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

Description

In this WSB newsfilm clip from October 4, 1965, state senator Leroy Johnson speaks at a press conference in Atlanta, Georgia, about racial tensions over school desegregation in Crawfordville, Georgia following a fact-finding mission to the community.The clip begins with two African American men, Leroy Johnson and another unidentified man, in a press conference, sitting at a table with microphones in front of them. Cameras film the scene, and a white reporter reaches toward the table to adjust a microphone. Senator Johnson, the first African American elected to the Georgia Senate since Reconstruction, reports on a fact-finding mission he and other African American leaders from around the state conducted in Crawfordville on Sunday, October 3. Johnson asserts that "the Crawfordville situation is sitting on a powder keg." He cites the lack of communication between the African American and white communities as "the most disturbing aspect about the situation" along with the fact that the white leadership has "no plans at all for the solution of the situation."In the second part of the clip, Johnson continues speaking about the situation in Crawfordville. He alludes to a threat made by Governor Carl Sanders to send the African American students boycotting the local African American high school to reform school. Johnson declares the solution to the problem in Crawfordville is not to send students to reform school. Instead, according to Johnson, "what is now needed is courageous and forthright leadership." He suggests that the governor should encourage local leaders to make desegregation a...

Record Contributed By

Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia