This mostly silent WSB newsfilm clip from Macon, Georgia in February 1962 shows scenes from the bus boycott as well as African American attorneys Donald Hollowell and Horace Ward standing outside the United States Post Office and Courthouse with Reverends Elisha B. Paschal, Van J. Malone, Ellis S. Evans, and H. R. Rancifer who were arrested for trying to integrate bus service on February 9.

The clip begins by showing the United States Post Office and Courthouse in Macon, Georgia. Several African Americans exit the court building including Atlanta attorneys Hollowell and Ward. Four other African American men stand outside the courthouse; these are reverends Paschal, Malone, Evans, and Rancifer. The four men tested the Bibb Transit Company for enforcement of segregation in bus seating and were arrested February 9 for refusing to move to the back of the bus. Next scenes of downtown Macon are interspersed with scenes of the courthouse and statues. White citizens wait to board a bus; African Americans standing on the sidewalk appear to wait for cars that periodically stop at the curb. Signs have the slogan "Macon Ave.," "Houston Ave." and "Bellevue Hillcrest Hgts." Downtown another bus makes a stop, and two white women get off the bus before several other white citizens board the bus. A section of the clip appears to be inserted upside-down and backwards. Finally whites standing on the side of the road approach a waiting bus.

On February 9, 1962 Reverends Paschal, Malone, Evans, and Rancifer sat in the front of the bus in Macon, Georgia and were arrested when they refused to move to the back of the bus. Macon African Americans organized an extremely effective bus boycott against the Bibb Transit Company beginning February 12. Groups of white Macon citizens tried to counteract the effects of the boycott by participating in "ride-ins" and by buying tokens from bus drivers who sold them door to door. On February 27, 1962 the United States Supreme Court declared all segregation in travel within or between states to be illegal. On March 2 United States district court judge William A. Bootle ruled unconstitutional a number of Georgia laws calling for the separate seating of races in buses. Bootle also restrained the Bibb Transit Company from enforcing segregated travel. The bus boycott ended March 4, 1962.

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 9 min.): black-and-white, silent ; 16 mm.

Original found in the WSB-TV newsfilm collection.

WSB-TV newsfilm clip of African American ministers arrested for trying to integrate bus service and their lawyers in Macon, Georgia, 1962 February, WSB-TV newsfilm collection, reel 0921, 1:09/09:49, 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.