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The Lifetime of Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was the dominant leader of the civil rights movement in the 50s and 60s. King was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, and in 1948 he became a Baptist preacher. King's Montgomery church would play host to many key parts of the civil rights movement, such as the base of operations for the planning of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted from 1955 to 1956. In 1963, King was arrested in protests in Birmingham: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHnKeajhoIw -
Benjamin Mays Becomes President of Morehouse College
Benjamin Mays was a distinguished African American minister, educator, scholar, and social activist. He was also a significant mentor to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., as the two shared common ideas. Mays was also an outspoken opponent of segregation before the modern civil rights movement. Mays also led and participated in many organizations, including the NAACP. the YCMA, and the Urban League, to name just a few. -
Primus King Casts his Vote in the White Primary
On the morning of July 4, 1944, Primus King, an African American in Georgia, sought to cast a ballot at the Muscogee County Courthouse in Columbus in the Democratic Party's Primary. The party's primary provided the only occasion in which a voter was offered a choice between candidates seeking offices in state and local government. For this reason blacks were denied participation in the primaries. As a result, whites controlled both the local and state government, hence the name white primaries. -
The Three Governors Controversy Begins
In the wake of Eugene Talmadge's death, his supporters proposed a plan that allowed the Georgia legislature to elect a governor in January 1947. When the General Assembly elected Talmadge's son Herman Talmadge as governor, the newly elected lieutenant governor, Melvin Thompson, claimed the office of governor, and the current governor, Ellis Arnall, refused to leave office. Even though Thompson won the election, Talmadge won the special election in 1948 and became governor. -
Herman Talmadge Becomes Governor
Upon returning home from WWII, the son of governor Eugene Talmadge was thrust into politicial controversey. When Eugene Talmadge died after winning his fourth election for governor but before being sworn in, the General Assembly eventually elected Herman Talmadge as governor. (This led to the three governors controversy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Zgc_7QypH0) During Talmadge's administration the state enacted its first sales tax. Herman, like his father, was pro-segregation. -
Brown v. Board of Education Verdict
Formally Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas, in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896. Handed down on May 17, 1954, the Warren Court's unanimous (9–0) decision stated that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHnKeajhoIw -
Georgia Changes its Flag
*After the 1954 and 1955 Brown v. Board of Education decisions, the 1956 legislative session was all about following the idea of resistance towards school integration. In this atmosphere, legislation was passed to put the Confederate battle flag on Georgia's state flag. *It should be noted that although the new flag was created in 1956, the exact day and month are not the first of January. -
The Sibley Comission is Created
In 1960, Governor Ernest Vandiver Jr. had to decide between closing public schools or complying with a federal order to desegregate them. Not wanting to make the incredibly unpopular decision to integrate schools, Georgia's citizens would decide the issue. John Sibley, who opposed integration and was a staunch supporter of segregation was appointed head of the comission. However, Sibley realized that a plan of massive resistance was futile. 60% of the witnesses favored total segregation. -
SNCC is Founded
SNCC, or the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee emerged from the student-led sit-ins to protest segregated lunch counters in Greensboro, North Carolina, and Nashville, Tennessee. In Georgia, the SNCC focused on Albany and Atlanta. SNCC sought to coordinate youth-led nonviolent, direct-action campaigns against segregation and other forms of racism. SNCC members played an integral role in sit-ins, Freedom Rides, the 1963 March on Washington, and the Missisippi Freedom Summer. -
The First African-American Students Enter UGA
Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes were the first two African-American students at the University of Georgia. This was an important moment in civil rights history, as more and more colleges and universities began to integrate. -
The Albany Movement
The first mass movement to desegregate an entire community, the movement led to the arrest of 1,000s of African-Americans and to the arrest of Martin Luther King Jr.. The SNCC helped register African-American voters in Albany, which in turn led to desegregation and integration. Because of the movement in Albany, many nearby Georgia towns started to integrate their schools in the late 60s and 70s. -
The March on Washington
The march, known fully as the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom", was one of the largest political demonstrations in the United States and demanded civil and economic rights for African Americans. Around 250,000 people participated, and the march featured prominent civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Philip Randoplh, and Bayard Rustin, to name a few.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I47Y6VHc3Ms -
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is Enacted
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 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
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUiqMk_Tvww -
Lester Maddox Becomes Governor of Georgia
Maddox's term as Governor lasted from 1967 to 1971, during which he proved reasonably progressive on many racial matters, which was the opposite of the expected resistance towards integration. As governor he backed significant prison reform, and appointed more African Americans to government positions than all previous Georgia governors combined. However, at his Atlanta resturant, "The Pickrick", Maddox praticed segregationist policies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJJkuTb0rQQ -
Andrew Young Begins His Political Career
In 1972, Andrew Young was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the first African-American since Reconstruction to be elected to Congress from Georgia. After his time in Congress, Young returned to Atlanta and in 1981 was elected as the city's mayor. His election signaled the institutionalization of the revolution in black political power he had helped to create in Georgia -
Maynard Jackson Becomes Mayor of Atlanta
*Mayor Jackson was the first African American mayor of a major southern city. Jackson instituted affirmitave action programs, and as a result minority run establishments received more city business. An example of this was the building of a new terminal at the Hartsfield-Atlanta International Airport, which featured much minority participation in construction. Jackson also changed the police department in order to reduce charges of police mistreatment and to help blacks rise through the ranks.
