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

Description

In this WSB newsfilm clip from 1965, a reporter comments on the segregationist polices at the Lester Maddox cafeteria in Atlanta, Georgia and interviews Lester Maddox and civil rights lawyer Donald Hollowell about the situation.The clip is divided into two segments. The clip begins with two white men walking through a door into the Lester Maddox Cafeteria. A sign on the door indicates that the business does not serve integrationists. Inside the restaurant, white men and women sit at tables around the room. An African American man in a uniform buses tables, and a white man uses the telephone. Lester Maddox walks by carrying a pitcher in each hand. Next, African American civil rights lawyer Donald Hollowell sits in an office.After a break in the clip, reporter Fred Briggs stands outside the Lester Maddox Cafeteria and comments on the situation. He explains that the Lester Maddox Cafeteria used to be the Pickrick Restaurant. He mentions that the Pickrick sign is now covered. The covering, seen in the clip, reads "This light turned out by L.B.J." The sign refers to President Lyndon B. Johnson who had a reputation for turning off lights at the White House and who signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act which outlawed racial discrimination by businesses. Briggs reports that since September 1964 the restaurant has been known as the Lester Maddox Cafeteria. Although the name has changed, Briggs continues, the trademarks of the Pickrick remain, including the same recipes and a table of segregationist literature. Briggs indicates...

Record Contributed By

Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia