Pritchett contends that the press often misquoted his views on civil rights
Pritchett attempts to clarify his mischaracterization by the national press. He argues that he advocated for blacks' social rights through the legal system rather than through public appeals.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Laurie Pritchett, April 23, 1976. Interview B-0027. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
JAMES RESTON, Jr.:
And you say to the press, or are quoted as saying you can't tolerate the
NAACP or SNCC or any other Negro organization to take over this town
with mass demonstrations.
- LAURIE PRITCHETT:
-
Now that's what they said. They quoted me as saying that "We
would not tolerate the NAACP or SNCC or any other nigger
organization." And it was misquoted; I did not say
"nigger," and I didn't say anything about the NAACP. I
said that they should take the right of the NAACP and go to court and
not the street. And as a result of not going to the courts we would not
tolerate them taking over the city of Albany by force or any other
intimidation. We would not tolerate it: this is what I said, but they
took it out of context. That was not the national media; that was the
Atlanta General Constitution with McGill, you
know. You know he never did write us up right. The New York
Herald Tribune, the New York Times, Newsweek
and all this, they was right down the middle. But that's the only one
that quoted me as saying that we would not let this town be taken over
by a bunch of niggers.
JAMES RESTON, Jr.:
Were you conscious at that time of press relations?
- LAURIE PRITCHETT:
-
Oh yes.
JAMES RESTON, Jr.:
Were you very careful about your language?
- LAURIE PRITCHETT:
-
Sure. You know, the press had been to other places and been intimidated
(cameras broken, they were not able to walk the streets), and so we had
set up that every day, twice a day we'd have news conferences.
They'd come to my room at the hotel. You know, we
were living in the two downtown hotels in Albany; we had commandeered
them. All my police officers were living in the hotels. We lived in the
hotels for months at a time. They'd come to my room at night and we'd
sit down and talk. But they could go anywhere they wanted to. We kept
them alerted as to what was going to happen, because we had sources of
information. We knew when they were going to march, where they were
going to march, what they were going to do. Some of the news reporters,
Fred Miller from the New York Herald Tribune, and one
other one (he's down in Raleigh now with the Raleigh
Observer) . . .