Civil Rights Events
Albany Movement
MLK Comes to Help
Dr. Anderson, President of the Albany Movement, interviewed
in 1985 by Eyes on the Prize, explained why Martin Luther King, Jr. was asked
to come to Albany.
When we got to the
point that we had this many people in jail… When we had this many people in
jail, we had a meeting of the Albany Movement that night and we all recognized
that we had no experience in what we were doing. We had never been involved in
mass demonstrations, mass arrests. We had no provisions for bonding. No
provisions for taking care of families of people who were in jail. And
recognize that this was not a select group. These were common, ordinary,
everyday people, housewives, cooks, maids, laborers, children out of school. We
had made no provisions for these people going to jail because we did not
anticipate the mass arrests. So we concluded that night that we are into
something that really we need some expert help in someone who has had the
experience. And I knew Dr. King from years earlier. Ah, my wife and Dr. King
had been high school schoolmates, and my wife's brother and Dr. King were
classmates and very close friends at David
D. Howard
High School here in Atlanta. And I indicated that I felt that I
knew Dr. King well enough that if I were to call him he would come down and
help us. Needless to say, there was not total agreement initially with issuing
this call. Because recognizing that now SNCC was on the scene and by virtue of
the Freedom Riders coming through CORE was on the scene, and they did also have
established organizations. They wanted to protect the integrity—integrity of
those organizations. We also recognize that to the extent that they received
some publicity it helped to further their cause and they would be able to raise
money to continue their activities. But anyway, we were able to get unanimous
decision of the Albany
Movement to call in Dr. King. So that night I tracked down Dr. King. I don't
remember where he was at the time. But I called him personally. And he— he merely
asked of me if this is the desire of all involved. And I said, "Yes it
is." And he asked that I send him a telegram to that extent. And I did. … I indicated on the telegram all the
organizations that were represented now in the Albany Movement. And, he responded to that
call.
… Dr. King, right, he
came there with not even an overnight bag or a toothbrush. Responded to my
call, And I do not anticipate that he expected to get as intimately involved
with the Albany
Movement as he did (interview 6).
Accompanied by his
close friend Ralph Abernathy, King arrived in Albany [December 15] prepared to deliver a speech to the local
population …. The news of King’s arrival packed Shiloh and Mount Zion [Churches]; even people from surrounding towns
traveled to Albany
to hear the famous preacher speak. King delivered his speech to an enthusiastic
audience, emphasizing the strengthening of community resolve. King urged those
gathered to “keep moving,” opining that they would overcome segregation “with
the power of our capacity to endure.”
After Dr. King spoke,
Dr. Anderson took the pulpit and informed the congregation that King would remain
in Albany and
would lead a march on city hall the next morning. Although not planning on
marching in Albany, King claimed he was moved by
the spirit he felt in the Albany
population. “I cannot rest, I cannot stand idly by, while these people are
suffering for us so that we can obtain a better social order.” This ran counter to SCLC executive Andrew
Young’s assessment, who noted that “Martin had no intention of going to jail in
Albany.”
…
On December 16, 1961, Albany policemen arrested
King, Abernathy, Anderson,
and 265 Albany residents without
incident for parading without a permit in front of city
hall. Refusing bail,
King vowed to remain in jail until the city made concessions to the
Movement’s requests
for limited desegregation. However, three days after making this
promise, King reneged,
as Anderson
began suffering severe anxiety attacks, perhaps
brought on by his own
admitted fear of jail. He absolutely refused bail by himself, and as
a result, King
accepted bail on December 18 (Nelligan
21-26).
Dr, Anderson
recounts: Dr. King and I had met with the
masses of people at an early morning rally. By the end of the week there were
regular demonstrations going on practically everyday. And Dr. King, Dr.
Abernathy, along with my wife led a demonstration that involved several
hundreds of people. And we were arrested and dispersed throughout Southwest Georgia (Interview 7).
Interviewed March 9, 2013, for the Civil Rights History
Project, Mary Jones spoke of her first arrest and incarceration.
The children [students] had marched first. … [The local newspaper said] “The grownups – they too scared to march so
they pushed the children out to do that work.
… My oldest daughter was locked
up too, 11 years old. …. “No, that aint going to go, So we organized right there to the mass
meeting. And who wanted to march? All the hands went up. … We
marched … by the old jail … about 700 of us.
… The thing that we had to straighten out because they said we sent
Martin Luther King to come do our job.
We didn’t say for him to come march.
I was in there [jail] from Monday,
about 11 o’clock to Thursday when my father came and bond me out. … We was in every jail around here. I went to Baker County
jail. …
They had the billy club. “Get on
in here. You marching.” They had warned
us one time: “If you don’t stop that
singing and go home, you gonna be locked up.”
And we got louder then. “Aint
gonna let nobody turn me around.” And so
we marched around about two more times and sure enough they told us we was
under arrest. And back then the jail was
so small it had a little place in the back.
… That’s where they put 700 of us.
We was all on top of each other almost.
They let us stood out there about 3 or 4 hours and it was pouring down
rain out then. Then they finally let us
come in and they booked us. And then
sent us different places.
The Baker County
[jail] would hold like about 8 or 10
and they put 25 in there. One bed, the
mattress was split in the middle and on the floor, the sink was running, the
water had wet the mattress. And that was
where we had to stay, sit on the floor.
… And pray and cry. Every night
they would come out with some German shepherd dogs and they would put them all
almost two to the window but they had a fence around … and they would make them
dogs so mad they would be barking going on and they said, “We ought to be going
in there. We ought to open the gate and
let these dogs go in there and eat ‘em up.
So what they do then?” … Boy, we
would sing louder and pray and everything.
When they feed you food, … the peas was so hard you could hardly cut
them, couldn’t eat them. Grits the same
way. They take the butter and put it
right in the middle of the greens and throw the bread right on top of it. ….
Grits and bread and peas, black-eyed peas, like that, and we were so tired
that we just … I tell you the truth it was rough and tough, but if I had to do it
again I would have done that (Mary 1-2).
Dr. Anderson would relate: There was
not a major newspaper in the world that was not represented in Albany. Not a major television station in the
United States or a
television network in the United States
that was not represented in Albany.
And having been there before Dr. King came and knowing of the activity that we
had before Dr. King, and having seen the results of his coming there in terms
of the increase in the number of media people present, I know that they came
there because Dr. King was there. He was a media event. We felt as though we
needed the media attention because we thought that we could not get what we
were looking for by appealing to the local people. There would have to be
outside pressure, and the only way we could get the outside pressure would be
that the media would have to call to the attention of those outside people what
was happening in Albany.
…
On Monday morning following these
arrests we were carried to the courthouse in Albany, and negotiating teams were
identified and charged with the responsibility of meeting with us as leaders of
the movement and meeting with members of the City Council to see if we could
somehow resolve our differences. And end these mass demonstrations and arrests.
The negotiators reported to us. And I
was seated in the court at the time with Dr. King and Dr. Abernathy [;] a tacit agreement had been reached with the
city whereby they would set into place mechanisms whereby our concerns would be
answered. And certain specific changes would take place in the city. And they
included things like desegregation of the bus station. Desegregation of some of
the public facilities like lunch counters, the bus station, the train station
and some of the other facilities. We asked that this be placed in writing, and
Dr. King was quite emphatic with requesting that—that this agreement be placed
in writing. But we were given the assurance through the intermediaries that
these were honorable people who were making this agreement and it would be
given to the press in the form of a statement. And we felt as though there was
a certain amount of security in having such an agreement made public knowledge,
and being given to what we considered a sympathetic press. And we accepted the agreement.
There were some who were uncomfortable with it. Dr. King was uncomfortable with
it. Attorney C.B. King was uncomfortable with it. But we all agreed that
we—that it was in the best interests of the people of Albany to have the matter resolved and to
accept the agreement, with it being publicized.
They reneged 100 percent. Oh, part of
the agreement was that—that all of the people who were in jail and there were
several hundred in jail at the time, would be permitted to—to post straw
bonds—no money—straw bonds. And those who had placed up cash bonds, the money
would be returned and these cases would never be brought to trial. They reneged
on each and every one of those commitments (Interview 8-9).
King was released on bond the day after his appearance in court and left the
city, not to reappear until his trial commenced in February. His
departure from Albany
… strengthened his claim of wishing to remain a non-factor in continued
discussion between the Council and the Movement. Independent of community
opinion, King’s actions seem logical, especially given the fact that he had not
been aware of the true nature of the settlement. However, King and the SCLC’s
lack of understanding regarding community opinion and expectations meant his
actions had a much more negative effect on the Movement than either would have
thought.
Albany blacks met the settlement with a mixture of
anger and disappointment. Worked into a
frenzy by King and other leaders, black citizens faced a settlement that failed
to reward them for their days in rural Georgian jails. For those who had gone
to jail and lost their jobs, the settlement was unacceptable. As Howard Zinn,
reporting on Albany
for the Southern Regional Council, concluded “many of those jailed for protesting
viewed the settlement as ‘pitifully small payment for weeks of protest, for centuries
of waiting.’” Few in the community would
forget that they had lost their jobs and endured terrible conditions in jail
only to be granted petty concessions. This loss of interest and morale severely
compromised the Movement’s ability to increase support. Even among the leadership, there was little
optimism. As an anonymous leader within the Albany Movement remarked, “It’s nothing to
shout to the rafters about.” Few would forget
that they had marched to prison with a man who had now bailed out and left
town, leaving them in prison with no semblance of progress.
The transition to economic boycotts
and selective buying campaigns in the period between King’s release in December
and his trial in February demonstrate that black Albany retained interest in fighting
segregation, as long as that support did not necessitate arrest. Perhaps the
most successful aspect of economic protest revolved around the boycott of the
city bus system. Busing was provided by a private company, and blacks comprised
an overwhelming majority of those that patronized the service. The boycott hit the
bus company hard, with the owners openly admitting that they needed help. They met with members of the city council who,
using their influence among wealthy businessmen in town, were able to subsidize
the company in order to keep it afloat, to the tune of $3,000 a day. By doing this, the Albany
white community signaled that it was willing to pay the price to maintain segregation
in Albany.
When Anderson and other leaders
brought concerns over transportation desegregation to the City Council, Mayor
Kelley brushed aside the requests, asked for ten days to consider it, and then
adjourned the meeting. While personally
in favor of at least considering some conciliatory reforms, Kelley found no
support among other members of the City council, who uniformly opposed any
altering of segregation laws, knowing that as long as they refused to yield,
the Movement was virtually powerless to stop them. Despite his own personally
moderate opinion, Kelley did not allow any semblance of division to reach the
press or the black community, realizing that any sign of division would weaken
the segregationist cause.
Continued boycotting of the bus system
paid off in early February, when the bus company was forced to shut down. Black
participation rates, estimated to be over ninety percent, made the boycott
quite effective. But the effect of this shutdown was worse for the black
community than it was for the white. Wyatt T. Walker [executive director of
SCLC] stated: “the bus company went
bankrupt, and the black people who made up seventy percent of its ridership
were inconvenienced and the Albany
Movement had no semblance of victory.” Unlike in Montgomery,
Albany leaders
had no plans to deal with the logistical difficulties arising from lack of
transportation for the community. The
protest had hurt the white community, but not to the point of forcing
concessions. The wealthy members of the community who sat on the City Council
and held economic power were unaffected as a whole as a result of the boycott.
Again, blacks were sacrificing without any tangible result.
The boycott against white businesses
also proved effective, although not as successful as the bus boycott. Some
white businessmen lost over fifty percent of their business as a result of
these selective buying campaigns. At city council meetings held over the next
few weeks, local merchants responded to the economic pressure by urging members
of the city council to accept token reforms, such as integrating the bus
system, hoping that if these demands were met, the boycott would cease. Unlike
the busing crisis the vocal support of the merchants for race reform
represented positive pressure against the City Council. However, desegregation
could not happen without a city council vote to change segregation laws,
something the council refused to do. In order to bolster support for their
decision, council members framed the vote as a defense of the city’s law-making
ability. “This is a struggle to decide who makes the policy in this city,” said
council member C.B. Pritchett. Criticism
from local white merchants continued, but in the end many of the merchants
accepted the losses. Pritchett recounts being told by a group of merchants that
“we’re losing money, but we know what this is. And we’re going to stand back;
we’re not going to put any pressure. Just go ahead.” “This” was a war over segregation and the
status quo in Albany.
Even though they were hurting economically, the portion of the white community
most adversely affected by civil rights protest held the interests of
segregation over their own economic success, revealing the solidarity the white
community had in fighting segregation. Although the black community
participated and supported in large numbers, far larger than had been involved
in marches, economic protest would have little tangible effect upon the overall
Albany Movement
(Nelligan 27-31).
Works cited:
“Interview with Dr. William Anderson.”
Eyes on the Prize Interview. November 7, 1985. Washington
University Digital
Gateway Texts. Web. http://digital.wustl.edu/e/eop/eopweb/and0015.1042.003drwilliamganderson.html
“Mary Jones Oral History Interview Conducted by Will Griffin in Albany, GA,
2013-03-09.” Civil Rights History Project. Library
of Congress. Web. https://www.loc.gov/collections/civil-rights-history-project/?fa=subject%3Aalbany+movement+%28albany%2C+ga.%29%7Csubject%3Ainterviews
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