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ee TONIGHT’S
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
©1962 Storer Broadcasting Company £ D | if 1} R | A ie
1961 NATIONAL HEADLINER MEDAL AAG Ya@eh) 1961 FIRST AWARD—OHIO STATE
“FOR CONBISTENTLY as INST. “DEVELOPING INFORMED fs Tos ay aM) ee
OUTSTANDING EDITORIALS" ao CITIZENS IN ELECTION YEAR”
KEN BAGWELL DALE CLARK
GINERAL MANAGER DIRECTOR OF NEWS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Friday, January 11, 1963
Peyton Road has become the symbol of failure for Atlanta,
and we think it would be dishonest to fut any other
interpretation on it. Nearly everyone knows the grim story
by now. There was evidence of a breakdown of racial
barriers that would fut Negro occupants in an ali-white
residential area. The “block-busting" technique was being
employed, Efforts to work out an agreement failed.
And Aldermen responding to appeals for emergency action,
took it. They authorized a barricade on Peyton Road so it
would not be a through street, and there it has stood since
December 18. The stopping of through traffic to prevent
the encroachment of Negro home buying, puts the spotlight
again on probably the most serious rfroblem Atlanta faces.
ft 1s easy to get angry over a situation like
this, and plenty of people have.
It is easy to take sides--and the views of each
side are logical and persuasive. Getting angry and taking sides only
puts us on a battleground--from which there can be no winners, only
losers.
FILM The fact is that this barricade isn't going to solve the
(Barri- problem, and the sooner the factions on both sides agree
cade to meet and work out a compromise the better it will be
Area) for them and the city. This isn't a "Berlin Wall" type of
thing, and efforts to dramatize it and make wholesale
propaganda with it can only make the problem greater.
Atlanta's record doesn't deserve it. As Mayor Allen
points out, similar problems have been worked out in 51
areas in 1962,
WAGA-TV Editorial (Continued)
Our concern stirred by this Peyton Road
controversy must be centered on the fact that the overwhelming lack
of decent housing for the growing Negro population is simply not
being met.
FILM We cannot forever keep our eyes closed to the fact that
(Negro nearly 90,000 Negroes are living in substandard housing
Slum where plumbing and sanitation facilities are not adequate.
And even worse-=31,000 colored residents are living in what
is officiaily designated "dilapidated housing",-<-that which
is beyond repair and if they weren't giving cover to human
lives they could only be--and should be--destroyed.
Despite these facts, and despite the fact that the
population and the housing pressure grows greater every
month, we have no promise of a major program--and no real
sign of commitment by the city to develop one. Every piece-
meal housing project of any size has been the subject of a
battle royal, and voted down.
The alarm bell is ringing for this fast-growing
metropolitan area, and the Peyton Road incident is only the symbol
of a problem that is by no means confined to those residents.
FILM It's a grim reminder that we're fast coming to a dead-end
(Dead- on what already is a crisis. The planners, the Aldermen,
End the Mayor and County officials must move on this probiem
Sign) in '63:,
We must have public and private housing projects
started soon or we may have a whole series of Peyton Roads.
WAGA-TV Editorial is
telecast weekdays:s
73 A.M,
6:15 P.M. in PANORAMA
P.M.
iL in llth HOUR PANORAMA
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
©1962 Storer Broadcasting Company £ D | if 1} R | A ie
1961 NATIONAL HEADLINER MEDAL AAG Ya@eh) 1961 FIRST AWARD—OHIO STATE
“FOR CONBISTENTLY as INST. “DEVELOPING INFORMED fs Tos ay aM) ee
OUTSTANDING EDITORIALS" ao CITIZENS IN ELECTION YEAR”
KEN BAGWELL DALE CLARK
GINERAL MANAGER DIRECTOR OF NEWS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Friday, January 11, 1963
Peyton Road has become the symbol of failure for Atlanta,
and we think it would be dishonest to fut any other
interpretation on it. Nearly everyone knows the grim story
by now. There was evidence of a breakdown of racial
barriers that would fut Negro occupants in an ali-white
residential area. The “block-busting" technique was being
employed, Efforts to work out an agreement failed.
And Aldermen responding to appeals for emergency action,
took it. They authorized a barricade on Peyton Road so it
would not be a through street, and there it has stood since
December 18. The stopping of through traffic to prevent
the encroachment of Negro home buying, puts the spotlight
again on probably the most serious rfroblem Atlanta faces.
ft 1s easy to get angry over a situation like
this, and plenty of people have.
It is easy to take sides--and the views of each
side are logical and persuasive. Getting angry and taking sides only
puts us on a battleground--from which there can be no winners, only
losers.
FILM The fact is that this barricade isn't going to solve the
(Barri- problem, and the sooner the factions on both sides agree
cade to meet and work out a compromise the better it will be
Area) for them and the city. This isn't a "Berlin Wall" type of
thing, and efforts to dramatize it and make wholesale
propaganda with it can only make the problem greater.
Atlanta's record doesn't deserve it. As Mayor Allen
points out, similar problems have been worked out in 51
areas in 1962,
WAGA-TV Editorial (Continued)
Our concern stirred by this Peyton Road
controversy must be centered on the fact that the overwhelming lack
of decent housing for the growing Negro population is simply not
being met.
FILM We cannot forever keep our eyes closed to the fact that
(Negro nearly 90,000 Negroes are living in substandard housing
Slum where plumbing and sanitation facilities are not adequate.
And even worse-=31,000 colored residents are living in what
is officiaily designated "dilapidated housing",-<-that which
is beyond repair and if they weren't giving cover to human
lives they could only be--and should be--destroyed.
Despite these facts, and despite the fact that the
population and the housing pressure grows greater every
month, we have no promise of a major program--and no real
sign of commitment by the city to develop one. Every piece-
meal housing project of any size has been the subject of a
battle royal, and voted down.
The alarm bell is ringing for this fast-growing
metropolitan area, and the Peyton Road incident is only the symbol
of a problem that is by no means confined to those residents.
FILM It's a grim reminder that we're fast coming to a dead-end
(Dead- on what already is a crisis. The planners, the Aldermen,
End the Mayor and County officials must move on this probiem
Sign) in '63:,
We must have public and private housing projects
started soon or we may have a whole series of Peyton Roads.
WAGA-TV Editorial is
telecast weekdays:s
73 A.M,
6:15 P.M. in PANORAMA
P.M.
iL in llth HOUR PANORAMA