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62-522: Albany Movement (coalition) SCLC members SNCC members City of Albany City of Albany City of Americus City of Atlanta City of Columbus City of Savannah Other localities The Albany Movement was a desegregation and voters' rights coalition formed in Albany, Georgia , in November 1961. This movement was founded by local black leaders and ministers, as well as members of

124-651: A "Freedom of Selection" amendment granting draftees and new inductees the opportunity to choose whether or not they wanted to serve in segregated military units to the Selective Service Act that was being debated in Congress. At the end of June 1950, the Korean War broke out. The US army had accomplished little desegregation in peacetime and sent the segregated Eighth Army to defend South Korea. Most Black soldiers served in segregated support units in

186-551: A beneficial lesson in strategy and tactics for the leaders of the civil rights movement and a key component to the movement's future successes in desegregation and policy changes in other areas of the Deep South. Initially the established African-American leadership in Albany was resistant to the activities of the incoming peace activists. Clennon Washington King Sr. (C. W. King), an African-American real estate agent in Albany,

248-530: A case with the ICC for the bus terminal's refusal to comply with the ruling. In response to this, Albany Mayor Asa Kelley, the city commission, and police chief Laurie Pritchett formulated a plan to arrest anyone who tried to press for desegregation on charges of disturbing the peace . On November 22, 1961, the Trailways station was once again tested for compliance, this time by a group of youth activists from both

310-529: A close friend of King's who privately advised the SCLC, bailed King out of jail. After nearly a year of intense activism with few tangible results, the movement began to deteriorate. During one demonstration, black youth hurled children's toys and paper balls 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

372-577: A mistake often made in evaluating protest movements. Social movements may have many 'defeats'—failing to achieve objectives in the short run—but in the course of the struggle the strength of the old order begins to erode, the minds of people begin to change; the protesters are momentarily defeated but not crushed, and have been lifted, heartened, by their ability to fight back" (p. 54). Local activism continued even as national attention shifted to other issues. That fall an African American came close to being elected to city council. In March 1963,

434-741: A national figure. In the early 1960s, he was a co-founder of the Albany Movement , the first major civil rights campaign for Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) after Montgomery. During the Movement, King (no relation) represented scores of demonstrators including MLK, Ralph Abernathy , Wyatt Tee Walker and Andrew Young . Despite the campaign being charactered as nonviolent in black and white, King faced violence first hand. In late July 1962, Dougherty County Sheriff D.C. "Cull" Campbell struck King multiple times splitting open his scalp with

496-650: A period of time to gain full compliance with Brown v. Board of Education in those communities, which accelerated the pace of desegregation in other areas); Anderson v. City of Albany and Kelly v. Page (reaffirming the right of citizens to peaceably assemble ); Bell v. Southwell (ending the use of segregated polling booths , voiding an election in which separate booths were used); Brown v. Culpepper , Foster v. Sparks , Thompson v. Sheppard , Pullum v. Greene , Broadway v. Culpepper , and Rabinowitz v. United States (prohibiting use of jury selection lists on which blacks were underrepresented and ending

558-553: A ship with Black crew members and commanded by White officers. Some called it "Eleanor's folly" after President Franklin Roosevelt's wife. Mason ' s purpose had been to allow Black sailors to serve in the full range of billets (positions) rather than being restricted to stewards and mess men, as they were on most ships. The navy was pressured to train Black sailors for billets by Eleanor Roosevelt, who insisted that they be given

620-550: A violation of the 14th Amendment. In Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971), the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that forced busing of students may be ordered to achieve racial desegregation. However, court-enforced school desegregation efforts have decreased over time. A major decline in manufacturing in northern cities, with a shift of jobs to suburbs, the South , and overseas, has led to increases in

682-546: Is now a part of the American way of life." Since the act's passage in 1968, it has been amended to include sex, familial status, and disability. The Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity within the US Department of Housing and Urban Development is charged with administering and enforcing this law. After Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the lawful segregation of African American children in schools became

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744-621: The American Civil War , Black people enlisted in large numbers. They were mostly enslaved African Americans who had escaped the South, though there were many Northern Black unionists as well. More than 180,000 Black people served with the Union army and navy during the civil war in segregated units, known as the United States Colored Troops , under the command of White officers. They were recorded and are part of

806-658: The Civil Rights Movement , and political candidate. Born in Albany, Georgia , King was one of eight children of Clennon Washington King Sr. , who graduated in 1916 from Tuskegee Institute, and Margaret (Slater) King, who attended Tuskegee Institute before transferring to Fisk College in Nashville. Among his six brothers were Clennon Washington King Jr. , Slater King and the much younger Preston King . After he graduated from Monroe High School in Albany, his college years were interrupted by military service in

868-454: The Jim Crow laws . When King first visited on December 15, 1961, he wasn't planning on staying for more than a couple days until counsel, but the following day he was swept up in a mass arrest of peaceful demonstrators. He declined bail until the city made concessions, then after leaving town stating, "Those agreements were dishonored and violated by the city". King returned in July 1962, and

930-709: The National Park Service 's Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System (CWSS). Around 18,000 Black people also joined the Union Navy as sailors, who are also part of the CWSS. Despite the NAACP lobbying for the commissioning of more Black officers, they were severely underrepresented throughout World War I . Upon entering office, President Woodrow Wilson officially segregated the United States navy for

992-870: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The groups were assisted by Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) . It was meant to draw attention to the brutally enforced racial segregation practices in Southwest Georgia. However, many leaders in SNCC were fundamentally opposed to King and

1054-539: The Thirteen Colonies . They continued to fight alongside each other in every American war until the War of 1812 . Black people would not fight in integrated units again until the Korean War . Thousands of Black men fought in the new continental navy, on the side of rebellious colonists in the American revolutionary war. Their names, accomplishments and total numbers are unknown due to poor record keeping. During

1116-832: The US Navy from 1943 to 1946. During his undergraduate years, King majored in industrial arts at Tuskegee Institute from 1941 to 1943, majored in history at West Virginia College from 1946 to 1947, after serving in WWII and transferred to Fisk University , a historically black university in Nashville , Tennessee where received a B.A. degree in history in 1949. The following fall, he arrived at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland , Ohio where he earned his law degree in 1952. During law school, he married Cleveland native Carol Roumaine Koiner Johnson in July 1951. After passing

1178-553: The 1970s and later, in part to escape certain integrated public school systems, but also as part of the suburbanization caused by movement of jobs to suburbs, continuing state and federal support for expansion of highways, and changes in the economy. Some White parents in Louisiana said that they were afraid to drop off their children because of all the mobs surrounding the desegregated schools. Sociologist David Armor states in his 1995 book Forced Justice: School Desegregation and

1240-520: The 1994 federal court case Ho v. San Francisco Unified School District , parents of Chinese American schoolchildren alleged that racial quotas under a 1983 consent decree constituted racial discrimination in violation of the United States Constitution 's Equal Protection Clause . The desegregation plan did not allow any school to enroll more than 50% of any ethnic group. Originally intended to aid integration of Black students,

1302-423: The 34th and 80th Naval Construction Battalions (NCBs). Both had White southern officers and Black enlisted. Both battalions experienced problems with this arrangement, which led to the replacement of the officers. In addition, many of the stevedore battalions (special construction battalions) were segregated. However, by war's end, many of those special construction battalions were the first fully integrated units in

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1364-498: The 76-year-old lawman's walking cane. King was attempting to meet with a jailed demonstrator from Ohio named William Hansen when the sheriff told the lawyer to leave. When King ignored the order, the sheriff said he put him out. The incident including a photo of a bloodied King made the front page of the July 29, 1962 edition of the New York Times . The following August, in 1963, March on Washington organizer John Lewis , noted

1426-423: The Albany city commission regulated all citywide ordinances. According to the movement's SNCC organizer 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 and served in this position until 1990. King later said about

1488-482: The Civil Rights movement between national and local movements, and forced the SCLC to learn the importance of coordinating planning with local movements. Historian Howard Zinn , who played a role in the Albany movement, contested this interpretation in chapter 4 of his autobiography, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train (Beacon Press, 1994; new edition 2002): "That always seemed to me a superficial assessment,

1550-500: The Korean battle lines, and proved that integrated combat units could perform under fire. The army high command took notice. On 26 July 1951, exactly three years after Truman issued Executive Order 9981, the US army formally announced its plans to desegregate. On 12 October 1972, a racially fraught riot occurred on USS  Kitty Hawk . "Despite the presence of a Black executive officer,

1612-650: The Law that efforts to change the racial compositions of schools had not contributed substantially to academic achievement by minorities. Carl L. Bankston and Stephen J. Caldas, in their books A Troubled Dream: The Promise and Failure of School Desegregation in Louisiana (2002) and Forced to Fail: The Paradox of School Desegregation (2005), argued that continuing racial inequality in the larger American society had undermined efforts to force schools to desegregate. They maintained that racial inequality had resulted in popular associations between school achievement and race. Therefore,

1674-573: The NAACP and SNCC, the meeting included Albany's African-American Ministerial Alliance, as well as the city's African-American Federated Women's Clubs. Most of the people at this meeting wanted to try for negotiation more than direct action. They formed the Albany Movement to coordinate their leadership, with William G. Anderson made president on the recommendation of Slater King, who was made vice president. The incorporation documents were largely

1736-462: The NAACP and SNCC. The students were arrested; in an attempt to bring more attention to their pursuit of desegregation of public spaces and "demand[s] for justice", the two SNCC volunteers chose to remain in jail rather than post bail . In protest of the arrests, more than 100 students from Albany State College marched from their campus to the courthouse. The first mass meeting of the Albany Movement took place soon after at Mt. Zion Baptist Church . At

1798-580: The Ohio bar in 1953, he returned to his native Albany, where he passed the Georgia bar in 1954. He was the only black lawyer practicing south of Atlanta in Georgia . As an attorney, civil rights leader, and pioneering political candidate, King spent the rest of his life championing the causes of justice, opportunity, and dignity for all Americans. Despite being based in Albany throughout his career, he emerged as

1860-459: The SCLC's involvement. They felt that a more democratic approach aimed at long-term solutions was preferable for the area other than King's tendency towards short-term, authoritatively-run organizing. Although the Albany Movement is deemed by some as a failure due to its unsuccessful attempt at desegregating public spaces in Southwest Georgia, those most directly involved in the movement tend to disagree. People involved in this movement labeled it as

1922-716: The US navy. The war's end also brought the decommissioning of every one of those units. On July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman 's Executive Order 9981 ordered the integration of the armed forces following World War II, a major advance in civil rights. Using the executive order meant that Truman could bypass Congress. Representatives of the Solid South , all White Democrats, would likely have stonewalled related legislation. For instance, two months prior to Truman's executive order in May 1948, Richard B. Russell , Democratic senator from Georgia , unsuccessfully attempted to attach

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1984-562: The abuse suffered by the Movement workers at the hands of local white people, even referring to blacks as "niggers [and] nigras" on air and in print. Thomas Chatmon, the head of the local Youth Council of the NAACP, initially was highly opposed to Sherrod and Reagon's activism. As a result of this some members of the African-American Criterion Club in Albany considered driving Sherrod and Reagon out of town, but they did not take this action. On November 1, 1961, at

2046-642: The achievement levels of American schools were generally associated with their class and racial compositions. This meant that even parents without racial prejudice tended to seek middle class or better residential neighborhoods in seeking the best schools for their children. As a result, efforts to impose court-ordered desegregation often led to school districts with too few White students for effective desegregation, as White students increasingly left for majority White suburban districts or for private schools. The increasing diversity of American society has led to more complex issues related to school and ethnic proportion. In

2108-533: The city of Albany removed all the citywide segregation ordinances from its books following a 6-1 city commission vote. On September 12, 1963, the Albany Movement scored a major court victory after the United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit found that the city's Chief of Police and other officials of the city of Albany had still been enforcing the ordinances after they were repealed by the city commission and could no longer continue to do so because

2170-453: The civil rights group Chinese for Affirmative Action sided with the school district, arguing that such standards were not harmful to Chinese Americans, and were necessary to avoid the resegregation of schools. In 2006, Chinese parents continued to protest against race-based school assignments. Chevene Bowers King Chevene Bowers King (October 12, 1923 – March 15, 1988) was an American attorney, civil rights leader in Georgia during

2232-527: The exclusion of blacks on juries on the basis of race); and Johnson v. City of Albany (ending discriminatory practices in local government employment). In 1988, King died in Tijuana, Mexico where he was being treated for prostate cancer following a three-year battle. In 2000, King became the namesake of a federal courthouse. King is also the uncle of Baroness King of Bow , who was the second black female to be elected to British's House of Commons and holds

2294-593: The first African-American since the late 19th-century to run from Georgia for the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1970, he was the first African-American ever to run for Governor of Georgia, after being drafted statewide by a delegation of African-Americans who were weighing the possible gubernatorial candidacy of Julian Bond , Leroy Johnson and King. Despite running a distant third behind Jimmy Carter and Carl Sanders , King's candidacy significantly boosted voter registration numbers among African-Americans statewide. He devoted much of his time to pro bono law work for

2356-552: The first time in its history. During World War II , most officers were White, and the majority of Black troops still served as truck drivers and as stevedores . The Red Ball Express , which was instrumental in facilitating the rapid advance of allied forces across France after D-Day , was operated almost exclusively by African American truck drivers. In the midst of the Battle of the Bulge in late 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower

2418-555: The incident again, taking to task the Kennedy Administration from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial : "...what did the federal government do when Albany's deputy sheriff beat attorney C. B. King and left him half dead? What did the federal government do when local police officials kicked and assaulted the pregnant wife (C.B. King's sister-in-law) of Slater King, and she lost her baby?" In 1964, King became

2480-538: The jobs for which they had trained. The US Navy's newest component, the Seabees, had the same ingrained attitudes and approaches but ended up at the forefront of change. In February 1942, the CNO , Admiral Harold Rainsford Stark , recommended African Americans for ratings in the construction trades. In April, the navy announced it would enlist African Americans in the Seabees. Even so, those men were put into segregated units,

2542-654: The numbers of residents of all races in suburbs, and shifts in population from the North and Great Plains to the southwest, the Pacific Northwest, and the South. Left behind in many northeastern and midwestern inner cities have been the poorest Black people and other minorities. According to Jonathan Kozol , in the early 21st century, US schools have become as segregated as they were in the late 1960s. The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University says that desegregation of US public schools peaked in 1988. As of 2005,

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2604-430: The poor and to volunteering in community projects for the needy. He was most noted as the lead attorney in a series of landmark lawsuits against longstanding discriminatory practices in the city and the state. He won cases including Gaines v. Dougherty County Board of Education , Lockett v. Board of Education of Muscogee County , and Harrington v. Colquitt County Board of Education (involving multiple appeals over

2666-472: The prisoners to county jails all over southwest Georgia to prevent his jail from filling up. The Birmingham Post-Herald stated: "The manner in which Albany's chief of police has enforced the law and maintained order has won the admiration of... thousands." In 1963, after Sheriff Johnson was acquitted in his federal trial in the Ware case, people connected with the Albany Movement staged a protest against one of

2728-466: The proportion of Black students at schools with a White majority was at "a level lower than in any year since 1968". Some critics of school desegregation have argued that court-enforced desegregation efforts of the 1960s were either unnecessary or self-defeating, ultimately resulting in White flight from cities to suburbs. Middle class and wealthy White people continued moving from cities to suburbs during

2790-419: The rallies themselves had failed, the Albany Movement provided insight on the media and its relation with white supremacists. The Albany police chief, Laurie Pritchett had reported to the media that he had defeated nonviolent actions with nonviolence and in return the press provided Pritchett with details of what was planned and who the targets were during the Albany Movement, which then caused great distrust among

2852-661: The rear. The remainder served in segregated combat units, most notably the 24th Infantry regiment. The first months of the Korean War were some of the most disastrous in US military history. The North Korean People's Army nearly drove the American-led United Nations forces off the Korean peninsula. Faced with staggering losses in White units, commanders on the ground began accepting Black replacements, thus integrating their units. The practice occurred all over

2914-616: The ruling had a negative effect on the admissions of Chinese Americans, who had become the district's largest ethnic group. The newspaper AsianWeek documented the Chinese American parents' challenge. Since Chinese Americans were already nearly half the student population, the consent decree had the effect of requiring the competitive Lowell High School in San Francisco , California , to apply much higher academic admission standards for Chinese American students. However,

2976-606: The sale, rental and financing of housing based on race, color, religion, and national origin. This was the first housing law against discrimination. The passage of this act was contentious. It was meant to be a direct follow up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 . However, from 1966 to 1967, it failed to garner enough political support for its passage in the United States Congress . At that time, several states had passed their own fair housing laws and Congress

3038-514: The same time, C. W. King's son, Chevene Bowers King (C. B. King), was pushing the case of Charles Ware from nearby Baker County, Georgia against Sheriff L. Warren Johnson of that county for shooting him multiple times while in police custody. These developing conditions where the limits of segregation and oppression of African Americans were being tested led to a meeting at the home of Slater King , another son of C. W. King, including representatives of eight organizations. Besides local officers of

3100-778: The setbacks of the Albany Movement: 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

3162-400: The ship's second-in-command, many Black sailors felt they were dealt harsher punishments and menial assignments because of their race". The practice of housing segregation and racial discrimination has had a long history in the United States. Until the American civil rights movement in the 1960s, segregated neighborhoods were enforceable by law. The Fair Housing Act ended discrimination in

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3224-512: The stores of one of the jurors. This led to charges of jury tampering being brought. Prior to the movement, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference had been criticized by the SNCC, who felt he had not fully supported the Freedom Rides . Some SNCC activists had even given King the derisive nickname "De Lawd" for maintaining a safe distance from challenges to

3286-482: The students and the press. Although publicity was needed, the distrust everyone who was involved in the rallies felt towards the media could not go unheard. Journalists and the media were banned from mass meetings and conferences. Desegregation in the United States Starting with King Philip's War in the 17th century, Black and White Americans served together in an integrated environment in

3348-623: The urging and with full support of Reagon and Sherrod, local black Albany students tested the Federal orders of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) which ruled that "no bus facility, bus, or driver could deny access to its facilities based on race". The students obeyed local authorities and peacefully left the station after having been denied access to the white waiting room and threatened with arrest for having attempted to desegregate it. However, they immediately filed

3410-401: The work of C. B. King. 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 violent incidents that might backfire by attracting national publicity. He used non-violence against non-violence to good effect, thwarting King's "direct action" strategy. Pritchett arranged to disperse

3472-429: Was again arrested and held for two weeks. Following his release, King left town. Overall, King's involvement in Albany received mixed responses from civil rights activists in Albany, as they felt that the SCLC failed to consult local leaders before getting involved in the Albany movement and they viewed negatively King's early departure despite a pledge to stay in jail. The campaign in Albany, thus, highlighted tensions in

3534-544: Was far from an unqualified failure. Sherrod had taken on the repressive forces in Southwest Georgia. Sherrod had also taken it upon himself to organize a rally with African Americans and students of the Albany State College in Albany, Georgia. He failed in his attempts to bypass the older black leaders of the NAACP and remove the SNCC organizers at the university despite the support he had gained from Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph David Abernathy . Although

3596-433: Was not convinced that a federal law was necessary. It was only after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on 4 April 1968 and the ensuing riots that the bill was finally passed. It was signed into law on 11 April 1968 by President Lyndon B. Johnson , a strong proponent. Johnson called the new law one of the "promises of a century … It proclaims that fair housing for all — all human beings who live in this country —

3658-666: Was outraged by the decision, and said that the American public would take offense with the integration of the military units. For the US Army air corps, see the Tuskegee Airmen . For the US Army, see the 761st Tank Battalion (United States) . In the Second World War, the US Navy first experimented with integration aboard USCGC Sea Cloud , then later on USS  Mason , (both commanded by Carlton Skinner )

3720-546: Was sentenced to either 45 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 during the sit-ins, ejected from churches during the kneel-ins, and thrown into jail during the Freedom Rides. But for the first time, we witnessed being kicked out of jail." During this time, prominent evangelist Billy Graham ,

3782-451: Was severely short of replacement troops for existing military units, all of which were entirely white in composition. Thus, he made the decision to allow African American soldiers to join White military units in combat for the first time; this represented the first step toward a desegregated United States military. Eisenhower's decision in this case was strongly opposed by his own army chief of staff, Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith , who

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3844-631: Was the SNCC agents' main initial contact. H. C. Boyd , the preacher at Shiloh Baptist in Albany allowed Sherrod to use part of his church to recruit people for meetings on nonviolence . For decades, the situation in segregated Albany had been insufferable for its black inhabitants, who made up 40% of the town's population. At the time of the Albany Movement's formation, sexual assaults against female students of all-black Albany State College by white men remained virtually ignored by law enforcement officials. Local news stations such as WALB and newspapers such as The Albany Herald refused to truthfully report on

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