Potter, Lou WNET (Television station : New York, N.Y.) Greaves, William House, Lou

Description

The segment on politics in the Deep South studies the work of black office holders and aspirants, such as State Senator Leroy Johnson of Georgia and Charles Evers, who heads an all-black slate in Fayette, Mississippi. It also examines the failure of the black electorate to make greater inroads into the white-dominated political scene, noting such factors as threats of violence, economic intimidation, and alienation from the political process. From Mary Holmes Junior College in Eastern Mississippi, Black Journal presents an address by Fanny Lou Hamer of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party indicating her intention to challenge Senator Eastland for his seat in 1972. On the floor of the Georgia State Senate, Senator Johnson is seen in a floor fight for a teacher tenure bill, which was defeated through the pressure of white teachers, who fell that they need less protection than their black opposites. The health needs of black residents in the Deep South range such problems as bad sanitation, lack of water, inadequate nutrition and the high mortality rate of mothers during childbirth. The episode visit the Tufts Clinic and the Community Hospital in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, which provide virtually the only medical care for blacks in a four county area. At the Tufts Clinic, viewers see an interview with the only black obstetrician in Mississippi and it will examine comprehensive medical health plans throughout the area. The segment also scans the shacks in which precarious health conditions exist and contains an interview with a midwife one of...

Record Contributed By

Library of Congress

Record Harvested From

Digital Commonwealth