WSFA audiovisual item D126.0010

The following segments are included: 0:00:02: Interview with a representative of the National Urban League during a day-long conference sponsored by the organization at Alabama State College in Montgomery on November 14, 1968. He is seated under a sign that reads "Birmingham Urban League / Na...

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Bibliographic Details
Format: Electronic
Published: Alabama Department of Archives and History
Online Access:http://cdm17217.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/wsfa/id/1305
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Summary:The following segments are included: 0:00:02: Interview with a representative of the National Urban League during a day-long conference sponsored by the organization at Alabama State College in Montgomery on November 14, 1968. He is seated under a sign that reads "Birmingham Urban League / National Urban League" (Birmingham had the only official chapter of the League in the state). 0:01:54: Black and white individuals building and repairing houses on land donated by Amelia Boynton in the Bogue Chitto community of Dallas County, Alabama. The homes were being prepared for individuals who had participated in Resurrection City, a temporary settlement constructed in May 1968 during the Poor People's Campaign in Washington D.C. The footage, which was shot in November 1968, also includes an interview with the group's leader, Ray Robinson, who explains the motivation for constructing this new "Love City." (The audio quality is poor.) 0:03:14: Jim Robinson reporting on the success of a recent Montgomery United Appeal campaign in November 1968. (Robinson later served as the mayor of Montgomery from 1971 to 1977.) 0:04:18: Dedication of Richter Hall at Craig Air Force Base in Selma, Alabama, on November 17, 1968. The Air University Band of Maxwell Air Force Base performed at the event, and Mayor Joe Smitherman of Selma also attended. The footage is silent. 0:05:50: Ceremony for the unveiling of a monument to Lurleen Wallace in the rotunda of the Capitol in Montgomery on November 18, 1968. Among those in attendance are Governor Albert Brewer; former governors John Patterson, Jim Folsom, and George Wallace; and Wallace's children, George Jr. and Lee. 0:08:46: Elementary students and teachers in classrooms at Forest Avenue School in Montgomery in November 1968. (At least one African American student is in attendance.) Also included is an interview by WSFA-TV's George Mitchell with school principal Mary E. Mastin. They discuss the teacher shortage at the school, which has led to large class sizes and, in some cases, combined grades in the same room. 0:11:44: George Jones of the National Education Association addressing the Alabama Principals and Teachers Conference at Alabama State College in Montgomery on July 29, 1968. In particular, he expresses concern over the decreasing number of African American principals as schools around the state integrate: "Who among you has the guts to stand up and demand that the Negro principal does not become the vanishing breed in this state today? Because that's what's happening, not only this state but every state across the South we are losing them. . . . Who will provide the kind of leadership called for as schools reach new and more difficult levels and degrees of desegregation or of integration of both faculty and students, as schools reach new peaks of size, of complexity of sophistication and quality, as parents and students and teachers demand ever increasing involvement in educational administration?" 0:14:18: Governor Albert Brewer speaking about George Wallace's presidential campaign during his weekly press conference on August 7, 1968: "The candidates are talking more and more like Senator Goldwater talked in '64, I think. Well, really and frankly, they're talking more and more like Governor Wallace talks all the time. It's obvious that he's had a tremendous impact on these people and that their actions are designed to try to make inroads into his strength, not only, I think, in the South but all over the country. It seems to me that the American people, though, are not going to pay so much attention to what these candidates say as to their record of performance in years gone by, and if that's the case I don't think they'll have any impact or effect at all on his candidacy nor his support with the people." 0:15:55: Interview with George Wallace about his presidential campaign in August 1968. When asked about reports that Richard Nixon plans to take a strong states' rights stance in his own campaign, Wallace expresses distrust of the national Republican Party: "It was the Eisenhower - Nixon administration that sent troops to Arkansas, it was the Chief Justice Warren appointed in that administration that took our schools away from us, when he was in Alabama in 1966 he was asked, Mr. Nixon was, do you favor the '64 and '65 Johnson Civil Rights Acts that have been used to take over our schools and other institutions and he said 'yes' . . . he did say, I believe, in one of the news articles that they were not going to jam anything down the throats of the southerners. Well, he is correct about that: there's nothing left to jam down our throats. They have jammed enough down our throats that we're sick up to here, and he had a part in doing it along with the national Republican Party. Now they come along here and begin to see that people are upset about it, and they begin to talk out of both sides of their mouths and that's not going to fool the people of not only our region, but the country." 0:17:28: Governor Albert Brewer speaking about a recent proposal to abolish teacher tenure during his weekly press conference on August 7, 1968. 0:19:45: Interview with George Wallace about his presidential campaign in August 1968. He expresses optimism for his prospects in Maryland, and he criticizes the national leadership and actions of both Republicans and Democrats ("Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum"). 0:22:02: George Wallace greeting supporters at Dannelly Field in Montgomery on August 9, 1968, before leaving for a two-day campaign stop in North Carolina. His young daughter Lee is with him. 0:22:36: Governor Brewer giving the commencement address during the summer graduation ceremony in Charles Bunyan Smith Hall at Troy State University on August 9, 1968. In his remarks, he criticizes the current state of the Vietnam War: "I wish, just as you, for an end to the war in Vietnam, and I find that our people in Alabama are puzzled over what is apparently a no-win policy in Southeast Asia. We do not favor unilateral withdrawal, but we are unable to understand the failure of our national leaders to use our tremendous weaponry and manpower to bring this conflict to a speedy and successful conclusion. We need to free the hundreds and thousands of our young men in the armed forces there for gainful contributions to our unsettled domestic problems."