WSB-TV (Television station : Atlanta, Ga.)

Description

In this silent WSB newsfilm clip possibly from November 25, 1960, African Americans hold a sit-in at a lunch counter and picket the McCrory's and F.W. Woolworth stores in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. The clip begins with a group of two African American men and two African American women standing together on the sidewalk next to a building. Under a store's awning, other African Americans walk past the store or into the building. A small number of African Americans with picket signs walk back and forth in front of McCrory's store. In an unidentified store, African American students wait for service at a lunch counter sit-in. Outside, other protesters carry signs with the slogans, "Jim Crow must go" and "Don't pay to be segregated." The camera pans past the F.W. Woolworth store and a next-door parking lot. Although a variety of civil rights organizations worked to better the situation of African Americans in Atlanta throughout the twentieth century, African American students from the Atlanta University center became heavily involved in leading protests following the nationally publicized February 1960 student-led sit-ins in Greensville, North Carolina. Atlanta University Center students involved with the Committee on Appeal for Human Rights (COAHR) worked with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to organize segregation protests in Atlanta. The two groups organized a "Fall Campaign" beginning on October 19, 1960; on October 22 African American leaders agreed to a month-long truce in which city officials, business owners, and African Americans worked toward a compromise. When no agreement was...

Record Contributed By

Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia