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

Description

This silent WSB newsfilm clip from May 9, 1961, shows Georgia governor Ernest Vandiver commenting on a federal school desegregation lawsuit recently initiated by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy against the school board of Prince Edward County, Virginia.The clip is divided into two parts. In the first segment of the clip, Vandiver, standing at a podium, appears to be speaking candidly to the audience. In the second part of the clip, Vandiver is filmed from the side while seated at a desk. Holding a lit cigarette, he speaks to a reporter who is off-camera.School desegregation lawsuits were first introduced in Virginia in 1951 in Davis, et al. v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, a suit that was later included in the 1954 United States Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education. On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled against segregation in public education. In response, Virginia legislators passed a series of laws designed to prevent school integration. Dubbed "massive resistance" by Virginia senator Harry F. Byrd, the laws eliminated funding and shut down integrated schools while they simultaneously furnished white families with tuition grants to educate their children in private schools. In the fall of 1959, Prince Edward county's schools closed rather than integrate.In April of 1961, with Prince Edward County public schools still closed, the United States Department of Justice filed a motion in Federal District Court to prevent Virginia from providing financial support to any public school in the state until the schools were...

Record Contributed By

Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia