South Georgia Papers of Record

Jim Crow and the Early Civil Rights Period

Rural Georgia was particularly hostile to its Black residents in the Jim Crow Era. Newspapers from these areas covered the everyday injustices and deadly violence faced by Blacks and did so from the perspective of an unsympathetic White establishment. Counties such as Brooks, Mitchell, and Dodge were rife with lynching. Papers of record like the Quitman Free Press, Camilla Enterprise, and Eastman’s Times-Journal sought to downplay or outright ignore area lynchings, including those of Mary Turner and Eli Cooper. Rural southwestern Georgia counties earned violent sobriquets such “Bad Baker,” “Terrible Terrell,” and “Lynching Lee” and became early targets of SNCC activity in the state. Local White-owned papers like the Albany Journal, Americus Times-recorder, the Dawson News (Terrell County), and The Lee County Journal unapologetically covered the repression and bigotry of region in the post-war period and the civil rights activities of the Albany and Americus movements that activists organized in response to these injustices.

New Georgia Encyclopedia Resources

• "Civil Rights Movement [in Georgia]"

• "Segregation"

• "Lynching [in Georgia]"

• "Albany Movement"

• "Americus Movement"

• "Savannah Tribune"

• "Eugene Talmadge, 1884-1946"

• "Roy V. Harris, 1895-1985"

• "Marvin Griffin, 1907-1982"

Applicable Education Standards

• Disenfranchisement of Georgia's Black citizens, and the effects of Jim Crow laws and practices (SS4H6)

• The changing role of Blacks during World War II (SS5H4)

• Analyze the effects of Jim Crow laws and practices (SS5H6)

• Analyze the impact of Reconstruction on Georgia (SS8H6)

• Analyze how rights were denied to African Americans or Blacks through Jim Crow laws, Plessy v. Ferguson, disenfranchisement, and racial violence, including the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre (SS8H7)

• Explain the roles of Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. DuBois, and Alonzo Herndon in advancement of the rights of African Americans or Blacks in the New South Era (SS8H7)

• Examine antisemitism and the resistance to racial equality exemplified in the Leo Frank case (SS8H7)

• Evaluate the role of Georgia in the modern civil rights movement (SS8H11)

Online Exhibit Possibilities

• The Jim Crow Press in Georgia

• The Black Press During the Jim Crow Era

• The Civil Rights Movement in South Georgia

• Racial Violence in South Georgia

Potential Titles

• Americus Times-Recorder, Sumter County (1925-1963, 64 reels, daily, 79.5k pages)

• Albany Journal, Dougherty County (1940-1952, 2 reels, weekly, 1.4k pages)

• Lee County Journal, Lee County (1931-1959, 7 reels, weekly, 7.9k pages)

• Camilla Enterprise, Mitchell County (1926-1963, 15 reels, weekly, 18.5k pages)

• Dawson News, Terrell County (1926-1963, 16 reels, weekly, 21.5k pages)

• Quitman Free Press, Brooks County (1877-1963, 17 reels, weekly, 33.1k pages)

• Times-Journal, Dodge County (1900-1962, 21 reels, weekly, 27.2k pages)