Smash Pacifism - Warrior Publications

King was released from jail with instructions to
return in the summer for sentencing. The SCLC retreated
from Albany, although the movement continued to
organize.
In January, 1962, the Albany Movement began a
boycott of buses, and in April started carrying out sit-ins of
the library and other municipal buildings. These actions
only caused minor inconveniences to the public, however.
As the months passed, the movement declined, with less
and less people willing to be arrested. The long delay in
bringing to trial the several hundred arrested in December
also limited their enthusiasm for re-arrest. The movement's
main success was in boycotting white businesses, some of
which complained of an 80-90 percent loss in customers.
Albany chief of police Laurie Pritchett anticipated
that upon King's return in July for sentencing there would
be a revival of the protests. He began studying the
Montgomery campaign as well as Gandhi's doctrine. He
planned and prepared for mass
arrests, which he saw as being
intended to overwhelm the police
and fill the jails.
He contacted regional
police forces, who agreed to take
prisoners, thereby relieving the
Albany jail. Over the course of 3-4
months, the Albany police also
received training in conducting
“non-violent protester” arrests.
As Pritchett had expected,
King's return to Albany in July
generated considerable excitement.
On July 10, King refused to pay a
$178 fine and was sentenced to 45 days in jail. This had a
dramatic effect on the local movement and national media.
Mass meetings were held by the movement organizers,
preparing for a renewed offensive.
Then, on July 12, just two days later, King was
released when an anonymous donor paid his fine. At this
anti-climactic turn, the movement fizzled with no strong
point around which to rally. King decided to be re-arrested,
but a federal court injunction given to the city banned all
protests. Because it was issued by a federal court, which
King saw as an asset since it had passed legislation
enforcing civil rights, King refused to disobey the
injunction (to the dismay of Movement members).
A few days later, however, on July 24, 1961, the
injunction was overturned on appeal. Later that night, King
led a rally:
“When a group of forty marchers set off towards
city hall at the end of the rally, a crowd of black spectators,
perhaps two thousand strong, followed the line of march
and, according to the police report, began 'chanting,
harassing, and intimidating' the officers. A smaller group
broke away from the main body and ran into the street,
forcing cars to swerve. When Pritchett ordered his men to
MLK with Albany police chief Laurie Pritchett,
1962.
44
disperse the crowd, 'police officers were met with a volley
of rocks and bottles and other objects.'”
(To Redeem the Soul of America, p. 104)
In response, King suspended the protests and called
for a day of “penance” (as Gandhi had done). The next day,
he toured the main Black district with a small entourage,
stopping at a pool hall, a shoeshine store, a drugstore, and a
bar, preaching nonviolence.
On July 27, King and nine others were arrested
once again during a rally. By this time, the numbers of
people attending protests had dwindled significantly. On
August 10, 1962, the Albany Movement suspended the
campaign, and all prisoners were released, including King.
Albany remained rigidly segregated. Even when
official segregation laws were repealed, city officials and
police maintained an informal segregation policy, simply
threatening Blacks with other, unrelated, charges.
The defeat of the Albany
campaign has been attributed to
various factors. These include an
overly ambitious set of goals to start
with, and then the beginning of
actions as negotiations were
underway. The involvement of the
SCLC and King in the movement
had been disruptive, but for the
SCLC it showed the need for having
a stronger local office in such efforts.
By attempting to revive the
movement in July, 1961, they had
also attached themselves to a weak
and divided local leadership.
There were other lessons as well:
“Albany disabused King [and others] of their
romantic notions about nonviolent direct action. The
concept of a 'nonviolent army' that could steamroller the
opposition through sheer weight of numbers turned out to
be highly unrealistic. Albany demonstrated that no more
than five percent of a given black population could be
expected to volunteer for jail. SCLC had to frame its tactics
accordingly... People who were arrested once proved
extremely reluctant to risk a second arrest... The
Birmingham campaign, the SCLC decided, should start
with small-scale protests and gradually build up to mass
demonstrations and jail-ins...”
(To Redeem the Soul of America, pp. 107-08)
Also in 1962, the Kennedy administration
introduced the Voter Education Program, with substantial
funding for civil rights groups to direct them towards voter
registration campaigns—to get the movement off the streets
and divert it into electoral efforts. Once Blacks were
organized to vote, according to government officials,
“freedom” would come much more easily.