Atlanta's 2011 Civil Rights Celebration Marks Anniversaries, New Discoveries

/PRNewswire/ -- Unexpected actions make for extraordinary stories. Who would expect that a young Martin Luther King Jr. would perform at the segregated movie premiere of "Gone with the Wind" in 1939? Who would think that revenue from the novel would fund medical scholarships for graduates of Morehouse College in Atlanta, an all-male, historically black college?

As the home of the Civil Rights Movement, Atlanta is the perfect destination to explore the history, personalities and places where one of America's most important movements was centered. Visitors will find that Atlanta's Civil Rights story extends beyond commonly known icons and venues.

The 25th anniversary of the first observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday on January 17, 2011 and the 75th anniversary of the publishing of "Gone with the Wind" bring forward the little-known connection between the leader of the civil rights movement and the author of one of the most popular novels in history.

Newly discovered correspondence between Margaret Mitchell and the president of Morehouse College Dr. Benjamin E Mays paints the author in a new light. Mitchell, who wrote "Gone with the Wind" in a small apartment in Atlanta, donated thousands of dollars to Morehouse College to fund undergraduate educations and medical and dental scholarships for graduates. According to her letters, she saw a disparity in African-American healthcare. Instead of accepting the status quo, she bravely devoted herself to fixing the problem.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., born and raised in Atlanta, attended Morehouse College, where he was granted early admission at age 15. Just five years before, the 10-year-old Dr. King performed at the segregated festivities for the premiere of "Gone with the Wind" with the boys' choir of Ebenezer Baptist Church. Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. had been urged to boycott the celebration by other community leaders because African Americans were not allowed to attend, including the film's actors. A brave and forward thinker, King Sr. attended because he was invited.

Mitchell quietly fought against racial prejudice, but did not get a chance to see Martin Luther King Jr. become the strongest voice for equality. Decades after their deaths, we are still learning about their impressive efforts to make Atlanta a beautiful city void of the stereotypes associated with their time.

This month, celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta with the following events:

* 2.5 Mile Youth Stop the Violence Run in Honor of the 25th Anniversary of the National King Holiday


Saturday, Jan. 8 at 9 a.m.

The King Center

* 4th Annual King Peace Program: Celebrating the Peace Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.


Thursday, Jan. 13 at 6 p.m.

The King Center

* Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's King Celebration Concert


Thursday, Jan. 13 at 8 p.m.

King International Chapel, Morehouse College, Atlanta

* Martin Luther King, Jr. Annual Commemorative Service


Monday, Jan. 17 at 10 a.m.

Ebenezer Baptist Church

* Martin Luther King, Jr. Service Summit Hosted by Hands on Atlanta


Monday, Jan. 17 at 7:30 a.m.

Begins with Freedom Rally at Ferst Center for the Performing Arts at Georgia Tech

For more information on Atlanta's civil rights history, visit www.atlanta.net/civilrights.

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Human and Civil Rights Exhibition Opens June 16 at National Archives at Atlanta

/PRNewswire / -- The struggle for freedom is a recurring theme in the annals of American history, and it is the subject of a new exhibition of milestone documents opening June 16 at the National Archives at Atlanta.

To mark the 75th anniversary of the National Archives and Records Administration, the National Archives at Atlanta opens Documented Rights, a traveling exhibition of original documents from each of the 13 regional branches of the National Archives.

Documented Rights presents records that give voice to the national struggle for human and civil rights. It features more than 80 documents, facsimiles, images and sound recordings, including:

-- Selected documents from all five court cases that comprised Brown v.
Board of Education Topeka, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that
ended school segregation -- exhibited for the first time together;
-- Court records of the schooner Amistad, that tell the story of 53
Africans who resisted enslavement, overpowered the ship's captain and
were found off the coast of Long Island;
-- Court records from San Francisco in the 1890s chronicling the
citizenship odyssey of San Francisco-born Wong Kim Ark;
-- The official logbook recording the WWII evacuation and relocation of
Aleuts in Alaska;
-- Court records reflecting the efforts of white residents of Koinonia
Farms, Georgia, to overcome various forms of discrimination;
-- An early Montgomery Improvement Association booklet by Martin Luther
King, Jr.; and
-- A court martial order for Second Lt. Jackie Robinson who refused to
move to the back of the bus on a military post.


Documented Rights is part of a nationwide series of commemorative events that includes a one-day symposium at the National Archives at Atlanta on June 13 on the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement; registration for the symposium is closed.

The exhibition is free and open to the public at the National Archives at Atlanta, 5780 Jonesboro Road, Morrow, Georgia. The facility hours are Tuesday - Saturday, 8:30 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. Call 770-968-2100 for more information or see http://www.archives.gov/southeast/.

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UGA to Host Andrew Young Premiere of Civil Rights Documentary

The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia Libraries will host Ambassador Andrew Young as he presents the premiere of his new feature-length civil rights documentary, How We Got Over, at 7 p.m. on Monday, March 30.

The event, in Room 102 of the Miller Learning Center, is free and open to the general public, as well as UGA students, faculty and staff.

How We Got Over uses unique archival footage from the WSB and WALB Newsfilm Collections to re-frame the story of the civil rights struggle. The immediacy of this footage, mostly unseen since the time of its original broadcast in the 1950s and ‘60s, brings our nation’s struggle for racial equality to life.

An abridged version of the documentary was broadcast nationally as an episode of the series Andrew Young Presents. The feature-length version, to be seen here for the first time, includes never-before shown material, including a 2009 interview with Charlayne Hunter-Gault, one of the first African Americans to attend the University of Georgia and an alumna of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Young will introduce the film and answer questions after the screening.

Young, former congressman, United Nations Ambassador and mayor of Atlanta, was a leader in the American Civil Rights Movement. According to Robert A. Pratt, professor and head of the UGA department of history, “as one of Dr. Martin Luther King’s closest advisors and confidants during the 1960s, Young brings a unique perspective to the tragedies and triumphs that reflected at once the worst and the best of American society as it struggled to make good on the promises of freedom and equality for all. Those of this current generation who believe that the election of President Barack Obama has ushered in a new ‘post racial’ order will most surely have their eyes opened as they reflect upon the sacrifices made to get us to this point.”

How We Got Over draws on raw news footage from WSB-TV in Atlanta and WALB-TV in Albany. Held by the UGA Libraries’ Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection, the moving images—about 450 clips—cover a broad range of key civil rights events. The clips also provide the foundation for UGA’s Civil Rights Digital Library.

“The video archive covers both national figures and local leaders,” according to Ruta Abolins, director of the Brown archives. “There is more than two hours of film related to Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King’s role in the Albany movement is documented extensively, including clips of speeches at mass meetings, his arrest by local police, press conferences, and his visit to a pool hall to urge local African Americans to adopt non-violence in achieving change in Albany.”

For more information see www.andrewyoung.org or http://crdl.usg.edu.

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U.S. Postal Service and Morehouse College Celebrate Black History Month

The U.S. Postal Service will once again join with Morehouse College in celebration of Black History Month on Thursday, February 26, with a special stamp program and presentation. The program and the unveiling of the Pioneers of Civil Rights commemorative stamps will be held at the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel, 830 Westview Drive, SW on the Morehouse College campus. The ceremony will begin at 11:00 a.m. and is open to the public.

Joining in the celebration will be Kate F. Wiley, U.S. Postal Service Atlanta District Manager, Dr. Robert Michael Franklin, President of Morehouse College, Beverly Travis, cousin of lawyer and educator Charles Hamilton Houston, one of the subjects featured on the Civil Rights Pioneers stamps and Alethea Bonell , Regional Youth Director, NAACP National Office. In addition to the stamp unveiling, there will be sales of the Civil Rights Pioneers stamps and other merchandise to mark the occasion.

The Civil Rights Pioneers commemorative stamps immortalize the courage, commitment and achievements of 12 civil rights leaders: Ella Baker, Daisy Gatson Bates, J.R. Clifford, Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, Charles Hamilton Houston, Ruby Hurley, Mary White Ovington, Joel Elias Spingarn, Mary Church Terrell, Oswald Garrison Villard and Walter White. The stamps were issued on Feb. 21 as part of the NAACP’s Centennial Celebration. White and Hurley helped establish the NAACP’s Atlanta branch.

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William H. Scott Exhibition Opens Jan. 23 at Emory

An exhibition on the papers and personal effects of an African American leader who brought early attention to the issue of civil rights will open at Emory University’s Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL) Friday, Jan. 23.

"Slave, Soldier, Citizen: The Journey of William Henry Scott," an exhibition by Randall K. Burkett, curator of African American Collections, will be in display in MARBL Jan. 23-Aug. 8. A public opening and reception is scheduled 1:30-3:30 p.m. in MARBL.

Following the opening will be an address by Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP, at 4 p.m. in Cannon Chapel, part of the King Week celebration at Emory Jan. 19-27.

Witnessed Civil War

Scott (1848-1910) grew up in Virginia in his master’s house and didn’t realize he was a slave until he was eight years old. He immediately began plotting his escape and found an opportunity in 1862, when Union troops moved into the area. Major Loring Muzzey of the 12th Massachusetts Regiment was looking for a bright young slave to educate, and he and the regiment took Scott under their wing. Scott spent three and a half years as Muzzey’s aide-de-camp, witnessing some of the worst battles of the Civil War.

Scott became a teacher, owned a bookstore in Washington, D.C., and was ordained a Baptist minister. Politically active throughout his adult life, he founded the Massachusetts Racial Protective League in 1896 and was one of the 29 original members of the Niagara Movement, the predecessor of the NAACP.

"As a teacher, historian, preacher and political activist, he was a fearless advocate for full citizenship rights at a time when, increasingly, those rights were being crushed by Northern indifference and Southern intransigence," says Burkett.

Highlights

The exhibition encompasses photographs, sermon manuscripts, broadsides and pamphlets documenting all aspects of Scott’s life, including

A sword Scott snatched from a dead Confederate officer during a lull in the Battle of Fredericksburg.
Recordings of Scott’s sermons read by the Rev. C. T. Vivian, one of Atlanta’s eminent civil rights leaders.
Tintypes and photographs including a portrait of Muzzey, a photo of young Scott in his Union uniform and many family portraits.

Scott’s achievements came to light when one of Burkett’s students in Massachusetts wrote his senior thesis about the original members of the Niagara Movement and located Scott’s grandson, Henry T. Scott. The grandson bequeathed the family papers to Burkett with the request that his grandfather’s story be brought to public attention.

The exhibition is free and open to the public during normal library hours. MARBL is located on the 10th floor of the Woodruff Library on the Emory University campus, 540 Asbury Circle, Atlanta, GA 30322, marbl@emory.edu, 404-727-6887. Cannon Chapel is located at 515 Kilgo Circle on the Emory campus.

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U.S. Department of Labor Final Rule will Expand FMLA for Military Families and Clarify Rules for Workers and Employers

PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Department of Labor will publish a final rule on Nov. 17 to update its regulations under the 15-year-old Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) -- a measure that will help workers and their employers better understand their rights and responsibilities, and speed the implementation of a new law that expands FMLA coverage for military family members.

"This final rule, for the first time, gives America's military families special job-protected leave rights to care for brave service men and women who are wounded or injured, and also helps families of members of the National Guard and Reserves manage their affairs when their service member is called up for active duty," said U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. "At the same time, the final rule provides needed clarity about general FMLA rights and obligations for both workers and employers."

"This common sense, balanced rule is the product of a two year-long transparent process involving about 20,000 public comments and reflects the careful consideration of the views of FMLA's stakeholders," said Victoria A. Lipnic, assistant secretary for the Labor Department's Employment Standards Administration.

Provisions in the final rule call for increased notice obligations for employers so that employees will better understand their FMLA rights, while revising the employee notice rules to minimize workplace disruptions due to unscheduled FMLA absences. The final rule also contains technical changes that reflect decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court and lower courts.

Featured final rule actions implementing the statutory expansion of FMLA for military families:

Military Caregiver Leave: Implements the requirement to expand FMLA protections for family members caring for a covered service member with a serious injury or illness incurred in the line of duty on active duty. These family members are able to take up to 26 workweeks of leave in a 12-month period.

Leave for Qualifying Exigencies for Families of National Guard and Reserves: The law allows families of National Guard and Reserve personnel on active duty to take FMLA job-protected leave to manage their affairs - "qualifying exigencies." The rule defines "qualifying exigencies" as: (1) short-notice deployment (2) military events and related activities (3) childcare and school activities (4) financial and legal arrangements (5) counseling (6) rest and recuperation (7) post-deployment activities and (8) additional activities where the employer and employee agree to the leave.

ADDITIONAL REGULATORY PROVISIONS:

The Ragsdale Decision/Penalties: The updated rule contains technical changes to be consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Ragsdale v. Wolverine World Wide Inc. The court ruled that the regulation's so-called "categorical" penalty (requiring an employer to provide 12 additional weeks of FMLA-protected leave after the employee had already taken 30 weeks of leave) was inconsistent with the statutory limit of only 12 weeks of FMLA leave and contrary to the law's remedial requirement that an employee demonstrate individual harm. The new rule removes these penalties and clarifies that if an employee suffers individual harm because the employer did not follow the notification rules, the employer may be liable.

Waiver of Rights: The department has finalized its longstanding position that employees may voluntarily settle their FMLA claims without court or departmental approval. However, prospective waivers of FMLA rights will continue to be prohibited.

Serious Health Condition: While the rule retains the six individual definitions of "serious health condition," it adds guidance on some regulatory matters. First, it clarifies that if an employee is taking leave involving more than three consecutive calendar days of incapacity plus two visits to a health care provider, the two visits must occur within 30 days of the period of incapacity. Second, it defines "periodic visits to a health care provider" for chronic serious health conditions as at least two visits to a health care provider per year.

Light Duty: At least two courts have held that an employee uses up his or her 12-week FMLA leave while on a "light duty" assignment. Under the final rule, time spent in "light duty" work does not count against an employee's FMLA leave entitlement, and the employee's right to job restoration is held in abeyance during the light duty period. If an employee is voluntarily doing light duty work, he or she is not on FMLA leave.

Perfect Attendance Awards: The final rule changes how perfect attendance awards are treated to allow employers to deny a "perfect attendance" award to an employee who does not have perfect attendance because he or she took FMLA leave - but only if the employer treats employees taking non-FMLA leave in an identical way.

Employer Notice Obligations: The final rule consolidates all employer notice requirements into a "one-stop" section of the regulations to clear up some conflicting provisions and time periods. Further, the final rule clarifies and strengthens the employer notice requirements to employees in order that employers will better inform employees about their FMLA rights and obligations, and allow for a smoother exchange of information between employers and employees.

Employee Notice: The final rule modifies the current provision that had been interpreted to allow some employees to notify their employers of their need for FMLA leave up to two full business days after an absence, even if they could provide notice sooner. Under the final rule, the employee must follow the employer's normal and customary call-in procedures, unless there are unusual circumstances.

Medical Certification Process (Content and Clarification): The final rule, which is the result of significant stakeholder feedback (including a September 2007 meeting at the department on "medical certifications"), recognizes the advent of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the applicability of HIPAA's medical privacy rule to communications between employers and employees' health care providers. Responding to concerns about medical privacy, the rule adds a requirement that limits who may contact the health care provider and bans an employee's direct supervisor from making the contact.

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Civil Rights Digital Library Wins Award for Archival Excellence

The Civil Rights Digital Library is the 2008 winner of an Award for Excellence in Archival Program Development conferred by the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board. Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel and GHRAB chairperson Ross King presented the award as part of the GHRAB Awards ceremony at the Georgia Archives in Morrow on Oct. 6. The CRDL is a GALILEO initiative based at the University of Georgia.

The Civil Rights Digital Library is an archive of news film and related historical materials from educational institutions across the U.S. According to P. Toby Graham, director of the Digital Library of Georgia, it is the most ambitious and comprehensive initiative to date to provide educational content on the Civil Rights Movement via the Web.

“The University Libraries have been proud to play a leadership role in developing the Civil Rights Digital Library,” said William Gray Potter, university librarian, “and we are pleased that GHRAB shares our enthusiasm for this important initiative.”

The CRDL promotes an enhanced understanding of the movement through its three principal components: a digital video archive delivering 30 hours of historical news film; a civil rights portal providing drawing together holdings from more than 90 libraries and allied organizations across the nation; and instructional materials to facilitate the use of the video content in the learning process.

The Civil Rights Digital Library receives financial support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute for Museum and Library Services.

The CRDL will continue to grow through its partnerships with allied organizations across the U.S.

The Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board (GHRAB) works to promote preservation, access, and educational use of Georgia’s documentary heritage. Its twelve members are appointed by the governor.

See the Civil Rights Digital Library online at http://www.civilrightslibrary.org.

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Civil Rights Leader to Speak at Georgia Southern September 24

Georgia Southern University will welcome Morris Dees as its Fall Civic Engagement Speaker on Wednesday, Sept. 24, in the Performing Arts Center at 7 p.m. The speech is free and open to the public.

Dees is a civil rights leader who is the co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit group specializing in lawsuits involving civil rights violations, domestic terrorism, and hate-motivated crimes.

Dees will present his lecture “With Justice for All,” in which he discusses how a commitment to justice for all will chart our nation’s future as America becomes more diverse and economic disparity widens. Dees will share his experiences and insights, explaining how and why he sold a lucrative publishing business to become an attorney and then founded the Southern Poverty Law Center. Dees will also discuss hate crimes across the country and the need for the teaching of tolerance, love, and respect for one another.

For more information on Morris Dees or the Fall Civic Engagement Speech, please contact Jodi Middleton, Assistant Director for the Office of Student Leadership and Civic Engagement at Georgia Southern University, at or call (912) 478-1435.

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