Albany, Georgia Movement

The Albany Movement in Georgia began in the fall of 1961 and ended in the summer of 1962. This movement was the first mass movement in modern civil rights era to have a goal to desegregate an entire community. The movement in Albany resulted in the jailing of more than one thousand African Americans. Martin Luther King Jr. joined the movement in December 1961. In one week hundreds of black protestors, including Martin Luther King Jr, were arrested and thrown in jail. Martin Luther King Jr. would leave the movement eight months later admitting that he had failed to accomplish the goals of the movement. 

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) workers (Charles Sherrod, Cordell Dragon, and Charles Jones) aimed to encourage students and others in Albany to challenge the establishment and their segregation policies. The Albany movement formed and elected William G. Anderson as their president. The people of this movement had mass meetings and many protestors marched. By December more than five hundred had been jailed and that is when they needed help and called in Martin Luther King Jr. to keep the movement going. King spoke at mass meetings and marched. From this movement emerged the SNCC Freedom Singers.

Martin Luther King Jr. would return the following summer for sentencing and chose jail over paying a fine but a white attorney had paid his fine anonymously. King would stay to carry out his effort to desegregate the city and brought in SCLC staff to help. He would come across and make an enemy out of police chief Pritchett. This police chief ordered his men to use force and make arrests. 

Martin Luther King Jr. felt the movement was a failure but many African Americans in Albany dissgreed. King learned important lessons that he would use in future movements. 

Citation:

Formwalt, Lee W. "Albany Movement." New Gerogia Encyclopedia. N.p., 9 Nov. 2015. Web. 27 Nov. 2015.

Photo credit:

http://www.freedommosaic.com/annette-jones-white

http://www.rarenewspapers.com/view/569194

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/albany-movement

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/story/img_06_albany_06.html

SCLC

The SCLC was formed in 1957 after the Montgomery Bus Boycott and stands for Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The original name of the group was Southern Negro Leaders Conference on Transportation and Non-violent Integration. They didn't think with the word Negro in the name that people would take them to seriously so they changed it and added the word Christian to the name. 

The SCLC wanted to advance the cause of civil rights in America but in a Non-violent manner. The president of the SCLC for a long time was Martin Luther King Jr. This group came primarily from the church. For the lives of many African Americans, especially in the south, the church played an important role in their lives.  The SCLC brought together all various areas of civil rights and put them under one organization. 

"(The SCLC is) church-orientated because of the very structure of the Negro community in the South." - Martin Luther King Jr. 

The SCLC had three basic wants/goals: 

1. They wanted White Americans to not stand by and watch wrongs were being committed against those in the black community. 

2. They wanted to encourage black Americans to "seek justice and reject all injustice."

3. They needed all those associated with the SCLC to accept the philosophy of non-violence regardless of the provocation. 

The SCLC could co-ordinate and advise and develop the work done by local level civil rights groups. This group also helped black Americans register to vote and opened up citizenship schools. 

The SCLC wanted to present to America civil rights as a moral issue. They also turned their attention to poverty found in many inner city ghettos and the violence in these areas. They believed the poverty was a link to the violence. They involved themselves in many well known civil rights movements like Albany, Birmingham, Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, and Selma. The SCLC still continues their work today. 

Citation:

Trueman, CN. "Southern Christian Leadership Conference." The History Learning Site. N.p., 27 Mar. 2015. Web. 27 Nov. 2015.

Photo credit: 

https://civrights.wikispaces.com/Southern+Christian+Leadership+Conference+(SCLC)

http://www.blackpast.org/aah/southern-christian-leadership-conference-1957

http://album.atlantahistorycenter.com/store/Products/91354-sclc-convention.aspx

http://jaysays.com/2009/07/sclc-works-to-overcome-oppression-in-order-to-be-oppressive/

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. was born January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. Martin Luther King Jr was a civil rights activist in the mid 1950s and was also a Baptist minister and was also head of the SCLC. He was a middle child and was born Michael King Jr. When he was a kid his father took the name Martin Luther in honor of the German Protestant religious leader and became Martin Luther King Sr. He would follow his father and take the name Martin Luther and became Martin Luther King Jr.

When Martin Luther was twelve years old he jumped out of a second story window to attmept suicide after he got the news of his grandmothers death. His grandmother had died while he was at a parade against his parents wishes. 

Martin Luther King Jr. attended Booker T. Washington High School. He was able to skip both the ninth grade and the eleventh grade. Martin entered college at the age of fifteen and attended Morehouse College. 

When Martin was younger he questioned religion in general and felt uncomfortable with overly emotional dislpays of religious worship. During his junior year he took a bible class that renewed his faith and was looking at a career in ministry like his father.

Martin earned his sociology degree from Morehouse College. He then attended Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. Martin came under the guidance of College President Benjamin E. Mays and he influenced Martin's spiritual development. 

He enrolled in Boston University for his doctoral study. Martin Luther would marry Coretta Scott in June 1953 and they would have four kids together. He became a pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. He would complete his Ph.D. and earn his degree in 1955 at the age of just twenty-five. 

Martin Luther King Jr. played a major role in ending legal segregation of African American citizens, especially in the south. He would be part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Martin Luther King Jr. received the Nobel Peace  Prize in 1964.

Citation:

"Martin Luther King Jr Biography." The Biography.com Website. Ed. Biography.com Editors. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2015.

Photo Credit: 

http://myhoustonhalos.com/events/2016/1/18/22nd-annual-mlk-grande-parade

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.

http://m.democracynow.org/stories/14936

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/20/court-to-control-martin-l_n_4825365.html