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Benjamin Mays (Start of Impact)
Receiving his Bachelor's degree in 1920, Mays went on to further his education. He eventually became the president of Morehouse college, and even traveled to India, and got the chance to speak to Ghandi. He believed strongly in two things, that all humans deserved their dignity, and that Americans' idea for government with equality clashed too strongly against their social behavior. He was also a big influence on Martin Luther King Jr. as his mentor. -
End of the White Primaries
White primaries were for the use of limiting blacks' political power. The democratic party had endless ideas of how to make sure blacks couldn't vote, .like refusing them party memberships. Since the white primaries were not officially carried out by state action, it was not violating the 14th amendment. Eventually, however, in 1944, the Supreme Court ruled that white primaries were unconstitutional, and the democratic party was forced to allow blacks to vote in their elections. -
Governor's Race
The Governor's race, otherwise known as the three governors' controversy, was between Ellis Arnall, Herman Talmadge, and Melvin Thompson. Thompson was the lieutenant governor, so he would be the stronger candidate to fill in the vacancy of governor's spot after Eugene's death, but Herman insisted that he had been a secret write-in candidate. Ellis Arnall just refused to leave the spot until he was sure there would be a stable succeeding governor. -
Herman Taladge as Governor
Herman Talmadge served as both governor and part of the Senate at different points in his life.Herman's goal was to protect rural America, so he was a big supporter of the food-stamp program, and introudced the Rural Development Act in 1972, that gave out loans to help rural residents develop technology. He was an extreme racist, and was very upset with the announcement for schools to be desegregated. As governor, he also started the first sales tax, which really helped public schools. -
Brown V. Board of Education
Although the Supreme Court ruled that segregation was allowed if both sides were equal, Brown made a case that black and whites' segregated schools were not equal, and never would be. Lower courts insisted that the two types of schools were technically equal, but when brought to the Supreme Court, they discovered that segregating schools caused the children to have serious racial inferiority complexes, which affected their learning. Because of this, the Court ruled that schools were to integrate -
Martin Luther King (Start of Career)
In the beginning, Martin Luther King Jr. carried out small protests like sit-ins or bus boycotting, but it wasn't until the March on Washington that he was finally widely recognized as a bold figure in the black community. It was on the march that MLK gave the "I have a Dream" speech that is still commonly known. He was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1964, but met the end of his life in Memphis, Tennessee, right before a march to demonstrate the poverty problems among the blacks. -
State Flag of 1956
In memory of the Brown V. Board of Education Case and Governor Marvin Griffin's extreme disagreement with public school integration, the state flag was changed. The new flag's intent was to show that Georgia would fight for what Georgia stood for, which was basically segregation. The change of the flag really didn't cause a commotion, because legislation were the only ones that had a say in changing the flag. -
Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter to UGA
Holmes and Hunter applied to UGA multiple times, but every time they applied, they were denied for reasons that were unrealistic. They soon brought the case to the attention of the court, and the judge ruled that if they were not black, they would have already been accepted. This meant that Holmes and Hunter were free to join UGA, which they did. Unfortunately, they were met with a very unfriendly mob that resented their presence at UGA. This was the beginning of integration at UGA. -
SNCC
The Student Non-violent Coordination Committee went from sit-ins at segregated lunch counters to freedom rides and the March on Washington. They were a large part of the Albany Movement, and the Atlanta Project. The Albany movement was a failure, but SNCC refused to give up hope. When the Atlanta Project was carried out, riots started breaking out, and SNCC soon fell apart once its direction and behavior started turning violent. -
Sibley Commission
Governor Vandiver was forced to decide whether to integrate public schools or not, so he started the Sibley Commission, where the committee was supposed to take a survey of the state residents' opinion. There was a huge resistance to integration to the point where Vandiver was forced to cut off funding the schools that integrated. Sibley was a respected man that greatly disagreed with desegregation, but he thought that it was useless for everyone to resist so much. -
Andrew Young
Andrew Young, a black pastor, left that position to join MLK's nonviolent resisting. Over time, he actually became a trusted friend of MLK, and even after King was assassinated, Young kept going. He was the first black to be voted into Congress since Reconstruction in Georgia, and he helped Carter change the basis of American foreign policies, focusing on economic changes. He was later voted mayor as well, which represented the increase of black political power that he had helped bring about. -
Albany Movement
It was the fist huge demonstration to protest against segregation that resulted in the arresting of King three times and the incarceration of more than 1,000 Africans. There were mass meetings and marches. King found that crowds responded more to songs, but he eventually ran out of people that were willing to march with them. Albaby was a failure, but the protestors learned valuable lessons, like what not to do when protesting. King blieved that their protest was too vague and general to work. -
March on Washington
Organized by religious grops and many civil rights supporters, 200,00 Americans, both black and white, marched in Washington D.C. to show the struggles of African Americans. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech about justice and equality at the march as well. -
Civil RIghts Act of 1964
This act forbade discrimination of any sort when looking for employees, and desegregated all public places. Suggested by Kennedy, angrily opposed by many of the southern Congress members, and officially carried out by Johnson, this was a major development of the entire civil rights movement. It even led to the Voting act of 1965. -
Lester Maddox
Maddox opened the Pickrick Cafeteria, his most successful enterprise, and often offered his political opinion on segregation and government corruption in his restaurants. He was known as a violent racist for a while due to his forceful turning away of three black activists. When he finally became governor, he appointed more blacks to government positions than any governor had ever done before. -
Maynard Jackson as Mayor or Atlanta
He was the first black mayor of a major southern city. His main priority was to make sure minor businesses were given more municipal contracts. He also wanted to reform the police force so that they would not charge unfairly against blacks so often. He built a huge airport terminal in Hartsfield, Atlanta, renaming it to the Hartsfield-Jackson Airport.
