1961.08.30 “Marching Through Georgia” by Cy Hungerford

1961.08.30 “Marching Through Georgia”
by Cyrus Cotton “Cy” Hungerford (1889-1983)
14 x 19 in., ink and graphite on paper
Coppola Collection

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cy_Hungerford

Hungerford worked for the Wheeling (West VA) Register before becoming editorial cartoonist for the Pittsburgh Sun for fifteen years from 1912. He joined the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 1927 and stayed there until his retirement in 1977.

African American students integrated Atlanta high schools on August 30, 1961.

After Brown v. Board of Education, an NAACP suit against the City of Atlanta in 1958 provided the catalyst. The integration process was carefully orchestrated to provide a positive representation of the city. The smooth integration process was the result of months of planning by the Organizations Assisting Schools in September (OASIS), a biracial coalition of four dozen community groups.

On September 8, 1961, Time Magazine reported: Last week the moral siege of Atlanta (pop. 487,455) ended in spectacular fashion with the smoothest token school integration ever seen in the Deep South. Into four high schools marched nine Negro students without so much as a white catcall. Teachers were soon reporting “no hostility, no demonstrations, the most normal day we’ve ever had.” In the lunchrooms, white children began introducing themselves to Negro children. At Northside High, a biology class was duly impressed when Donita Gaines, a Negro, was the only student able to define the difference between anatomy and physiology…

The Deep South states of Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina generally reacted with resistance and strategies to maintain segregation.

Mississippi employed tactics like "freedom of choice" plans, which often in practice limited the ability of African American families to choose integrated schools, and maintained internal segregation within desegregated schools. The state legislature even attempted to abolish all public schools through a constitutional amendment in 1961, though it failed.

Alabama's stance was one of staunch opposition to integration. Governor George Wallace, who famously campaigned on a platform of "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever," actively resisted school desegregation. The state legislature passed laws to forbid school desegregation, even jeopardizing federal funding.

White resistance in Alabama was strong, leading to the establishment of "segregation academies" as white parents withdrew their children from public schools in response to desegregation efforts.

South Carolina's approach was characterized by legal battles and a form of "measured resistance." The state's constitution explicitly mandated separate schools for white and Black children. In 1961, facing the threat of losing federal education funding, South Carolina passed a bill aimed at maintaining school segregation through strategies like providing scholarships to private schools.

The cartoon reflects the tone of historical images, and previews the famous desegregation painting by Norman Rockwell, "The Problem We All Live With." It depicts Ruby Bridges, a six-year-old African American girl, being escorted by four U.S. Marshals as she walks to the previously all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960. The painting was published in Look magazine in 1964 and was later displayed at the White House in 2011.