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

Description

This silent WSB newsfilm clip from early 1960 shows the Dobb's House restaurant at the Atlanta Municipal Airport, now Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, following its court-ordered desegregation. Although the clip is silent, there are some background noises during the playback.The clip begins with men inside the airport standing in front of a ticket counter advertising "Fly Eastern." Outside, cars park across the street from an airplane hanger. Later, WSB-TV reporter Aubrey Morris interviews Atlanta mayor William Hartsfield. African American attorney Donald Hollowell also speaks to a reporter with an unknown man, probably H.D. Coke of Birmingham, Alabama, standing beside him; the two men later walk out of the restaurant together. An African American man with a white beard sits on a chair at the Dobb's House entryway and opens the restaurant door with a string that is attached to the door handle. A white woman walks out of the restaurant, and groups of people walk past.On January 7, 1960 federal district judge Boyd Sloan ruled that the Atlanta Municipal Airport Dobb's House restaurant, which leased the restaurant from the city, could not segregate African American patrons behind screens. Atlanta attorney Donald Hollowell filed the lawsuit in behalf of H.D. Coke, an African American insurance agent from Birmingham, Alabama. An article in the Atlanta Journal on March 1, 1960 reported that Dobb's House attorney B.D. (Buck) Murphy announced the restaurant would continue to follow the injunction and not replace the segregation screens. Restaurant manager B.F. Buttrey indicated there had been very little...

Record Contributed By

Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia