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

Description

In this WSB newsfilm clip dated June 29, 1973, civil rights leaders Reverend Joseph Lowery and Reverend J. D. Grier join Atlanta police chief John Inman in a press conference encouraging African Americans to apply for available positions as police officers.The series of clips is divided into three segments. The first segment begins at a press conference, where Reverend Joseph Lowery, vice chairman of Atlanta's Community Relations Commission, an organization functioning as a liaison between City Hall and African Americans city residents, notes that only one hundred twenty-one African Americans have been hired in the Atlanta police department in the past year. He remarks that the disparity between black and white officers on the police force will never be eliminated if the rate of hire for African American remains the same. Lowery also notes that more than two hundred eighty-one white officers have been hired in the past three years, a number that is greater than the total number of African American officers on the force. Speaking on behalf of members of the Commission, Lowery emphasizes that their position does not demand a reduction in the number of white police officers, but rather serves as an urgent call to increase the hiring of African American officers, which, Lowery adds, are necessary for effective law enforcement and public safety in the Atlanta community. Next, Reverend J. D. Grier proposes a doubling of efforts to hire more African Americans, and pledges to place one hundred African American candidates among the one hundred...

Record Contributed By

Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia