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1946 Governer's Race/ End of the White Primary
It started with the death of Eugene Talmadge. Lieutenant Governer, Melvin Thompson, was supposed to take over office. Ballots that were "newly' found stated that Herman talmadge actually won the votes. While Thompson and Talmadge, Ellis Arnall refused to leave office until they figured it out. Talmadge ended up becoming governer of Georgia. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of EducatonBrown v. Board of Education was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896, which allowed state-sponsored segregation, insofar as it applied to public education. -
1956 State Flag
The state flag used from 1956 to 2001 featured a prominent Confederate Battle Flag, which some residents found offensive due to its historical use by the Confederate States of America and its contemporary use as a symbol by various white supremacy groups. -
Martin Luther King, Jr.
MLK "I Have A Dream" SpeechMartin Luther King Jr., Baptist minister and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was the most prominent African American leader in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.He gave a very famous speech, "I Have A dream," which was the most important point in the Civil Rights Movement. -
SNCC
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, SNCC, concentrated in Albany and Atlanta. It emerged from a student meeting organized by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in April 1960. SNCC grew into a large organization with many supporters in the North who helped raise funds to support SNCC's work in the South. -
Sibley Commision
In 1960 Governor Ernest Vandiver Jr., forced to decide between closing public schools or complying with a federal order to desegregate them, tapped state representative George Busbee to introduce legislation creating the General Assembly Committee on Schools. Commonly known as the Sibley Commission, the committee was charged with gathering state residents' sentiments regarding desegregation and reporting back to the governor -
Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter to UGA
Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes were the first African Americans to enroll at the University of Georgia. -
Albany Movement
The Albany Movement began in the fall of 1961 and it ended in the summer of 1962. SNCC workers encouraged students and others in Albany to challenge the establishment and its segregation policies. From the start they faced opposition from whites as well as conservative African Americans. Divisions in the black community would continue to plague civil rights efforts throughout 1961 and 1962. In December, Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at a mass meeting. The next day, he marched and was arrested. -
March on Washington
March on WashingtonThe March on Washington was one of the largest political rallies for human rights in United States history. Thousands of Americans headed to Washington on Tuesday August 27, 1963. On Wednesday, August 28, 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr., standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial, delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech in which he called for an end to racism. -
Herman Talmadge
Herman Talamdge, governer and senator of Georgia,remained a foe of civil rights. Talmadge, along with other southern democrats, boycotted the 1964 Demoratic Nationakl covention. He supported white supremecy and was against any black rights. -
Benjamin Mays
Benjamin Mays was an African- American minister, educator, and scholar who was a mentor of Martin Luther King, Jr. He was one of the most outsoken men about segregation. Mays was a leader of the NAACP. He was the president of Morehouse College at the time of Martin Luther King's attendance to the school. -
Civil Rights Act
Civil Rights ActThe Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a landmark piece of civil rights legislation in the United States that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public. -
Lester Maddox
On July 3, 1964, Maddox and a throng of supporters wielding axe handles forcibly turned away three black activists. A photograph of the scene ran on the front pages of newspapers across the nation, creating an image of Maddox as a violent racist. Maddox proved reasonably progressive on many racial matters. As governor he backed significant prison reform, an issue popular with many of the state's African Americans. He appointed more African Americans to government positions. -
Maynard Jackson as Mayor of Atlanta
Maynard Jackson was elected as Mayor of Atlanta in 1973. He was the first African- American as mayor of a major Southern city. Jackson trnasformed the police departments in an effort to reduce charges of police mistreatment of African Americans. It helped raise blacks in the ranks. His political and business prominence led to service on numerous boards in the 1980s and 1990s, including those of Morehouse College, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, -
Andrew Young
Andrew Young left his position as pastor in 1961 to work with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the church-centered, Atlanta-based civil rights organization led by Martin Luther King Jr. Young assisted in the organization of "citizenship schools" for the SCLC, workshops that taught nonviolent organizing strategies to local people whom members of the organization had identified as potential leaders.
