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Benjamin Mays
Benjamin MaysHe became the president of Morehouse College in 1940
Mays also taught Martin Luther King Jr during King's years as an undergraduate at Morehouse in the mid-1940s, the two developed a close relationship that continued until King's death in 1968.
He had a firm emphasis on two ideas—the dignity of all human beings and the incompatibility of American democratic ideals with American social practices— and impacted the language of King and the civil rights movement. -
Herman Talmadge
“Herman Talmadge, son of Eugene Talmadge, served as governor of Georgia in 1947, and again in 1948. He was later elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served until 1980. He was governor and senator at a time of political transition in the state. As a member of the southern bloc of the Senate, Talmadge was a loyal opponent of civil rights legislation, but he began to reach out to black voters in the 1970s." -
Lester Maddox
Lester Maddox
He appointed more African Americans to state boards and commissions that all prior governors combined, named the first black member of the board of pardons, reformed state prisons, and integrated the Georgia state parole.
He also increased spending on teacher salaries and higher education and established "people's day”. -
Martin Luther King
Speech by MLK
"Martin Luther King Jr., Baptist minister and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), was the most prominent African American leader in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s." -
Andrew Young
He won Georgia's Fifth District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1972 and became the first African American since Reconstruction to be elected to Congress from Georgia. While in Congress, Young championed the causes of poor and working-class Americans and opposed efforts to increase military budgets. He supported the 1976 presidential campaign of Jimmy Carter, and in 1977 Carter named Young ambassador to the United Nations... etc. -
March on Washington
King leads the March on Washington"
In August 1963 the civil rights movement staged its largest gathering ever, with as many as 250,000 participants at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, in Washington, D.C." -
Mayard Jackson
He was elected mayor of Atlanta in 1973.He was the first African American to serve as mayor of a major southern city. He served eight years and then returned for a third term in 1990.During the time he was governor, the portion of city business going to minority firms rose dramatically. He helped bring the 1996 Olympic Games to Atlanta. -
1946 Govenor's Race
When Eugene talmadge died there was a big confusion over who was the new governor. Legislature chose Herman Talmadge but Arnall said that Thompson was the rightful successor since he was the lieutenant governor. Thompson ended up being mayor until a special election could be held in 1948, where Herman Talmadge was then elected. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Talmage Reacts to Brown v Board Case
The court case where the Supreme Court decided to end segregation in public schools, handed down on May 17, 1954. -
1956 state flag
In 1955, John Sammons Bell began a campaign to change the square Confederate battle flag for the red and white bars on Georgia's state flag.
The turning point for the decision was the Brown v. Board of Education, which were bitterly criticized by most Georgia political leaders. In this charged atmosphere, legislation decided to put the Confederate battle flag on Georgia's state flag.
Over the next couple decades, many people tried to have congress change the flag to the pre-1956, but failed. -
SNCC
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC (pronounced "snick"), was one of the key organizations in the American civil rights movement of the 1960s. They planned a lot of events including the Albany Movement, the Atlanta Project, etc. -
Sibley Commission
Governor Vandiver Jr. was forced to decide between closing public schools and obeying with a federal order to desegregate them. Known as the Sibley Commission, the committee was charged with gathering state residents' sentiments concerning desegregation and reporting back to the governor. The report delivered by the Sibley Commission laid the basis for the end of a huge resistance to desegregation in the state and helped avoid a fight between Vandiver and the federal government. -
Albany Movement
"It was the first mass movement in the modern civil rights era to have as its goal the desegregation of an entire community, and it resulted in the jailing of more than 1,000 African Americans in Albany and surrounding rural counties." -
Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter to UGA
They were the first two african americans to attend UGA. -
Civil Rights Act
Kennedy first introduced the law stating that "segregation is a moral crisis" but he didn't live to see the bill became a law because he was assassinated.
The new president, London B Johnson, vowed that the bill would become a law and it did in 1964! The law made segregation of all public places illegal: restaurants, theaters, hotels, public recreation areas, schools, libraries, etc.
It also prohibited discrimination in business and labor unions.
