(Updated) PBS Feature on Atlanta's 1960s-era Civil Rights Movement

Veteran Atlanta journalist Stan Washington posted a special page on Facebook about Tuesday night's documentary about the Civil Rights Movement in Atlanta. To contact WPBA Channel 30 about the documentary and review future programming, visit the Public Broadcasting Atlanta website.

Here is the main text of his message:

A 30-minute documentary about the Civil Rights Movement in Atlanta will air Tuesday, Jan. 17 at 10:30 p.m. on WPBA Ch. 30. Atlanta hasn't always been this so-called "Black Mecca". A great many people had to put their lives on the line to change Atlanta into what it is today. The students of the Atlanta University Center schools played an integral part in desegrating this city.

But even after the students and other community leaders helped break down legal segregation, Atlanta was still not a hospitable place for black folk. The fight continued all through the 70s.  

I know. I grew up here and walked many a picket line with the late Rev. Hosea Williams, Rev. James Orange and many others. As an intern at the Atlanta Voice, I covered the story of the Atlanta Police shooting 23 to 24 black males to death in 1973 and 1974.

I covered the police riot in downtown Atlanta in 1974 that made Atlanta looked like Birmingham in the 1960s when police brutally attacked civil rights marchers.

So if you have no clue to the civil rights movement in Atlanta don't miss this program on Tuesday night.