Fast Food Race Rallies
The desegregation of Atlanta
Music
Music
1964: Racial Protests in Atlanta
In 1964 the city of Atlanta found itself in the climax of the Civil Rights Movement. Peaceful sit-ins were staged at multiple segregated restaurants around the city, involving both the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Comittee and the Ku Klux Klan.
Noteable rallies included the 1963 Toddle House Christmas Eve sit-in, the January 1964 protests at Krystal's Hamburger shop and Leb's Restaurant. Later that year found rallies continuing, such as March's Daniels' event.
Forman first became involved in the Civil Rights movement in 1960 while working as a reporter for the Chicago Defender and became aware of a story about white landlords evicting black farmers living on their land because the farmers registered to vote. He joined an effort to help the farmers and later that year participated in the "Freedom Rides." The Freedom Rides tested the new "integration" of southern public transit by riding on buses throughout the southern United States. He soon joined the SNCC where he became involved in a leadership role immediately. When he joined the SNCC, the organization's structure was very weak, but he was able to use his skills to reform the organization by directing fundraising and supervising the staff. He became the executive secretary in 1964, around the time of many of the Atlanta sit-ins. He was a leader in many of the demonstrations around the Atlanta area and was arrested multiple times for the sake of his cause. In 1968 Forman left the SNCC due to disagreements within the leadership of the organization.
James Forman
Calvin Craig
Paul Good
Major Figures in Atlanta
News Response
The majority of the information found in the Emory University library in regard to Calvin Craig paints him as a devoted "Grand Dragon" to the KKK. Most existing photos found in MARBL show Craig in his Klan attire giving speeches or fulfilling some klan related duties. He photographed many Klan events, such as the Krystal restaurant sit in as well as the Leb's sit in. What is very interesting about Mr. Craig is that from 1960-1968, he was a devoted Klan member. In April 1968, however, he called a news conference to announce his resignation from the Klan and his plans to work for integration. In 1970 he relapsed and began a new secret society for white Christian men called the Christian Americans Patriotic Society. In 1984, he changed his mind again and resigned from the group. He donated all his Klan robes and relics to the Emory library and spent the rest of his life conducting family research.
Watch a video of Craig as Grand Dragon at a cross burning in Albany, GA, 1962
An audio interview with Charlie Lebedin regarding the rallies.
Incidents
At the time of the protests, Good was a correspondent for ABC News, and covered many of the events. Good was present at the Krystal sit-in and the demonstration at Leb's restaurant. He was able to interview James Forman at the Krystal sit-in and protestors at the Leb's sit-in. What is so interesting about his reports is more what is going on in the background of the interview. It gives the listener a sense of what was happening at the demonstration and evokes many emotions from the listener.
During the 1960s in Atlanta and other southern cities a popular form of peaceful protest was the lunch counter sit-in. These sit-ins were organized and carried out by students and involved black protestors simply sitting at a popular lunch counters with white patrons. The protestors wanted restaurants to be integrated, so they integrated themselves into these public places. Most of these sit-ins remained peaceful, but a few turned violent.
Toddle House, Christmas, 1963. Click to view video of the sit-in.
At a sit-in at Leb's restaurant in Atlanta, the situation escalated and the restaurant was damaged badly. Yet the protests did little to effect the business at Leb's, as the "day after 14 arrested and mauled, lebs had biggest capacity crowd ever seen --- turned away whites, he was so crowded" (Newsweek). The 1964 boycott of a Krystal restaurant on January 18th saw many protestors arrested, including Martin Luther King Jr. and James Foreman, on the groups of "disorderly conduct- disturbing the peace." At this sit in the KKK also attended to act as a counter protest, which naturally created tension as SNCC members found themselves faced with obvious opposition.
Though the intent of these demonstrations was peaceful integration, there are still reports of police brutality directed at the black protesters. At the Krystal rally, "captain C. C. Hamby... went inside the Krystal and cofered with members of the Klan," then went outside and assulted a 17 year old participant, Taylor Washington (who was chanting the word "freedom" at the time), knocking him to the ground before arresting him. James Foreman reports having his wallet stolen, his hand "twisted behind [his] back by one of the approximately six or seven police officers that had surrounded [him]." Foreman's report continues with accounts of unnecessarily violent acts performed against him, culminating with him arriving at the jail, spitting up blood (Atlanta Fact Sheet). Other violent acts were committed against men and women of all ages-- but they were almost all African American.
Mayor Ivan Allen Jr.
The mayor of Atlanta at the time, Ivan Allen Jr., felt that the fast food protesters were being ungrateful, as Atlanta had been working hard to impliment progressive policies. Allen's concerns were with the protection of citizens and their basic rights, but also with the "reputation of Atlanta for fairness and adjustment to changing conidtions in the controversial areas of human rights." He was willing to meet with SNCC leaders, though many of the members such as James Foreman were frequently imprisoned, and thus unable to attend his organized meetings. Under Mayor Allen, a city that had already given African Americans "that funamental right of cictizenship... the right to vote," desegregated libraries and public transportation, progressed even further. Department stores voluntarily integrated, and policies of equal employment were implimented. Pools, theaters, hotels and other social venues no longer descriminated based on skin color. Allen created several of the committees that led to these changes, and "the number of Negroes holding city jobs above the classification of labor and building custodian increased to 336" (Allen).
Though Mayor Allen undoubtedly supported the desegregation of fast food restaurants, he did not approve of the"destructive efforts" that he saw as a public safety issue. Feeling unable to negotiate with protesters about his demands, he worked with the police chief and state attorneys to set up a concrete set of rules to define how future picketings and sit-ins should take place for minimal injury to the city while encouraging peaceful protests.
"As Mayor of All of the people of Atlanta, I am committed to use all of the forces of the city, including my own best efforts, to guarantee racial harmony."
~Ivan Allen Jr.
Click Image for news clip of Mayor Allen
Krystal, January, 1964
Krystal, January, 1964
Leb's, January, 1964
Audio of James Foreman's arrest and subsequent response at a sit-in (Good)
Good's account of the protest at Krystal's
Audio of the Krystal Protest (Good)
An account of police brutality at a
demonstration (Good)