For years after emancipation or when enslaved people were freed, American citizens remained racially segregated, and despite challenges to that norm, the Supreme Court case Plessy versus Ferguson upheld the constitutionality of separate but equal.

This meant Jim Crow laws, or statutes that enforced racial segregation were legal.

The argument was that the Constitution never specified anything about separating people by their race.

So for nearly 100 years, white people and black people were segregated.

That is until the 1954 Brown versus Board of Education Supreme Court decision.

The court finally ruled that it was unconstitutional to treat people unfairly or differently just because of their skin color.

The ruling was clear, but in Georgia, the state's response to this decision wouldn't be so simple.

(upbeat music) Change can be a good thing, but there are times in history when people resist it or are slow to adapt.

The call for racial integration was one of those times.

In a nine to zero vote, the Supreme Court unanimously agreed that segregation laws were unconstitutional in its 1954 Brown V Board ruling.

This meant there was a federal order to provide all citizens equal protection or treatment under the law.

The ruling set an expectation, but it never set a date.

So the idea of massive resistance was promoted amongst segregationists and even some members of the General Assembly, Georgia's legislature.

They did not want desegregation and their beliefs and actions made many Black people fearful of occupying white spaces.

In Georgia, there was little public political support for integration and even less legal enforcement.

For over a decade, Georgia's governors and school officials argued that racial segregation was supported by both Black and white citizens.

So when state lawmakers came together for the 1956 legislative session, they did the complete opposite of what the Supreme Court had ordered states to do.

Instead of ending Jim Crow laws and integrating public spaces, Georgia's General Assembly defied the ruling and passed their own legislation to defend racial segregation.

They even went as far as proposing laws that would close public schools that desegregated and supported private schools instead.

They also threatened to prosecute local school officials who promoted integration, but it wasn't just laws they were changing.

In 1956, Georgia's lawmakers adopted a new state flag.

Now, Georgia's flag incorporated the Confederate battle flag.

The General Assembly's floor leader told the press that the flag would show the intention to uphold what we stood for, will stand for, and will fight for.

Basically, that was code for Georgia continuing its support of racial segregation.

In 1958, governor Marvin Griffin's term was coming to an end.

That fall, Earnest Vandiver, who promised to maintain racial segregation in the state, was elected the next governor of Georgia.

When he took office in January, 1959, he did his best to keep that promise and enforce discriminatory laws.

But despite who was in power in Georgia, some students, schools and activist groups still attempted to desegregate public schools.

In response to Georgia's policies, the NAACP filed a lawsuit in 1958.

It hoped the federal government would issue a mandate that would enforce integration statewide.

When a US District Court heard about the conflict in 1959, it ordered Georgia to come up with a plan to integrate Atlanta's public schools by December of that same year.

The courts thought that it would be better to begin integration in a metropolitan area, and that the remainder of Georgia would follow the Capital city's example.

By the time Governor Ernest Vandiver took office in 1959, federal courts had grown weary of Georgia's refusal to integrate and rightfully so.

The legal fights in Georgia during this time weren't just random events.

They were part of a bigger reaction to years of people pushing for equal rights.

All sorts of public spaces were grounds for public dispute, but schools and universities in particular were a major target.

Some pointed out that black people didn't receive equal services in schools, despite being taxed at a similar rate to white people.

In fact, Georgia spent over four times as much to educate white students as it spent to educate black students and paid white teachers over twice as much as black teachers.

As the fight for equal rights grew stronger, more black students applied to predominantly white schools.

They were hopeful and wanted a fair chance at a better education, but many of these schools didn't want them there.

Some even went to court to try to keep these students out.

Soon, governor Vandiver had a choice to make.

Close the public schools or follow federal desegregation orders.

There were many legal battles to force Georgia's public universities to review applications from Black students.

And when the schools finally agreed, the governor and other state leaders threatened to cut off their funding.

So instead of complying with federal rules, Vandiver stalled for time.

One major way he did that was through the Sibley Commission.

In 1960, Governor Vandiver tapped state legislator George Busbee to help him respond to one of the NAACP's lawsuits.

So Busbee introduced legislation to create the General Assembly Committee on schools.

They leaned on John Sibley, a known segregationist to organize the committee to make the final decision on integration.

The committee would be better known as the Sibley Commission.

Knowing it would be impossible to put off the federal government indefinitely, Sibley proposed a moderate approach that would follow orders, but in the slowest way possible.

The stall worked in more ways than one.

First, the establishment of the Sibley Commission bought the Atlanta school system another year to reorganize before it had to actually integrate its schools.

Second, the committee suggested holding public hearings to gather the opinions of citizens.

The plan was to put the decision back in the hands of the people in order to keep the heat off the state government.

But ultimately, the real goal was to use state's rights and public opinion as excuses to extend segregation.

Beginning in 1960, the Sibley Commission held 10 hearings across Georgia.

The idea was to generate support for a local option as a loophole that would not violate court rulings.

The commission gave the public and school leaders two options, keep fighting integration, even if it meant hurting public school systems, or change the state law to allow slow, gradual integration while still keeping most schools segregated.

By spring of 1960, the results were in.

The commission reported that 60% of Georgians claimed they would rather close all the public schools than integrate.

But that's now what happened.

Instead, John Sibley ignored his report's results and suggested Georgia follow federal law and let local school districts decide whether to integrate.

The General Assembly was scheduled to make its final decision during the 1961 session, but before they could take a vote, something unexpected happened.

A judge ordered that two Black students, Charlayne Hunter, and Hamilton Holmes had to be admitted to the University of Georgia.

Governor Vandiver tried to block them by cutting state funds and threatening to close the school, but a federal judge overruled him.

On January 9th, 1961, Hunter and Holmes became the first Black students to attend the university.

But soon after their arrival, a mob gathered outside Hunter's dorm.

Police had to use tear gas to break it up.

Realizing further resistance would harm Georgia's students and economy, Governor Vandiver finally backed down.

The University of Georgia was officially desegregated.

The state legislature also adopted the recommendations of the Sibley Commission to allow small scale integration.

Several months later, nine Black students entered the Atlanta Public School System.

Finally, a public school system in the state was peacefully desegregated.

Georgia's response to Brown versus the Board of Education left a complicated legacy.

Initially, Georgia's lawmakers resisted federal integration laws.

They even doubled down on wanting to keep things segregated by redesigning the state flag in 1956 and organizing the Sibley Commission.

These moves weren't subtle.

They sent a message, but eventually resistance ran into reality and the state could no longer avoid the truth, change was here.

Georgia's story shows that change can take time, and it sometimes happens in slow and messy steps.

(upbeat music)