Albany movement

The Albany Movement was part of the Civil Rights Movement focused on desegregating the town of Albany, Georgia. From fall 1961 to summer 1962, activists—many of them teens and young adults—participated in the first effort to desegregate an entire town at once. Martin Luther King, Jr., participated in the movement and was among the more than one thousand African Americans jailed for taking part in sit-ins and other acts of civil disobedience in Albany.

King ultimately left Albany without achieving the results the group sought. The Albany Movement is considered one of his failures. However, King took the lessons he learned in Albany and applied them to other civil rights efforts. This led to success in other cities and the ultimate passage of civil rights legislation. Local leaders in Albany continued their efforts after he left and, by 1963, the Albany Movement had changed enough minds that all segregation rules in the city were removed.

Background

The ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution on December 6, 1865, ended slavery in the United States; however, continued prejudice led many areas to establish Black Codes. These rules limited where Black people could live and work and how they traveled. In the 1880s, these rules were expanded with the Jim Crow laws, which allowed or even required many businesses and public places to segregate patrons based on race. Restaurants, movie theaters, churches, transportation systems, schools, public parks, even bathrooms and drinking fountains, had limits on what areas were available to Black citizens. In many cases, these laws were enforced with violence.

The situation began to change in the 1940s and 1950s. The United States desegregated its military in 1948. In 1954, a Supreme Court decision known as Brown vs. the Board of Education declared school segregation unconstitutional. This was followed by a 1956 Supreme Court ruling on Browder vs. Gayle that said interstate bus transportation could not be segregated. These successes inspired African Americans and others to continue their fight for equal rights through the 1950s and 1960s, with protests, sit-ins, and other efforts to end discrimination in individual situations across the country.

Many of these efforts came to a head in 1961 with lunch counter sit-ins in South Carolina and “read-in” at a segregated public library in Mississippi. Freedom Riders challenged bus segregation rules by putting riders in restricted sections of buses for trips across the South, and student walkouts and protests drew increased attention to social inequalities.

Overview

The Albany Movement was founded on November 17, 1961, with the intent to end segregation practices in the southwestern Georgia city of Albany. Around 40 percent of the city’s 56,000 residents were Black. They faced discrimination in many ways, including access to transportation and voting rights.

The sit-ins and Freedom Rides throughout 1961 encouraged some Albany College students to begin their own efforts. They were helped by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a group that trained civil rights protestors in nonviolent forms of protest and encouraged them to serve jail time over posting bail to draw greater attention to the movement. In August 1961, Albany students and the SNCC organized voter registration drives in predominantly Black communities in and around Albany. When the ban on segregation on interstate buses went into effect on November 1, nine students trained by the SNCC staged sit-ins in an Albany bus terminal to test compliance.

These actions led to the formation of the Albany Movement in mid-November. The movement brought together the SNCC, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Federation of Women’s Clubs, the Ministry Alliance, and the Negro Voters League. Dr. William G. Anderson, a local osteopath, was chosen as the movement’s initial president while a realtor named Slater King served as its vice president. He later became president when Anderson stepped down.

The movement began with protests, demonstrations, sit-ins, and boycotts aimed at ending all discrimination and segregation in the city. By early December, more than 500 Black activists had been jailed. Many of them were students and younger residents, but the movement also drew a larger number of adult participants than many previous civil rights activities. Local police were quick to respond with arrests, but without the display of force that occurred in other locations. This minimized negative publicity and overall attention to the efforts.

Albany Movement leadership invited well-known civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., to join them in Georgia. He arrived on December 15. That night, he addressed gatherings so large that they filled one church and spilled out to two others, including the Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church. The next day, King accompanied Anderson and others from the movement when the paraded through Albany. Hundreds of people, including King and Anderson, were arrested for parading without a permit.

King’s participation and arrest attracted both national media attention and more protestors. A deal was brokered between the Albany Movement and the city. In exchange for King’s departure from Albany, the city would release those arrested and abide by the interstate busing decision. However, after King left, the city reneged on their end of the deal. Protests and other efforts continued, but without King’s participation.

In July 1962, King was found guilty of the charges of parading without a permit. The punishment was either $178 in fines or forty-five days in jail. King chose the jail time, stating that it was an act of civil disobedience in the face of a court system that was attempting to bankrupt the civil rights movements with fines. He was later freed when an anonymous person paid his fines. However, he was arrested again on July 27, 1962. On August 10, he agreed to leave the city and called for an end to protests and demonstrations.

The Albany Movement was considered one of King’s failures. He moved on to other areas and applied the lessons he learned there to greater success. The local leaders of the Albany Movement and their civil rights partners continued their efforts following King’s withdrawal. Their voter registration issues were successful, and Black candidates earned a place on the ballot. By spring 1963, segregation laws were removed from the books in Albany. The participants in the movement turned their attention to school integration, making great strides in the later 1960s and early 1970s and bringing lasting change to Albany and the surrounding areas.

Bibliography

“About Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” King Center, thekingcenter.org/about-tkc/martin-luther-king-jr/. Accessed 20 Dec. 2022.

“Albany Movement.” African American Civil Rights Movement, www.african-american-civil-rights.org/albany-movement/. Accessed 20 Dec. 2022.

“Albany Movement.” Stanford University Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute, kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/albany-movement. Accessed 20 Dec. 2022.

Berry, Deborah Barfield. “Americans Stood Up to Racism in 1961 and Changed History. This is Their Fight, in Their Words.” USA Today, 21 Sept. 2021, www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2021/09/21/civil-rights-how-anti-racism-protesters-forced-change-1961/8373401002/. Accessed 20 Dec. 2022.

Formwalt, Lee W. “Albany Movement.” New Georgia Encyclopedia, 15 July 2020, www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/albany-movement/. Accessed 20 Dec. 2022.

“Jim Crow Laws.” History, 11 Jan. 2022, www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws. Accessed 20 Dec. 2022.

“Nov. 17, 1961: Albany Movement.” Zinn Education Project, www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/albany-movement/. Accessed 20 Dec. 2022.

“Shiloh Baptist Church.” United States Civil Rights Trail, civilrightstrail.com/attraction/shiloh-missionary-baptist-church/. Accessed 20 Dec. 2022.