WALB (Television station : Albany, Ga.)

Description

In this WALB newsfilm clip from August 28, 1962, Albany, Georgia police chief Laurie Pritchett addresses and then arrests ministers from New York and Chicago participating in a kneel-in at Albany City Hall. The clip begins as the ministers, mostly white men, walk two abreast near city hall. They line up single file in front of the city hall and are met by the Albany police, some of whom stand at the far end of the line while others walk in front of the line with cameramen. From doorways across the street, spectators watch the demonstration. Pritchett asks the gathering of ministers why they came to Albany; an unidentified minister replies that they gathered to offer their prayers to God. After pausing, Chief Pritchett addresses the ministers, and counters that the publicity of their visit indicates they have come "to aid and abet the law violators of this city and of this county." Pritchett reminds the demonstrators of their civic obligations and their responsibilities to their congregations. He informs the group that those acting within the law are welcome in Albany, but lawbreakers will be treated as criminals. Pritchett asks the ministers to "go back to your normal places of livelihood, preach to your own congregation, and clear your own city of sin" before interfering with life in Albany. Appealing to their religious vocation, he says, "if you are peace-loving and religious people as you say you are, then I feel sure that you will leave here" and "not buy...

Record Contributed By

Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia