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WSB-TV newsfilm clip of reporter Ray Moore interviewing United States attorney general Robert F. Kennedy about the Freedom Rides and about school integration, Washington, D.C., 1961

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@ Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection

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

Description

In this WSB newsfilm clip from the summer of 1961 in Washington, D.C., WSB reporter Ray Moore interviews United States attorney general Robert F. Kennedy about the Freedom Rides and school integration.The clip begins with United States attorney general Robert F. Kennedy sitting in a room with an Americanflag behind him. WSB reporter Ray Moore appears to be listening to something; in front of him are several pages with portions of text blacked out. The clip breaks a few times before the audio portion of the interview beings. Moore's first question to Kennedy about riots in Montgomery, Alabama, is incompletely recorded. In response to the question, Kennedy declares the unspecified charges are "simply untrue." Asked about his relationship with the Freedom Ride sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Kennedy claims that he first heard about the Freedom Ride on Monday, May 15, 1961, the day after the attack and bus burning in Anniston and Birmingham, Alabama. He asserts that he had not had any prior conversations about the rides with "CORE or anybody else." According to accounts of the civil rights workers involved in the Freedom Rides, the CORE office sent informational letters about the Freedom Rides two weeks before the May 4 departure from Washington, D.C. They reported sending letters to president John F. Kennedy; Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director J. Edgar Hoover, attorney general Robert F. Kennedy; the chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) and the presidents of Trailways and Greyhound bus companies. CORE...
Type:
Video
Contributors:
Moore, Ray, 1922Kennedy, Robert F., 1925-1968
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Record Contributed By

Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia