Abstract

Dixie in Black and White: II. The People Win in Georgia

Corridors had been packed for days. The people who were waiting for the decision shuffled their feet and talked in low voices. The general air of expectancy was a little dulled today; clothes were dampish and spirits lowered by an all-day rain outside. Then like a skyrocket on a Fourth of July night, the court's ruling came. M.B. Thompson is Governor of Georgia, by a five-to-two decision of the Supreme Court. The crowd moved into the halls of the Legislature and filled the seats of the galleries. The session was sixty-seven days old, would end on Saturday, and aside from the white-primary bill, the Legislature had passed only one other measure of state-wide significance. The few bills it had passed were now illegal and would not be law until and unless the new Governor, Thompson, decided to approve them.