Answer:
The civil rights movement in the
American South was one of the most significant and successful social movements in the modern world. Black Georgians formed part of this southern movement for full civil rights and the wider national struggle for racial equality. From Atlanta to the most rural counties in Georgia's southwest Cotton Belt, Black activists protested white supremacy in myriad ways—from legal challenges and mass demonstrations to strikes and self-defense. In many ways, the results were remarkable. As late as World War II (1941-45) Black Georgians were effectively denied the vote, segregated in most areas of daily life, and subject to persistent discrimination and violence. But by 1965, sweeping federal civil rights legislation prohibited segregation and discrimination, and this new phase of race relations was first officially welcomed into Georgia by Governor Jimmy Carter in 1971.
Early Years of Protest
Although the southern civil rights movement first made national headlines in the 1950s and 1960s, the struggle for racial equality in America had begun long before. Indeed, resistance to institutionalized white supremacy dates back to the formal establishment of segregation in the late nineteenth century. Community leaders in Savannah and Atlanta protested the segregation of public transport at the turn of the century, and individual and community acts of resistance to white domination abounded across the state even during the height of lynching and repression. Atlanta washerwomen, for example, joined together to strike for better pay, and Black residents often kept guns to fight off the Ku Klux Klan.
Around the turn of the century
political leader and African Methodist Episcopal bishop Henry McNeal Turner was an avid supporter of back-to-Africa programs. Marcus Garvey's Back to Africa movement in the 1920s gained support among Georgia African Americans, as did other national organizations later, such as the Communist Party and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Meanwhile, Black Georgians established schools, churches, and social institutions within their separate communities as bulwarks against everyday racism and discrimination.
Protest during the World War II Era
The 1940s marked a major change in Georgia's civil rights struggle. The New Deal and World War II precipitated major economic changes in the state, hastening urbanization, industrialization, and the decline of the power of the planter elite. Emboldened by their experience in the army, Black veterans confronted white supremacy, and riots were common on Georgia's army bases. Furthermore, the political tumult of the World War II era, as the nation fought for democracy in Europe, presented an ideal opportunity for African American leaders to press for racial change in the South. As some Black leaders pointed out, the notorious German leader Adolf Hitler gave racism a bad name.
African Americans across Georgia seized the opportunity. In 1944 Thomas Brewer, a medical doctor in Columbus,
planned an attempt to vote in the July 4, 1944, Democratic primary. Primus King, whom Brewer recruited to actually attempt the vote, was turned away from the ballot box. Several other African American men were turned away at the door. The following year a legal challenge (King v. Chapman et al.) to the Democratic Party's ruling that only white men could vote in the Democratic primary was successful. The decision was upheld in 1946. In response, Black registration across the state rose from a negligible number to some 125,000 within a few months—by far the highest registration total in any southern state. In the larger cities, notably Atlanta, Macon, and Savannah, local Black leaders used their voting power to elect more moderate officials, forcing concessions