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Benjamin Mays
Benjamin Mays was born into a slave family. He was focused on education adn worked to get a degree, Masters, and Phd. He served as a leading advocate before and after the Civil Rights Movement. He traveled to India to meet Mahatma Gandhi where they discussed passive resistance strategies. He became president of Morehouse College where he met Dr. Martin Luther King. They built a strong relationship that lasted until King died. After retirement he continued to work with organizations such as YMCA -
End of White Primary
The White Primary was used to keep African American from voting. Georgia was a one party state so the Democratic Primary was the election preventing African Americans from voting. In 1944 several African Americans led by Thomas Brewer and Primus King went to Columbus to try to vote in the white primary. They were kicked out of the courthouse. They sued the state in the case Chapman vs.King and the court ruled in favor of king. The white primary was removed for being unconstitutional. -
Herman Talmadge
Herman Talmadge was appointed into office for governor in 1946. However after a small amount of time, the Supreme Court ruled Talmadge as unconstitutional and was removed from office. In 1948, Talmadge won a special election and went back into office. Talmadge strongly opposed segregation and fought against the Supreme Court to desegregate schools. He also lobbied state sales tax to support the public education system. He also invested in agricultural systems until he was kicked out of office. -
1946 Governor's Race
In the 1946 election, three men claimed to be governor. Arnall was running for office against Eugene Talmadge. Eugene's supporters knew he was going to die so they had a secret ballot out in the rural counties where they told everyone to write Herman Talmadge. Eugene won but died before taking office. Arnall said that Eugene died, so he should be governor. Thompson claimed he was next in line since he was liutenant governor. Herman claimed that he won adn showed the votes from the secret ballot. -
Impact of Brown vs. Board on Georgia
In 1954 The Supreme Court declared that segregated schools were unconstitutional. Georgia opposed this and didn't follow this rule. The General Assembly went as far as shutting funding for schools that were desegregated. A year late a court ruling in Georgia ruled that schools must be desegregated immediately. This allowed many schools in the South to get on their feet and start integrating schools -
Martin Luther King Jr.
I Have a Dream SpeechMLK is known for being the leader of the civil rights movement because of all the hard work he put into getting blacks freedom. In 1954 MLK became a pastor of a church in Alabama. He became spokesperson for the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Leading after that MLK continued leading movements such as The March on Washington, Boycott in Albany, creation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and many more, MLK also gave many speeches such as the "I Have a Dream" speech. -
1956 State Flag
After the Brown vs. Board case, segregation was made illegal, Since many white people in the South wanted to show that they still supported segregation so they changed the flag include the Confederate flag. Many groups that hated African Americas also had this such as the KKK. This made African Americans feel segregated from the whites. -
SNCC
SNCCThe Student Non-violent coordinating Committee, SNCC for short, was a group of high school and college students that led non-violent protets. They were focused on Atlanta and Albany. The protest that they took part in in Albany was unsuccessful but helped them learn how to lead successful protests later. They organized sit-ins such as the sit-in they organized in Atlanta in 1960. The SNCC helped many African Americans earn seats in the General Assembly -
Sibley Commission
desegregation of public schoolsAfter the Brown vs. Baord of education case, Georgians still wanted schools to be segregated. Governor Vandiver was confused as to whether or not he should integrate public schools or shut them down. John Sibley, a lawyer led hearings in Georgia to determine if people would rather integrate public schools or shut them down. More voted for shutting down. Sibley still asked to desegrate on a limited basis. As they were thinking about shutting UGA, Vandiver gave in and accepted Sibley's idea. -
Desegregation of UGA
Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter were one of the top students in their class. They wanted to study in UGA. However UGA did not accept them solely because of their race, but made the excuse of not accepting them due to lack of housing. Holmes and Charlayne took this to court. The court ruled in their favor and they were allowed in UGA. Riots started and people started throwing rocks at Holmes' window. State patrol took them back home but a court ruling allowed them to continue classes at UGA. -
Andrew Young
Young was active in the Civil Rights Movements, focused mostly on voter registration drives. He began working for the SLCC, organizing and taking part in noviolent protests, and eventually became close with Martin Luther King Jr. Young organized successful voter registration campaigns and demonstrations in the South. He began his political career in 1972, when he was elected as Georgia’s first African- American Congressman since Reconstruction. He was elected mayor of Atlanta in 1981. -
Albany Movement
Albany MovementIn the fall of 1961, many black people and organizations decided to protest teh segregation in Albany. Organization such as the SNCC took part in this. Eventually they also got MLK to join in the protests. Police and whites strongly resisted this which led to many protestors landing in jail. As protests went on, more, and more of them landed in jail, and not many were left tp actually protest. The Albany Movement was considered not sucessful but was known to be a learning experience for them. -
March on Washington
March on WashingtonThe March on Washington was a significant and successful protest that occured in 1963. Over 250,000 Civil Rights Activists marched up to Washington D.C. to push for civil rights legislation. It was during this march that Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "I Have Dream" speech. The march helped pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and The Voting Rights Act of 1965. -
Civil Rights Acts
The two Civil Rights Acts were the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 said that hiring, promoting and firing people should not have anything to do with race or gender. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 made sure no citizen was denied the right to vote based on race or color. -
Lester Maddox
Lester Maddox was a well known governor during an important period of time in Georgia. He was very segregationist however surprisingly, Maddox appointed more African Americans to government than any other governor. He received support from both black and white people. However he was disliked for not allowing state bulidings to put up flags in honor of MLK Jr, and for his fight against the civil rights platform of the Democratic Party at their 1968 National
Convention -
Maynard Jackson becomes Mayor of Atlanta
Maynard Jackson was the first black mayor of a major southern city, Atlanta. Jackson ran against Herman Talmadge in 1968 for Senate and lost. He however got majority vote from Atlanta. The next year, Jackson became vice-mayor of Atlanta, and became mayor 4 years later. He seved as mayor twice. While he was mayor, he provided more contract work to black owend businesss, expanded Hartsfield airport, and increased black involvment in the police force, such as promotions and more jobs.
