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WSB-TV newsfilm clip of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking of African American civil rights, including voting rights, Augusta, Georgia, 1962 April 2

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@ Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection

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

Description

In this WSB newsfilm clip, given in a church in Augusta, Georgia, April 2, 1962, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. shares his call for a "Second Emancipation Proclamation," and presents the goal of doubling the number of registered African American voters in the South. King describes his October 1961 request to President John F. Kennedy to issue a "Second Emancipation Proclamation," symbolically freeing African Americans from discrimination and marking the centennial of President Abraham Lincoln's initial declaration. King also addressed the issue of African American voting, saying "one of the most significant steps that the Negro can take at this hour is that short walk to the voting booth." The statement was made in advance of intensified voter registration efforts by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and their work with the Voter Education Project (VEP) with the goal of doubling the number of registered African American voters in the South. King proposed that every Southern church should have a social action committee with the motto of "Every member ... a registered voter." King quips that "even Mr. Roy Harris respects votes." Roy V. Harris, Augusta native and former Speaker of the house in the Georgia House of Representatives, was considered a "master of white-only, rural-dominated politics" and was known to staunchly support segregation. The selections of King's comments end with affirmations that although those in the movement may face violence, jail, death, and slander, ultimately, "we shall overcome." After a period of applause for Dr. King's remarks, reverend C....
Type:
Video
Contributors:
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968Hamilton, C. S. (Charles Spencer), 1927-1997
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Record Contributed By

Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia