WSB-TV (Television station : Atlanta, Ga.)

Description

In this WSB newsfilm clip, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Reverend Ralph Abernathy and an unidentified civil rights worker visit Dick's Cue Room, Dick Gay's poolroom in Albany's Harlem neighborhood, on Wednesday, July 25, 1962, to explain the role of nonviolence in the movement, and to solicit support from members of Albany's African American community. On the night before, a crowd of African American onlookers, angry at the arrest of protesters, had thrown rocks and bottles at city police officers. Albany Movement leaders, working to encourage nonviolence and combat the damage that this violent outburst caused in the media, declared Wednesday a "day of penance" and cancelled all demonstrations. In speaking to the audience in the pool hall of young men and children, King says that in order for the civil rights movement to continue to be great, it needs to be nonviolent and peaceful. Violence will only bring shame on African Americans and will allow the city and state to dismiss the movement as violent. King asks for the support of his listeners and for their help to spread the word of nonviolence to their friends and family members, inviting them to the mass meeting that evening. Next, an unidentified speaker intimates that violence plays into the hands of Albany police chief Laurie Pritchett and the segregationists. Finally, Abernathy tells the audience that the movement is not asking them to stop resisting segregation but to fight it nonviolently because "nonviolence is the way of the strong."Title supplied by cataloger.IMLS...

Record Contributed By

Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection

Record Harvested From

Digital Library of Georgia