Atlanta Leaders Protest CBS Movie Depicting Murders of Black Children

Community leaders, upset about a coming CBS movie depicting the child murders that shook this city from 1979 to 1981, Thursday night began a campaign to protect Atlanta’s image.

“I think the rest of the nation is about to be misinformed and misled,” the Rev. Joseph Lowery, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said of “The Atlanta Child Murders.”

The two-part, five-hour movie--scheduled for nationwide broadcast on Feb. 10 and 12-- portrays top city officials as being more concerned with Atlanta’s convention business than a string of murders of its black children.

According to most of the civic leaders who have seen advance screenings, the movie, written by screenwriter Abby Mann, also gives the impression that convicted murderer Wayne Williams was a scapegoat for a city Establishment under fire to find a killer.

“It pretty well whitewashes Williams,” said Jack Mallard, one of the prosecutors in the case.

The evening meeting of community leaders was called by Mayor Andrew Young. Participants agreed to set up task forces to challenge the movie’s presentation of the facts and to complain to the network.

“We need to talk with top officials of CBS to see if some of the damage can be mitigated,” said former Gov. George Busbee.

Jesse Hill, a prominent Atlanta businessman, said the group would seek air time from the network “before, during and after the program.”

“I’m not saying Atlanta will be comfortable with ‘The Atlanta Child Murders,’ ” said Alice Henderson, vice president for program practices for CBS. “But to the best of our ability, which is pretty great, we have investigated and researched this movie in depth.”