This exhibit of letters and clippings documents the dispute between
The Red and Black editorial staff and the Board of Regents led by Roy V.
Harris over the editors’ article supporting integration of higher education in
Georgia. Located in the Front Gallery of the Russell Library, the exhibit will be
open November through December, 2003.
Introduction
After publishing several editorials challenging the efficacy of
racial segregation in Georgia's public schools, first in 1952 and again in the
fall of 1953, the editorial staff of the University of Georgia's student
newspaper, The Red and Black found itself targeted for attack by University
System Board of Regents' member, Roy V. Harris. He threatened to have the Board
of Regents withhold appropriations for the newspaper unless staff would "stop
running editorials advocating the abolition of the segregation in schools." At
Harris's behest, the University of Georgia placed The Red and Black under the
strict control of the Publications Control Board, which reviewed the content of
all future editorials. This action led to the resignation of editor Walter
Lundy, managing editor Bill Shipp, news editor Priscilla Arnold, and copy editor
Gene Britton. The four refused to surrender a free and unfettered press. This
struggle between the four members of The Red and Black staff and Roy V. Harris
and his supporters attracted national attention to Georgia's system of racial
segregation. It also highlighted the presence of dissent among southern whites
to a national audience. The struggle by Lundy, Shipp, Davis, and Britton to
preserve their right of free speech and a free press also resonated strongly
throughout the South and the Nation.
Red and Black editor Walter Lundy donates letters to the Russell Library
Once the dispute between The Red and Black editorial staff and Roy v. Harris and
the Board of Regents over the newspaper's editorials supporting integration and
its right to editorial control reached a national audience, the editorial staff
of the newspaper received a flood of mail from across the United States and
Canada. Walter Lundy, the editor of The Red and Black and an author of some of
the editorials, donated the collection of letters he received to the Russell
Library. The majority of the letters sent to Lundy express support for the
position on segregation he and the other editors espoused as well as for their
stance on free speech. Lundy also received a few letters chastising he and his
cohorts for their position. Similar to the wellspring of mail from individuals
and groups from all regions of the United States, a wide array of newspapers
from universities and colleges as well as local and national newspapers published
articles describing the dispute. The New York Times ran an article detailing the
controversy and quoting Roy V. Harris from an article he wrote for the Augusta Courier
where he described the editors as, "a little handful of sissy, misguided squirts."
The Times also quoted Harris asserting, "...the time has come to clean out all of
these institutions of all Communist influence and the crazy idea of mixing and
mingling of the races which was sponsored in this country by the Communist party."
Many of the letters Lundy received comment specifically on these inflammatory remarks
made by Roy Harris.
