The Albany Movement was a desegregation group formed in Albany, Georgia on November 17, 1961. Local activists, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People were all involved in the movement itself. The movement was led by William G. Anderson, a local black physician. In December of that year, Martin Luther King, Jr and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference became involved. Desegregation is the process of ending racial segregation, most commonly used in reference to the United States. ... Nickname: The Artesian City Location in the state of Georgia Country United States State Georgia County Dougherty Mayor Willie Adams, Jr. ... Activism, in a general sense, can be described as involvement in action to bring about change, be it social, political, environmental, or other change. ... The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (or SNCC, pronounced snick) was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. ... The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP, generally pronounced as EN Double AY SEE PEE) is one of the oldest and most influential civil rights organizations in the United States. ... The Doctor by Samuel Luke Fildes This article is about the term physician, one type of doctor; for other uses of the word doctor see Doctor. ... Martin Luther King Jr. ... The Southern Christian Leadership Conference Logo. ...

The Albany Movement mobilized thousands of citizens and attracted nationwide attention, but failed to accomplish its goals due to a determined opposition. However, it was credited as a key lesson in strategy and tactics for the national civil rights movement. Civil rights or positive rights are those legal rights retained by citizens and protected by the government. ...

The Campaign

Voter registration drives, petitions, and other activism had been ongoing in Albany for decades. However, a new phase of the campaign began with the arrival of three young SNCC activists, Charles Sherrod, Cordell Reagon, and Charles Jones. The three helped encourage and co-ordinate black activism in the city, culminating in the founding of the Albany Movement as a formal coalition. [1] It quickly became a broad-front nonviolent attack on every aspect of segregation within the city. Bus stations, libraries, and lunch counters reserved for European Americans were occupied by African Americans, boycotts were launched, and hundreds of protesters marched on City Hall.

The Albany police chief, Laurie Pritchett, carefully studied the Movement's strategy, and developed a strategy he hoped could subvert it. He used mass arrests, but avoided the kind of dramatic, violent incidents that might backfire by attracting national publicity. Pritchett arranged to disperse the prisoners to county jails all over Southwest Georgia, to prevent his jail from filling up. The Birmingham Post-Herald believed that "The manner in which Albany's chief of police has enforced the law and maintained order has won the admiration of... thousands." [2]

Dr. King's Involvement

Prior to the campaign, King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference had been criticized by the SNCC, who felt he had not fully supported the freedom rides of that summer. Some SNCC activists had even given King the derisive nickname "De Lawd" for maintaining a safe distance from challenges to the Jim Crow laws.[3] When King first visited on December 15 of that year, he "had planned to stay a day or so and return home after giving counsel."^[1] But the following day he was swept up in a mass arrest of peaceful demonstrators, and declined bail until the city made concessions. "Those agreements", said King, "were dishonored and violated by the city," as soon as he left town. ^[2] The Southern Christian Leadership Conference Logo. ... The Freedom Rides were a series of nonviolent, direct demonstrations performed in 1961 as part of the U.S. civil rights movement. ...

King returned in July, 1962, and was sentenced to forty-five days in jail or a $178 fine. He chose jail. Three days into his sentence, Chief Pritchett discreetly arranged for King's fine to be paid, and ordered his release. "We had witnessed persons being kicked off lunch counter stools ... ejected from churches ... and thrown into jail ... But for the first time, we witnessed being kicked out of jail."^[3]

After nearly a year of intense activism with few tangible results, the Movement began to deteriorate. During one demonstration, black youth hurled rocks and bottles at Albany police. King requested a halt to all demonstrations and a "Day of Penance" to promote non-violence and maintain the moral high ground. Later in July, King was again arrested and held for two weeks. Following his release, King left town.

Legacy

King and much of the national civil rights movement regarded the Albany campaign as a limited success, won at perhaps too high a cost. Despite the mobilization of virtually the entire black community in Albany, few concessions were achieved from the city government. Divisions between radical and moderate blacks were beginning to tell, and the black community seemed to be tiring faster than the city. After Albany, King decided on more tightly focused activism aimed at scoring specific, symbolic victories. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference moved on to cities like Birmingham and Selma, where local police took a much harder line and created violent incidents which brought attention and sympathy to the cause.

Nevertheless, local activism continued even as national attention shifted to other issues. That fall an African-American came close to being elected to city council. Next spring, the city struck all the segregation ordnances from its books. According to Charles Sherrod, "I can’t help how Dr. King might have felt, or ... any of the rest of them in SCLC, NAACP, CORE, any of the groups, but as far as we were concerned, things moved on. We didn’t skip one beat." In 1976, he was elected a city commissioner. 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ...

Later referring to the setbacks of The Albany Movement in his autobiography, Mr. King had this to say:

The mistake I made there was to protest against segregation generally rather than against a single and distinct facet of it. Our protest was so vague that we got nothing, and the people were left very depressed and in despair. It would have been much better to have concentrated upon integrating the buses or the lunch counters. One victory of this kind would have been symbolic, would have galvanized support and boosted morale ... When we planned our strategy for Birmingham months later, we spent many hours assessing Albany and trying to learn from its errors. Our appraisals not only helped to make our subsequent tactics more effective, but revealed that Albany was far from an unqualified failure.

External Links

• The Albany Movement (New Georgia Encyclopedia entry)

Notes

1. ^ King, Martin Luther. The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. New York: Warner Books, 1998
2. ^ Ibid.
3. ^ Ibid.