Year: 2024

Text: At a time when many cities experienced social unrest during the Civil Rights Movement, Brunswick achieved partial desegregation largely without national publicity. In the early 1960s, a television documentary called “Quiet Conflict” covered Reverend Julius Caesar Hope and members of the Brunswick Chapter of the NAACP as they integrated Brunswick’s businesses through nonviolent campaign tactics. Operating from lessons learned during the Albany Movement, Black and White civic, business, and community leaders relied on open communication for negotiation. Recognizing the economic impact of the African-American community (more than 40 percent of Brunswick’s total population) business leaders integrated with few instances of picketing. Brunswick schools also partially integrated through a voluntary plan proposed in 1963.  Brunswick and Glynn County schools did not fully integrate until a court-ordered mandate ended the dual school system in 1970.

Erected by the Georgia Historical Society, Georgia-Pacific LLC, and the City of Brunswick Historic Preservation Board