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

Description

In this WSB newsfilm clip from September 1959, an unidentified man comments on the progress of school desegregation in the South and on the closing of schools in Prince Edward County, Virginia.The clip begins with the man sitting at a desk with flags behind him. He indicates that there is progress in school desegregation in the current school year compared with the previous year. He reports that thirteen schools that were closed during the 1958 to 1959 school year are now open and that fifteen more school districts are operating on an integrated basis. He adds that schools in Florida are desegregating for the first time. He cites the Prince Edward County's school closures as a step backwards and says that "this action repudiated our tradition of providing free education for all." He mentions that the Prince Edward School Foundation is providing education for the 1,500 white students in the county. After a break in the clip, he notes that there are 1,700 African American students in the county, and no arrangements have been made for their education for the upcoming year, a situation he deplores.On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education ruled against segregation in public school systems, a move that effected seventeen states in the South and border region. While some of the effected states began desegregating schools that fall, most waited until the court issued its implementation decision the following year. By the fall of 1959, five states--Alabama, Georgia,...

Record Contributed By

Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia