In this WSB newsfilm clip from April 3, 1962, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) leaders reverend Wyatt T. Walker and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as well as an unidentified young man from the Augusta National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Youth Council speak to an audience in Tabernacle Baptist Church in Augusta, Georgia. The clip begins with a piano playing while the camera focuses on a podium. An unidentified young man pledges that he and the other members of the Augusta NAACP Youth Council will "fight hard and continuously without fear from any side" in order to help African Americans. He indicates that he will recite a poem that is not recorded in the clip. Next SCLC executive director Wyatt T. Walker speaks to the audience about the relationship between the NAACP and the SCLC, as well as about the work and the financial needs of the SCLC before asking the audience for financial contributions to SCLC. The clip breaks, and the audience sings a slow version of "Rise, shine, give God the glory" before the director asks the congregation to stand and sing "We are climbing Jacob's ladder." After the singing, Dr. King begins his address by quoting the statistic that the majority of the two billion, eight hundred million people in the world are not white and they live in Asia and Africa. King reminds the audience that while in the past the people in Asia and Africa have been "dominated politically, exploited economically, segregated and humiliated," things have changed. He points out that in the past twenty-five years, the number of independent countries in African grew from three to nearly thirty. King asserts that these newly independent countries in Africa "are saying that racism and colonialism must go" and they refuse to "follow or respect any nation that will subject a segment of its citizenry on the basis of race and color." King suggests that those who fight against segregation "are working to make the American dream a reality and these persons may well be the saviors of democracy." He proposes in order to "save the soul of America," people must reject segregation since it relegates a person to the status of a thing and "is a cancer in the body politic which must be removed before our democratic health can be realized." King recognizes the progress made so far and seems to indicate more must be done; the clip breaks and the rest of King's comments are not recorded. The clip ends with a seemingly unrelated color portion where a reporter asks a Mr. Duncan to share his experience with an airplane. Civil rights efforts in Augusta were led by the Reverend C. S. Hamilton, pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church and local NAACP president. In early April 1962, he led over one hundred young African Americans to test segregation at lunch counters. They found most lunch counters accepted their presence without imposing racial bars; Hamilton next announced plans to equalize job opportunities and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made his first formal appearance in Augusta. By the end of the month, picketing at a grocery store that refused to hire more African American cashiers and butchers led to violence, and a white sixteen-year-old boy was killed. The death of the young man apparently shocked the community and ended the violence. Augusta African Americans continued overcoming racial barriers; in 1963, local parks integrated as did voting places, and Brenda Cohen became the first African American at an all-white school in Richmond County.

Title supplied by cataloger.

The Civil Rights Digital Library received support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute of Museum and Library Services for digital conversion and description of the WSB-TV Newsfilm Collection.

1 clip (about 11 min.): black-and-white, sound ; 16 mm.

Original found in the WSB-TV newsfilm collection.

WSB-TV newsfilm clip of Wyatt T. Walker, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and an unidentified young man speaking at a mass meeting, Augusta, Georgia, 1962 April 3, WSB-TV newsfilm collection, reel 0902, 27:24/38:21, Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection, The University of Georgia Libraries, Athens, Ga, as presented in the Digital Library of Georgia.

Forms part of: Civil Rights Digital Library.