Martin Luther King Jr.

===Albany Movement, 1961===
{{Main|Albany Movement}}
The Albany Movement was a desegregation coalition formed in [[Albany, Georgia]], in November 1961. In December, King and the SCLC became involved. The movement mobilized thousands of citizens for a nonviolent attack on every aspect of segregation in the city and attracted nationwide attention. When King first visited on December 15, 1961, he "had planned to stay a day or so and return home after giving counsel."<ref name=Hatchette>{{cite book |last=King |first=Martin Luther Jr. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pynSnGuC964C&pg=PT147 |title=The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. |publisher=Hatchette Digital |year=2001 |page=147 |isbn=978-0-7595-2037-0 |access-date=January 4, 2013 |archive-date=July 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230727202925/https://books.google.com/books?id=pynSnGuC964C&pg=PT147 |url-status=live }}</ref> The following day he was swept up in a [[mass arrest]] of peaceful demonstrators, and he declined bail until the city made concessions. According to King, "that agreement was dishonored and violated by the city" after he left.<ref name=Hatchette />

King returned in July 1962 and was given the option of forty-five days in jail or a $178 fine ({{Inflation|US|178|1962|r=-2|fmt=eq}}); he chose jail. Three days into his sentence, Police Chief Laurie Pritchett discreetly arranged for King's fine to be paid and ordered his release. "We had witnessed persons being kicked off lunch counter stools&nbsp;... ejected from churches&nbsp;... and thrown into jail&nbsp;... But for the first time, we witnessed being kicked out of jail."<ref>{{cite book|title=A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. |last=King |first=Martin Luther Jr. |year=1990 |publisher=Harper Collins |isbn=978-0-06-064691-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/testamentofhope00mart/page/105 105] |url=https://archive.org/details/testamentofhope00mart/page/105 }}</ref> It was later acknowledged by the King Center that [[Billy Graham]] was the one who bailed King out.<ref>[http://www.thekingcenter.org/archive/theme/2179 King Center:Billy Graham] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150315074536/http://www.thekingcenter.org/archive/theme/2179 |date=March 15, 2015 }} Accessed September 15, 2014</ref>

After nearly a year of intense activism with few tangible results, the movement began to deteriorate. King requested a halt to all demonstrations and a "Day of Penance" to promote nonviolence and maintain the moral high ground. Divisions within the black community and the canny, low-key response by local government defeated efforts.{{sfn|Glisson|2006|pp=190–193}} Though the Albany effort proved a key lesson in tactics for King and the national civil rights movement,<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis61.htm#1961albany| title= Albany, GA Movement| publisher= Civil Rights Movement Archive| access-date= September 8, 2008| archive-date= July 7, 2010| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100707051408/http://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis61.htm#1961albany| url-status= live}}</ref> the national media was highly critical of King's role in the defeat, and the SCLC's lack of results contributed to a growing gulf between the organization and the more radical [[SNCC]]. After Albany, King sought to choose engagements for the SCLC in which he could control the circumstances, rather than entering into pre-existing situations.{{sfn|Frady|2002|p=96}}

[[File:Photograph of White House Meeting with Civil Rights Leaders. June 22, 1963 - NARA - 194190 (no border).tif|thumb|Vice President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] and Attorney General [[Robert F. Kennedy]] with King, [[Benjamin Mays]], and other civil rights leaders, June 22, 1963]]