On this date in 1962, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested during a protest in Albany, Georgia, as part of the Albany Movement, a campaign to end racial segregation and discrimination in the city. The movement, which began in late 1961, was led by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the NAACP, and local Black leaders.

Dr. King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) joined the movement to support its efforts. However, Albany police chief Laurie Pritchett employed a strategy of mass arrests without violence, preventing the kind of dramatic confrontations that often drew national attention. This tactic made it difficult for the movement to gain widespread sympathy and pressure federal intervention.

King’s arrest was part of multiple detentions in Albany, and he was eventually released from jail after a fine was paid anonymously. The Albany Movement was considered a learning experience for King, shaping his later, more successful strategies in Birmingham (1963) and Selma (1965).