Seventh District Congressman John W. Davis introduced a bill in the US House of Representatives that would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by creating a freedom of choice program that would allow parents to choose which school within their local school system their children should attend, and also ensuring that teachers would be allowed to serve in the schools in which they were contracted to teach. Under the bill, the federal government could not withhold any financial aid from a school on account of racial composition so long as parents were allowed to freely choose any school within their system for their children. It would also make it unlawful for a federal agency or department "to coerce or induce the school board to bus students to alter the racial composition of any student body at a public school."
Talk about rubbing it in: East Rome head coach David Patterson invited West Rome parents and students to attend a showing of the highlights from the prior week's East Rome-West Rome football game, to be shown in the East Rome High School auditorium. I wonder if he would have been so eager to show that footage had East Rome not won the game...
Piggly Wiggly had sirloin steak for $1.09 a pound, Sealtest ice cream for 39¢ a half-gallon, and lettuce for a dime a head. A&P had chicken breasts for 39¢ a pound, apples for 19¢ a pound, and Van Camp's chili with bean for 33¢ a can. Kroger had chicken liver for 49¢ a pound, Eight O'Clock coffee for 65¢ a pound, and grapefruit for a dime each. Big Apple had center cut pork chops for 79¢ a pound, Campbell's tomato soup for 12¢ a can, and collard greens for 19¢ a bunch. Couch's had ground beef for 55¢ a pound, Bama jelly for 25¢ a jar, and bananas for a dime a pound.
The cinematic week began with Last Summer (starring Barbara Hershey & Richard Thomas) at the DeSoto Theatre, My Side of the Mountain (starring Teddy Eccles) at the First Avenue, Sweet Charity (starring Shirley MacLaine) at the Village, and The Chairman (starring Gregory Peck) at the West Rome Drive-In. The weekend switchout brought Once Upon a Time in the West (starring Henry Fonda) to the DeSoto, Uncle Tom's Cabin (starring John Kitzmiller & Herbert Lom) to the First Avenue, and Days of Anger (starring Lee Van Cleef) to the West Rome Drive-In, while Shirley MacLaine continued to her Sweet Charity drive at the Village.
The 5th Dimension held on to number one for a third week with "Wedding Bell Blues." Other top ten hits included "Take a Letter Maria" by RB Greaves (#2); "Come Together/Something" by the Beatles (#3 & 4--it's an A-sided single that took both slots), "And When I Die" by Blood, Sweat, & Tears (#5); "Smile a Little Smile for Me" by the Flying Machine (#6); "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" by Steam (#7); '\"Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday" by Stevie Wonder (#8); "Suspicious Minds by Elvis Presley (#9); and "I Can't Get Next To You" by the Temptations (#10).
And what a great week it was for the album charts: The Beatles' Abbey Road took the number one slot, while Led Zeppelin II was in second place, Green River by Creedence Clearwater Revival was in third place, Santana's eponymous first album was in fourth place, and I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! by Janis Joplin took fifth place.
This week in 1969, Sesame Street debuted on National Education Television (the predecessor to the Public Broadcasting Service).
***
And now some bad news: this will be the last installment of "Fifty Years Ago This Week" until early 2020—and this one is totally beyond my control. Apparently, over the years, the Rome News-Tribune has lost its archive copies of all newspapers from November 13th, 1969, through January 2nd, 1970. (That also explains why there is so little local news this week--I only had access to newspapers for the first three days of the week). Without copies of those newspapers, I have no source for information for this column for the next few weeks. I apologize in advance for the absence, but I promise I'll be back as soon as we reach the time period for which newspapers are available once again!
No comments:
Post a Comment