Civil Rights in Georgia
After Reconstruction, Georgia, along with all of the southern states, created strict “Jim Crow” laws that took away many civil rights of African-Americans. In turn, these laws created a segregated society where blacks and whites could not sit next to one another on a bus, drink from the same water fountains, or even be buried in the same cemetery. Though African-Americans had been fighting for civil rights before the Civil War, the “modern” Civil Rights Movement of the 1940s-1970s finally achieved many of the goals that African-Americans had been working toward for centuries. These included achieving voting rights and the end to government sponsored segregation. |
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The 1940s and 50s saw a major push by African-Americans to fight segregation and reclaim the civil rights that were taken from them during the Jim Crow era. While the Civil Rights Movement began from the moment the southern states passed the Jim Crow laws, the 1940s and 50s were a time of organized, and usually, peaceful resistance that helped to end these laws. African-Americans who were returning home from World War II began to push for civil rights. Based on their role in the war, President Harry Truman desegregated the armed forces. Nationally, organizations such as the NACCP went to court to combat unjust segregation laws and won many of the cases. In turn, leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. focused on ending segregation with the use of economic boycotts such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1954.
In Georgia, African-Americans successfully ended the white primary in 1944, and for a time, were successful in helping to elect moderate white politicians who were supportive of their cause. However, after the 1946 governor’s race and the election of Herman Talmadge, several segregationist politicians were elected by Georgia voters who worked to continue and strengthen Jim Crow laws in the state. In protest of pro-civil rights court rulings such as Brown v. Board of Education, Georgia’s legislators changed the state flag to incorporate the Confederate battle flag in 1956. Due to this “massive resistance” by many white Georgian’s, African-Americans in the state would not gain full civil rights for almost another decade.
In Georgia, African-Americans successfully ended the white primary in 1944, and for a time, were successful in helping to elect moderate white politicians who were supportive of their cause. However, after the 1946 governor’s race and the election of Herman Talmadge, several segregationist politicians were elected by Georgia voters who worked to continue and strengthen Jim Crow laws in the state. In protest of pro-civil rights court rulings such as Brown v. Board of Education, Georgia’s legislators changed the state flag to incorporate the Confederate battle flag in 1956. Due to this “massive resistance” by many white Georgian’s, African-Americans in the state would not gain full civil rights for almost another decade.
Topics
- Herman Talmadge
- Benjamin Mays
- The 1946 Governor's Race
- End of the White Primary
- Brown vs. Board of Education
- Martin Luther King Jr.
- The 1956 State Flag
- Student Non-VIolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
- Sibley Commission
- Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter
- Albany Movement
- March on Washington
- Civil Rights Act
- Maynard Jackson
- Lester Maddox
- Andrew Young