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WSB-TV newsfilm clip of bomb damage done to the home of African American attorney Arthur Shores in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963 September 4

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@ Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection

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

Description

This silent WSB newsfilm clip from September 4, 1963 shows the bomb damage done to the Birmingham, Alabama home of African American attorney Arthur Shores. The clip begins with African American men and women outside the home, some standing on a porch, some speaking to each other, and others walking up steps to the house. White men are also seen inspecting the home and speaking to one another. Damage to the home includes torn up blinds, a hole in the yard, and a wrecked corner of the house; no one had been injured in the bombing. Shores' house had also been bombed two weeks earlier, on August 21. Shores was the only African American lawyer in Birmingham during part of the 1930s and the 1940s. He was also one of few African American lawyers to argue his own cases in court during a time when most turned their arguments over to a white attorney. In 1956 Shores had successfully argued for the admittance of Autherine Lucy as the first black student at the University of Alabama, and was one of the lead lawyers during the integration campaigns earlier in the summer. The September bombing followed the otherwise peaceful integration of public schools in Birmingham earlier that day. African Americans responded to the bombing by rioting for several hours until they were dispersed by police. One African American died in the rioting and nearly twenty others were injured. Violent segregationists in Birmingham bombed homes and businesses of civil rights leaders so...
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Record Contributed By

Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia