South Georgia Civil Rights Oral History Collections

Civil rights

African Americans--History

Georgia--History, Local

United States--Civil rights

Politics and Public Policy

Oral histories with members of the Albany Movement’s civil rights campaign in southwest Georgia document that time period as well as the local politics and initiatives in its aftermath. “In November 1961, residents of Albany, Georgia, launched an ambitious campaign to eliminate segregation in all facets of local life. The movement captured national attention one month later when local leaders invited Martin Luther King, Jr. to join the protest. Despite King's involvement, the movement failed to secure concessions from local officials and was consequently deemed unsuccessful by many observers. Subsequent appraisals, however, have identified the movement as a formative learning experience for King and other civil rights organizers, and credited it with hastening the ultimate desegregation of Albany's facilities, which occurred only one year following the movement's conclusion in August 1962.”

All interviews in this collection have been indexed in OHMS.

James Wall

Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies

2017-2018

RBRL424SGCR

Albany, Georgia