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A More Perfect Union

The New Georgia Encyclopedia is supported by funding from A More Perfect Union, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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Albany Movement

Albany Movement

Protesters march down Broad Street in Albany during the Albany Movement, one of the largest civil rights campaigns in Georgia. From 1961 to 1962 Black residents protested the city's segregationist practices. Around 1,200 protesters were imprisoned as a result of their activities during the movement.

Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #dgh231-86.

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Walter White

Walter White

A prominent African American figure and spokesperson during the early civil rights years, Walter White served as chief secretary of the NAACP from 1929 to 1955.

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection, #LC-USF34-013342-C.

Clarence A. Bacote

Clarence A. Bacote

As chair of the Atlanta All-Citizens Registration Committee in 1946, Clarence A. Bacote (right) increased the number of Black registered voters in Atlanta from 6,976 to 21,244.

Swearing in of A. T. Walden

Swearing in of A. T. Walden

Atlanta mayor Ivan Allen (right) swears in A. T. Walden as judge of the Atlanta Municipal Court on February 3, 1964. Walden, the first Black judge appointed in Georgia following Reconstruction, served as president of Atlanta's NAACP branch from 1924 to 1936.

Benjamin Mays

Benjamin Mays

Benjamin Mays, president of Morehouse College from 1940 until 1967, attends a birthday party in his honor on August 11, 1973.

Courtesy of Atlanta History Center.

W. W. Law, Leader of NAACP

W. W. Law, Leader of NAACP

W. W. Law, standing in front of the King-Tisdell Cottage in Savannah, became the leader of the state NAACP in 1955. Law was reelected eight times.

C. B. King after Beating

C. B. King after Beating

An injured C. B. King, in 1962, talks to reporters after being caned by Dougherty County sheriff Cull Campbell in the sheriff's office. King had visited the county jail to check on an injured white demonstrator, William Hansen. Hansen's jaw had been broken in a beating he received when he was put in a cell with other white prisoners who objected to the civil rights protests.

Courtesy of Cochran Studios/A. E. Jenkins Photography

Leroy Johnson

Leroy Johnson

Leroy Johnson desegregated the Georgia General Assembly when he won his seat in 1962 and went on to become one of Georgia's most powerful state senators. During his tenure, Johnson revised the literacy test for voting rights, making voting more accessible to all citizens of Georgia.

Courtesy of Georgia Capitol Museum, University of Georgia Libraries

King and Hollowell

King and Hollowell

Attorney C. B. King (left) with attorney Donald L. Hollowell (center), who worked to gain admittance of Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter to the University of Georgia.

Courtesy of Cochran Studios/A. E. Jenkins Photography

Hamilton Holmes

Hamilton Holmes

In 1961 Hamilton Holmes (center) became one of the first African American students to gain admission to the University of Georgia after a two-year legal battle, led in part by Donald Hollowell (left). Holmes's father, Alfred "Tup" Holmes (right), was an Atlanta businessman.

SCLC Leaders Marching

SCLC Leaders Marching

Ralph David Abernathy (second from left) marches with Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King Jr. (center) in 1966 on the Georgia state capitol. All were influential leaders during the early years of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Ralph David Abernathy and Martin Luther King Jr.

Ralph David Abernathy and Martin Luther King Jr.

Ralph David Abernathy (right) and Martin Luther King Jr. were central organizers of the Montgomery bus boycott, which demanded that Black passengers be treated fairly on public transportation. 

Courtesy of David Fankhauser

Coretta Scott King

Coretta Scott King

Coretta Scott King, sitting beside Ralph David Abernathy (right) at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, speaks to the press after the assassination of her husband, Martin Luther King Jr., in 1968. For nearly forty years after her husband's death, King continued to promote their shared vision of equality and nonviolence.

Joseph Lowery

Joseph Lowery

Joseph Lowery stands before the SCLC headquarters in Atlanta. In 1977 Lowery succeeded Ralph David Abernathy as president of the SCLC, which has been based in Atlanta since its inception in 1957.

Lowery at Lockheed Martin Protest

Lowery at Lockheed Martin Protest

Joseph Lowery voices his dismay on February 22, 2000, over alleged racial discrimination practices at Lockheed Martin. Behind him are Lockheed workers who came to lend support to the protest.

Hosea Williams

Hosea Williams

Hosea Williams, a civil rights leader in both Savannah and Atlanta, speaks at a rally in 1974. In 1963 Williams joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and worked with Martin Luther King Jr. until King's assassination in 1968. Williams continued to work with the SCLC until 1979.

Hosea Williams

Hosea Williams

Hosea Williams led two demonstration marches in Forsyth County in 1987. The first march, held in celebration of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, was attacked by several hundred members of the Ku Klux Klan. The second march, attended by Coretta Scott King, was held in protest of Klan activities in the county.

Atlanta Leaders

Atlanta Leaders

Three prominent civil rights leaders from Atlanta gather in 1987 to endorse the candidacy of Richard Arrington Jr. for mayor of Birmingham, Alabama. Arrington won the election to become the first Black mayor of that city. From left, Herman J. Russell, Andrew Young, Richard Arrington, and Jesse Hill.

Courtesy of Archives Division, Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, Atlanta–Fulton Public Library System, Harmon Perry Photograph Collection.

Hunter and Holmes, UGA

Hunter and Holmes, UGA

Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes, the first Black students to enroll at the University of Georgia, are pictured here at the end of their first day on campus in January 1961.

Walden and Borders

Walden and Borders

Members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People gather in February 1957 for civil rights hearings held before the U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C. Prominent leaders from Georgia include A. T. Walden (second row, fourth from left) and the Reverend William Holmes Borders (second row, fifth from left).

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Visual Materials from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Records, #LC-USZ62-126520.

Albany Movement

Albany Movement

(Left to right) Thomas Chatmon, Marion King, and an unidentified woman register to vote, to the apparent dismay of the office worker. They are accompanied by young Jonathon King and Slater King (far right).

Courtesy of Cochran Studios/A. E. Jenkins Photography

Slater King and Irene Asbury Wright

Slater King and Irene Asbury Wright

Slater King and Irene Asbury Wright lead a group of protestors in Albany. Wright, dean of students at Albany State College, resigned in protest on hearing that Albany State students had been expelled for participating in demonstrations.

Courtesy of Cochran Studios/A. E. Jenkins Photography

Andrew and Jean Childs Young

Andrew and Jean Childs Young

Jean Childs Young is pictured with her husband, Andrew Young, during his tenure as mayor of Atlanta in the 1980s. During those years, Jean Childs Young founded and chaired the Mayor's Task Force on Public Education and was active in other educational endeavors, including the Georgia Alliance for Public Education.

Courtesy of Archives Division, Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System

John Lewis and Julian Bond

John Lewis and Julian Bond

John Lewis (left), who served as executive director of the Voter Education Project from 1971 to 1977, is pictured with Julian Bond in the Mississippi Delta during a Voter Mobilization Tour in 1971.

Vernon Jordan

Vernon Jordan

Vernon Jordan, an Atlanta native, rose to national prominence during the 1960s and 1970s as a lawyer and civil rights activist. As part of the legal team responsible for forcing the University of Georgia to admit African Americans, Jordan escorted Charlayne Hunter, the first Black woman enrolled at the university, to the admissions office in 1961.

Courtesy of National Urban League