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.

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 WSB-TV Newsfilm Collection.

1 clip (about 8 min.): black-and-white, sound ; 16 mm.

Original found in the WSB-TV newsfilm collection.

WSB-TV newsfilm clip of civil rights leaders promoting nonviolence in a poolroom in Albany, Georgia, 1962 July 25, WSB-TV newsfilm collection, reel 0899, 22:46/30:19, Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection, The University of Georgia Libraries, Athens, Ga, as presented in the Digital Library of Georgia.

Forms part of: Civil Rights Digital Library.