OHD-001 No Other Road: 1953 Red and Black Editors Stand Up for Equality and Free Speech, 2003 November 10

Extent:

1 moving_image(s) 88 minutes

Biographical / historical:

In the fall of 1953 the four student editors of the Red and Black, Walter Lundy, Bill Shipp, Gene Britton, and Priscilla Arnold, defended the right of a young black man, Horace Ward, to be admitted to the all white University of Georgia School of Law. A series of editorials appeared earlier in 1952 and in the fall of 1953 that challenged racial segregation in Georgia's public schools. University System Board of Regents member Roy Harris threatened to have the Board of Regents withhold appropriations for the school newspaper unless the staff stopped running editorials advocating the abolition of segregation in schools. At Harris's request, the University of Georgia ultimately placed the Red and Black under the strict authority of the publications control board which would review the content of future editions and editorials. This action led to the resignation of both Lundy and Shipp who refused to surrender what had been a free and unfettered press. Their Wednesday, December 2nd, resignations were front page stories in the December 4th edition which was produced under the direction of acting editors Pricilla Arnold and Gene Britton. Arnold and Britton also declared their resignations on the editorial pages of the same edition.

–-Adapted from the introduction by Harry Montevideo to the No Other Road public oral history program.

Contents

Access and use restrictions