In this silent WALB newsfilm clip from the evening of July 21, 1962, police arrest African Americans participating in a night march in downtown Albany, Georgia. The marchers, many dressed in white, walk two abreast, flanked by two reporters with notepads. Police meet the demonstrators downtown where Albany police chief Laurie Pritchett speaks to the crowd through a bullhorn. Georgia state troopers stand in a line, apparently blocking traffic from the street; city officials relied on the assistance of troopers during many of the marches. Police stand by and watch as Reverend Samuel B. "Benny" Wells leads the demonstrators in prayer; as he prays, they kneel or sit on the sidewalk. Next, the marchers sing and clap their hands in an alley, most likely in "Freedom Alley," a dead-end street beside City Hall where arrested civil rights protesters often waited for booking. The clip ends with policemen standing in the street near a movie theater in Albany. On July 21, Albany city officials had obtained a federal injunction against local and national leaders restraining them from leading marches and other demonstrations. At a scheduled mass meeting held that evening at Shiloh Baptist Church, Reverend Wells, who was not named in the injunction, volunteered to lead a march. Over one hundred people followed him downtown and were arrested; another fifty marched later that night and joined those already in jail. The night march on July 21 was one of the last night marches held in Albany. After violence erupted in response to the marchers' arrest on the evening of July 24, the Albany Movement organized daytime marches to avoid further incidents.

The Civil Rights Digital Library received support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute of Museum and Library Services for digital conversion and description of the WALB News Film collection.

Title provided by cataloger.

1 clip (ca. 1 min., 35 sec.) : b&w, si. ; 16 mm.

Original found in the WALB newsfilm collection.

Cite as: WALB newsfilm clip of African Americans arrested for participating in a night march, Albany, Georgia, 1962 July 21, Albany Movement compilation, WALB News Film collection, Albany Movement Compilation Roll 1 [Tape 1], Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Award Collection, The University of Georgia Libraries, Athens, Ga., as presented in the Digital Library of Georgia.

Forms part of: Civil Rights Digital Library.