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

Description

In this WSB newsfilm clip from November 1960, Atlanta reporter Ray Moore interviews New Orleans Police Chief Joseph Giarrusso, Mayor DeLesseps Morrison, and the Gabrielle family, and the camera focuses on images of the community of New Orleans, Louisiana.The clip begins with New Orleans Police Chief Joseph Giarrusso sitting in an office being interviewed; reporter Ray Moore speaks to Giarrusso off-screen. Giarrusso explains that following a large demonstration against court-ordered school desegregation, the police barricaded an area and did not arrest demonstrators. Giarrusso explains the need to be "cognizant of community sentiment and feeling" and for the need "to be patient and tolerant with both elements if we are going to succeed."After a break in the clip, reporter Ray Moore is seen sitting in a home with a white family, James and Daisy Gabrielle and their first-grade daughter, Yolanda. Moore asks Daisy when she decided to take Yolanda to the integrated William Frantz Public School. Daisy explains that after the week-long Thanksgiving holiday, she decided to send Yolanda to the integrated school, even though she was scared, because she believed it was the right thing to do. The clip breaks again, and Moore asks James Gabrielle if he had anticipated his job loss and the community's strongly negative reaction to sending Yolanda to an integrated school. Gabrielle admits that he expected the neighbors would disapprove of the action, but decided it was more important to send his daughter to school than to keep his job. Moore speaks briefly to Yolanda...

Record Contributed By

Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia