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

Description

This silent WSB newsfilm clip from February 1970 shows a political cartoon drawn by Bill Daniels portraying Georgia governor Lester Maddox and Macon mayor Ronnie Thompson protesting school integration at the expense of a Georgia school child. The cartoon is shown in parts, focusing first on a cliff and a banner, tied to the end of a pen, with the slogan "Official defiance of courts." Governor Maddox and mayor Thompson use the pen to push a red-haired white boy off the cliff. According to the cartoon, the edge of the cliff leads to "chaos in Georgia schools." Governor Maddox is depicted as saying "We'll defy 'em if it takes th' last school child in Georgy!" The clip ends by showing the whole cartoon. Macon city and Bibb County schools were first desegregated by United States district court judge William A. Bootle in 1964. Although African Americans sought to increase the pace of desegregation, the Bibb county school board implemented a "Freedom of choice" plan, allowing African American parents to request school transfers although relatively few were granted. In late 1969 judge Bootle approved the school board's freedom of choice plan only to be reversed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in December which ordered a full integration and faculty merger by the beginning of the 1970 school year. Responding to a petition by the Macon branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the United States Supreme Court ordered full integration without additional delays on...

Record Contributed By

Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia