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

Description

In this silent WSB newsfilm clip from Danville, Virginia, on July 12, 1963, policemen and state patrolmen arrest African Americans protesting segregation during a night-time march for civil rights.The clip begins with a white man wearing a suit and hat facing the African American demonstrators and using a megaphone to speak to them. Beside the man are white policemen who also face the protesters. Another policeman walks up to the demonstrators and points; he appears to continue speaking to them as he follows the line of demonstrators down the street and around the corner. The African Americans begin to move forward, and police lead an African American man away. Several officers escort another man down the street. A group of police and state patrolmen walk down the sidewalk and intercept African American female demonstrators and lead the women away by the arm. One African American man is roughly picked off the ground and carried away by three policemen.Civil rights demonstrations in Danville, Virginia, a community of nearly fifty thousand with a third of the population African American, began on May 31, 1963. Local African American civil rights leaders had tried negotiating with city officials the year before without much success. Although demonstrations were at first peaceful, local judge Archibald M. Aiken issued an injunction banning further racial demonstrations in the city. After Aiken issued the injunction, policemen began arresting demonstrators, and on June 8, three African American leaders were arrested and indicted on charges of "inciting the colored population to...

Record Contributed By

Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia