| Summary: | The following segments are included:
0:00:01: Perry Hooper announcing his candidacy for the U.S. Senate during a press conference on March 1, 1968. Hooper, a Republican, was running for the seat that would be vacated by Lister Hill when he completed his term in office; Democrat James Allen ultimately won the seat.
0:02:07: Meeting of the Delegate Assembly of the Alabama State Teachers Association at Alabama State College on March 2, 1968. Bob Inman introduces the segment, which also includes footage of ASTA president Robert E. Lawson and Alabama State College president Levi Watkins addressing the group. Subjects discussed include a possible teachers' strike in Alabama and an ongoing strike in Florida; a resolution calling for a special legislative session to appropriate additional funds to education; and issues affecting schools in the state, such as inadequate funding, stressful working conditions, and faculty shortages.
0:06:21: Interview with ASTA president Robert E. Lawson during a meeting of the Delegate Assembly of the Alabama State Teachers Association at Alabama State College on March 2, 1968. He discusses two resolutions passed by the organization during the meeting: one expressing the organization's support for an ongoing teachers' strike in Florida, and another calling for a special session of the legislature to increase funding for education in the state.
0:08:39: Interview with ASTA executive secretary Joe Reed during a meeting of the Delegate Assembly of the Alabama State Teachers Association at Alabama State College on March 2, 1968. He discusses the organization's intention to ask the federal government to investigate hiring discrimination in local school systems: "In most cases our school boards have refused to hire Negroes in these positions, yet they're using Federal money. As you know, Title I, I believe operates more directly under the State Department of Education, and, of course, our delegates are rather concerned about the fact that this discrimination continues to exist. And, of course, you know that we have discrimination in the State Department of Education, also. In fact, they still have their staff segregated, so we're going to take a survey, and we're going to find out all local school systems which are discriminating, and we're going to ask the federal government to investigate every one of them and if necessary then we'll take some more action."
0:09:22: George Wallace at Dannelly Field in Montgomery during his 1968 presidential campaign. Seymore Trammell is with him.
0:09:41: Mary Grice, Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, expressing her support of George Wallace in the 1968 presidential election. In particular, she challenges Congressman Bill Dickinson (the incumbent Republican against whom the winner of the Democratic primary would run), to support Wallace should the House be called upon to decide the president, as per the terms of the 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: "With George Wallace a strong candidate for president, the American people, by their vote, may throw the presidential race into the House of Representatives. I here and now pledge my vote to George Wallace. Our incumbent Republican congressman has already announced he'll run again. I challenge him to make this same pledge of support to the people of Alabama. Will he support George Wallace? Or will he vote like the Republican Party line in Washington tells him to?"
0:10:28: Auction for the Hotel Albert in Selma, Alabama, on January 15, 1968. The Albert Hotel Company, which already owned the land on which the structure sat, purchased the building for $10,077. (The hotel was demolished in 1969.)
0:11:43: U.S. Civil Rights Commission hearing at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery on April 29, 1968. The theme of the hearings, which were held over a five-day period, was the economic status of African Americans citizens in the Black Belt counties of Alabama. Those presiding on the panel are Robert S. Rankin, Frankie M. Freeman, John A. Hannah (chairman), Eugene Patterson (vice chairman), William L. Taylor (staff director), Howard A. Glickstein (general counsel), and Reverend Theodore M. Hesburgh. Among the witnesses are Reverend Daniel Harrell Jr. of Camden, Alabama (at 0:13:17), and Harold Culmer, attorney from Commission's office of general counsel (at 0:14:52). A map hanging on the wall is titled, "Nonwhite Population of Alabama As Percent of Total Population By County: 1960."
0:15:48: Interview with Governor Albert Brewer at the airport in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 16, 1968, after his arrival there for the Southern Governors' Conference.
0:16:46: Governor Albert Brewer speaking at press conference at the State Highway Department Auditorium on July 10, 1968. He discusses recent fish kills on the Tombigbee River; the state's upcoming sesquicentennial in 1969; and a hearing about school desegregation in Barbour County , which was conducted by U.S. District Judge Frank M. Johnson on July 9: "I have expressed my concern many times about the efforts of plaintiffs and cases which are pending in courts in Alabama . . . both the federal courts and uh and the three judge panel, about following the Supreme Court decision and what we know as the Kent County case, in doing away with freedom of choice and requiring something in lieu of it, such as mandatory attendance zones. I think our opinion to as stated to you at a press conference a month ago was in line with the testimony according to the news reports taken in judge Johnson's Court yesterday, to the effect that mandatory attendance zones would destroy the public school system in Alabama because the people are simply not going to participate, have their children attend school under these conditions."
0:20:34: Senator Tom Radney speaking in July 1968 about the Alabama Legislative Council's upcoming study of Alabama Public Service Commission.
0:22:05: Dr. Levi Watkins, president of Alabama State College, discussing enrollment at the school during a committee meeting or hearing in July 1968. (The nature of the meeting is unclear, but it could be related to either the college's efforts to block the construction of the Auburn University branch in Montgomery, or Watkins's role on the Alabama Education Study Commission's Task Force I.)
0:23:11: Governor A. Brewer speaking about state budget surpluses during his weekly press conference on October 2, 1968, just after the start of the new fiscal year.
0:26:19: Governor A. Brewer announcing state employee pay raises during a press conference on October 3, 1968. Also present is Frank Cox, president of the Alabama State Employees Association.
0:28:13: Dr. Frank Rose, president of the University of Alabama, speaking at a press conference on May 10, 1968. He discusses a major fundraising initiative to expand the facilities and programs at the school's campuses in Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, and Huntsville.
0:29:51: Interview with Bob Vance, chairman of the state Democratic party in May 1968. He discusses low voter turnout for the Democratic primaries on May 7, as well as candidates who will head to run-offs in the major races.
0:32:41: Interviews with Bernard Reynolds and an unidentified representative of the Southwest Alabama Farmers Cooperative in Selma in March 1968. They discuss federal loans that SWAFCA had received from the Office of Economic Opportunity and the Farmers Home Administration, as well as an investigation of the organization that Reynolds had requested from the General Accounting Office.
0:34:12: Report by WSFA-TV's Bob Inman about the Democratic primary in Selma on March 5, 1968. Included are interviews with Mayor Joe Smitherman, who defeated Reverend L. L. Anderson and another candidate to secure the nomination (ultimately winning reelection in the August general election); Marius J. "Ace" Anderson, a local disc jockey (formerly of WRMA in Montgomery) and city council candidate headed to a run-off election on April 2; and Luther Pepper, Anderson's white opponent for city council (who ultimately won). Inman's questions and report focus on the significance of race in the election: "There is one thing that yesterday's voting in Selma did show, and that's the fact that whites are still voting for whites, and Negroes, for the most part, are still voting for Negroes. Negro candidates in Selma and elsewhere in the South are going to continue to have a hard time getting elected where negro voters are in the minority, but the signs of change are there. The hard lines of block voting are beginning to dim and possibly in the not too distant future, Negro voters will decide that for the time being at least block voting is not the answer to their problems."
0:38:51: Interview by WSFA-TV's Bob Inman with city council candidate Marius J. "Ace" Anderson after the Selma Democratic primary on March 5, 1968. They discuss the Dallas County Voters League's support of incumbent mayor Joe Smitherman over of Reverend L. L. Anderson, a local civil rights leader whom Martin Luther King Jr. endorsed.
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