Formed on 17 November 1961 by Albany, Georgia’s Colored Ministerial Alliance, the NAACP, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and other civil rights organizations, the Albany Movement conducted a broad campaign that challenged all forms of segregation and discrimination. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) joined the coalition in December 1961, attracting national publicity to Albany. Although the Albany Movement was successful in mobilizing massive protests during December 1961 and the following summer, it secured few concrete gains due to the jailing of hundreds of protesters.
On 10 July 1961, Charlie Ware, a black field hand, was shot three times in the neck by Baker County Sheriff L. Warren Johnson. Despite an FBI account affirming Ware's version of the attack, Ware was jailed for assaulting a sheriff. Efforts to free him coalesced on 17 November 1961 with the formation of the Albany Movement and the election of Dr. W. G. Anderson as its president.
Building on the sit-ins of 1960 and the Freedom Rides of 1961, the Albany Movement aimed to end all forms of racial segregation in the city, focusing primarily on bus and train stations, libraries, parks, hospitals, buses, jury representation, public and private employment, and police brutality. Through the course of the campaign, Albany protesters utilized various methods of nonviolence, including mass demonstrations, jail-ins, sit-ins, political action, boycotts, and litigation. It was the first campaign in the South to involve large numbers of black adults of varied class backgrounds in protests.
Albany police chief Laurie Pritchett, aware that violence would bring negative publicity, responded to the demonstrations with large-scale arrests, while refraining from brutality that would attract negative publicity. By December 1961, more than 500 protestors were jailed, and negotiations with city officials stalled. Anderson called on Martin Luther King, Jr. to come to Albany to help reinvigorate the Movement, and on 16 December, King, Anderson, and Ralph Abernathy joined over 100 black citizens in jail on charges of parading without a permit, disturbing the peace, and obstructing the sidewalk.
King's involvement attracted media attention and inspired more members of the black community to join the protests. This did not go unnoticed by city officials; and soon after King's arrest, city officials and Albany Movement leaders came to an agreement: if King left Albany, the city would desegregate the buses, postpone trials, return bond money, and set up a biracial committee. After King left Albany, however, the city failed to uphold the agreement; and protests and arrests continued.
Six months later, on 10 July 1962, King, Abernathy, and two additional protesters were ordered to stand trial for their involvement in previous demonstrations. They were all found guilty and ordered to pay $178 or serve four days in jail. They chose to serve the time. As King explained from jail, "We chose to serve our time because we feel so deeply about the plight of more than seven hundred others who have yet to be tried.” He continued, “We have experienced the racist tactics of attempting to bankrupt the movement in the South through excessive bail and extended court fights. The time has now come when we must practice civil disobedience in a true sense or delay our freedom thrust for long years." With King in jail, demonstrations and arrests increased. On 13 July, Chief Pritchett notified King and Abernathy that their bail had been paid, and they were released.
Protests continued in Albany through July, when the Albany Movement invited SCLC and SNCC to share leadership in the campaign. King recruited a staff experienced in nonviolent action, voter registration, and legal struggles. SNCC representatives questioned SCLC's approach of bringing in outside leadership, insisting that this would undermine the Albany Movement’s control. This was just one example of the tensions that arose between SNCC and SCLC during the Movement.
Following his second arrest, King agreed on 10 August 1962 to leave Albany and halt the demonstrations, effectively ending the Albany Movement. While close to ninety-five percent of the black population boycotted buses and shops, the ultimate goals of the Movement were not met. King blamed much of the failure on the campaign’s wide scope, stating in a 1965 interview, "the mistake I made there was to protest against segregation 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.” The experiences in Albany, however, helped inform the strategy for the Birmingham Campaign that followed less than a year later. King acknowledged that “what we learned from our mistakes in Albany helped our later campaigns in other cities to be more effective."