregation tolerated the federal government and declared to be a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Although no method of ending racial segregation in schools, the states were told to desegregate with deliberate speed. -
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1956 State Flag
1956 FlagIn 1956, the Georgia flag changed from having two red stripe and one white stripe to displaying the Confederate flag. This change was met with backlash, as for many thought that the Confederate flag supported segregation, racism, and slavery. Even so, the flag remained for a good forty-five years, until it was replaced with a blue and yellow flag with state motto and the state’s previous flags. This flag only lasted for two years since it still displayed the Confederate flag. -
The SNCC
CNN: SNCC's legacy: A civil rights historyThe Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, also known as the SNCC, was formed to give younger blacks more of a voice in the civil rights movement. When sit-ins at lunch counters began to spread around, Ella Baker was concerned that the SCLC was out of touch with younger blacks who wanted the movement to make faster progress. This group played a part in Freedom Rides organized by King and SCLC and directed much of the black voter registration drives in the South. -
Sibley Commission
The Sibley Commission was named after John Sibley and was created by when Atlanta's segregated public school system was ruled unconstitutional and ordered it integrated. This commitee was in charge of finding out weather the people would rather close public schools or comply with a federal order to desegregate them. The majority of white citizens would rather close down public schools than to intergrate. -
Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter Cont.
While they registered for classes, students stood outside the building chanting “2, 4, 6, 8, we don’t want to integrate.”. Three days later, a riot broke out in front of Hunter’s dorm with students throwing rocks, bottles, and fireworks. -
Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter
Holmes and Hunter became the first two African American students admitted to UGA. When they tried to apply in 1959, they were not accepted because of “limited space.” Holmes and Hunter filed a civil suit against Danner for the repeated refusal of their applications. During thw trial, the judge issued a ruling stating that Holmes and Hunter would have already been admitted if they weren't black. -
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The Albany Movement
The Albany Movement VideoThe Albany Movement was the first mass movement in the civil rights era to have as its goal of the desegregation of an entire community. Martin Luther King Jr. was drawn into the movement when hundreds of black protesters, including himself, were arrested in one week, but eight months later King left Albany admitting that he had failed to accomplish the movement's goals. This movement is often called a successful failure, and King learned lessons that he would apply in Birmingham. -
The March On Washington
Videos
200,000 Americans met in Washington, D.C., for a political rally known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The event was designed to show the political and social challenges blacks continued to face across the country and to advocate passage of the Civil Rights Act. This was also where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his ' I Have A Dream' speech. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
Video
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination and is considered one of the crowning achievements of the civil rights movement. President Kennedy first proposed the bill and it went through strong opposition from southern members of Congress and was signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson. Congress later expanded the act and added the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
