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Photo - Harry Hall, Walgett NSW, August 1965, Leader in the fight against segregation.

Article - Aborigines win new victory in Walgett by Henry McCarthy

Source - Tribune (Sydney, NSW : Wed 18 Aug 1965, Page 12

Last Saturday night two Aboriginal leaders broke a new passage through the color bar in the small north-western NSW country town of Walgett.

A TENSE crowd of over 300 gathered outside the town’s Luxury Theatre as the two men joined a queue to buy tickets for the upstairs section of the theatre, previously barred to Aborigines. They reached the window, tendered their money, received their tickets and walked up the carpeted stairs to take their seats in the “white only” section. Then several other Aboriginal men and women were sold tickets with out incident and joined them.

These men who had broken the ban were: Mr. Harry Hall, President of the Aborigines' Progressive Association in the district, and Mr. Edward Fields, Vice-president.

On the previous Saturday night, two Aborigines and four university students had been arrested during a demonstration, after the Aborigines had been refused admission to the upstairs section. Three other young girls, Pattie and Lorna Hall and Marie Peters, were taken into custody for entering this section of the theatre, but were later released in the custody of their fathers because they were under 18 years of age. Pat is the daughter of Mr. Hall and Lorna is his niece.

Following wide publicity of this incident, last Wednesday night the girls were admitted to the upstairs section with another part-Aboriginal girl, but Mr. Hall himself was still refused admission.

A crowd of about 200 gathered outside the theatre but there was no demonstration. On Saturday, Walgett was a town of tension, Aborigines stood in small group in the street, some business people stood in shop doorways and; watched.

Everyone knew that Harry Hall would try to buy a ticket for the “luxury” section of the Luxury Theatre, that night and they were all waiting on the outcome. Following a meeting with the local sergeant of police and members of the Aborigines' Progressive. Association the theatre management had issued a statement which set- September I, as the deadline when Aborigines would be admitted to all parts of the theatre: Laying down a long, list of stipulations for admission the management- said that they reserved the right to refuse entry to anyone. Word reached Mr. Hall that he would still be refused entry. Asked by Sergeant Gleeson if there would be a demonstration, Mr. Hall said that this was a possibility if he was refused admission.

The Sergeant said that if admission was refused he would instruct the theatre management to admit Mr. Hall. His intervention proved unnecessary.

Mr. Hall said later that the police sergeant in his opinion had acted like a gentleman" during the whole incident. “I have always kept my word to the police and they have kept their word to me,” he said. “There are a lot of the townspeople on our side, but there is a hard core of others against us.

Contributed by Greg Lynch -