Address Delivered at the Albany Movement Mass Meeting at Third Kiokee Baptist Church
Author: King, Martin Luther, Jr.
Date: July 20, 1962?
Location: Albany, Ga.
Genre: Speech
Topic: Albany Movement
Martin Luther King, Jr. - Arrests
Martin Luther King, Jr. - Travels
Details
After the Albany City Commission refused to negotiate with the Albany Movement, King addresses a throng of more than 1,200 to garner support for a protest at Albany City Hall the following day. King encourages his audience to get their “marching shoes ready” for “we are going on in the name and spirit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, believing and knowing that our efforts and that the cause that we stand for is a righteous cause.”1 Although King admits that at times the outlook may seem bleak, “we will see the sunlight of freedom shining with all of its radiant beauty.”
Just hours before the march, King and other local leaders were served with a federal injunction barring any further demonstrations in Albany.2 Pritchett, who had summoned more than 150 police officers and state troopers, threatened to arrest anyone who marched. Although King and the other local leaders named in the injunction did not march, 160 marchers led by Albany minister Samuel B. Wells violated the federal order and were arrested.3 The following transcript is taken from an audio recording of the mass meeting.
[recording interrupted] the incomes were meager because out of a population of 400 million people, more than 370 million made an income of less than $58 a year. [Audience:] (Yes) And yet they had to pay these heavy taxes. Gandhi looked at them and said, “We can’t take this any longer.” And he started what was known as a march to the sea—it was known as the Salt March to the Sea.4 Mrs. King and I were in India just a few years ago, and we visited the ashram where Gandhi was living at the time and started his great march.5 And he started with just a few people. (Yes he did) And he said to them, “Now, we just going to march. If you’re hit, don’t hit back. They may curse you; don’t curse back. (That’s right, Yeah) They may beat you and push you around, but just keep going. (Yes) They may even try to kill you, but just develop the quiet courage of dying if necessary, without killing and just keep on marching.” (Yeah, That’s right, Amen) Just a few men started out, but when they got down to that sea, more than a million people had joined in that march, and Gandhi and those people reached down in the sea and got a little salt in their hands (Preach) and broke that law. And the minute that happened (All right), seemed that I could hear the boys back at Number 10 Downing Street in London, England, saying, “It’s all over now, boys.”6 (All right, Go ahead, Preach) [applause]
There is nothing in this world more powerful than the power of the human soul. (Yeah) And if we will mobilize this soul force (All right) right here in Albany, Georgia, we will be able to transform this community. (Yeah) And we will see something new (Yes) and powerful, and we will be eating where we couldn’t eat before. (Yeah) We will be marching where we couldn’t march before. (Yeah) We will be doing things that we couldn’t do before. (Yeah, go ahead) And so let’s get our marching shoes ready. (Yeah) For we are going [sustained applause]—we are going to Albany’s “march to the sea” and we expect great things to happen. (Go ahead)
I need not remind you again that whatever we do, we are going to be peaceful (Yeah), we are going to be nonviolent (That’s right), and we are going on in the name and spirit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, believing and knowing that our efforts and that the cause that we stand for is a righteous cause. (Yeah, All right) When we stand up for our rights here in America, we are not standing up for something that we do not deserve.
Somebody wrote me a letter—I got it just a few days ago—and they raised the question, “What do you all want in Albany?” Well, it didn’t have an address on it because I would’ve enjoyed answering that letter. [laughter] I could list many grievances. Somewhere along the way, I have come to see that there is a basic hurt that has come to the Negro in the South that no list of grievances can it quitely explain. I can only say that freedom is our goal (Yeah), and I know that we will win because freedom is the goal of America. (Yeah) We are bound up with the destiny of America. (Yes) For two centuries we worked here without wages; we made cotton king; we built our homes and homes for our masters and facing injustice and humiliation at every point. And yet out of a bottomless vitality, we continue to live and grow. And if the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, certainly the opposition that we now face cannot stop us. [applause]
And so we go on with this faith, knowing that we are right (Amen), that we will win. (Yeah) Now I know that it gets dark sometimes, and we begin to wonder how long will we have to face this. How long will we have to protest for our rights? When will they begin to listen to us? When will we be able to sit down with men of wisdom and goodwill and solve our problems without the inconveniences and without the suffering that we have to face? I know you raise these questions, but I submit to you this evening that if we will only keep faith in the future (Yeah), we will be able to go on, and we will gain an inner consolation and an inner stability that will keep us powerful and strength—give us strength as we carry the struggle on. (Yeah)
I was in South America some months ago, and I never will forget the morning that I was getting ready to leave—coming back to the United States. It was one of those dark and desolate mornings. The clouds were hovering mighty low. I was down in Argentina—I’d gone there from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil—been attending a church meeting, and for the first time in some twenty-one years, it snowed in Argentina.7 And so the clouds were hovering mighty low, and we waited there in the waiting room of the airport an hour and a half, feeling that that plane would not get off that morning. Then finally they had us board the plane. We went on the plane; everybody finally boarded. And that big jet plane started up, with all of the power of these great jets; then it moved on down what is known as the taxi lane; then it pulled over, and as it pulled over, we heard a voice coming over the system, saying “Welcome aboard Pan American’s flight 409 to New York City. Our first stop will be in Caracas, Venezuela. The flying time is two hours and twenty-five minutes. We will fly at an altitude of 38,000 feet. Fasten your seatbelts and observe the No Smoking signs until we are aloft.” Then that big jet plane moved on out into what is known as the takeoff lane, and it started moving down the takeoff lane with all of its power. It moved and moved and finally it started picking up off the ground. Finally that plane moved on up, and it moved on up and finally hit those very clouds that we had been noticing as we waited in the waiting room. It started moving on through the clouds, and it got a little choppy and turbulent, and in spite of this it was still going on up. (Yeah) It moved on, and still a little choppy and turbulent, but it still moved on, and finally it got way up. And I was reading a book and I heard a voice saying, “We have now reached our cruising altitude. We’re getting ready to serve breakfast.” (Yeah) And I looked out, and I looked beneath, and I could see nothing but the shining, silvery sheets of the clouds. I looked up, and I could see nothing but the dark, deep shadows of blue. Then I looked out, and I saw something else. I saw the radiant sun shining with all of its scintillating beauty. (Yeah) And I said to myself, “This is an analogy to life. Just a few minutes ago it was dark. (Amen) We couldn’t see anything. (Amen, Yes) We didn’t know whether we would get off. (Yes) But then we moved on out of the taxi lane into the takeoff lane and took off, and now the sun is shining.” (Yeah)
And I say to you tonight, my friends (That’s good), as I try to talk with you on the eve of a great action movement, don’t despair. (Yeah) It may look dark now. (Yeah) Maybe we don’t know what tomorrow and the next day will bring. (Yeah) But if you will move on out of the taxi lane of your own despair (Yeah), move out of the taxi lane of your worries and your fears (Yeah), and get out in the takeoff lane and move out on the wings of faith (Yeah), we will be able to move up through the clouds of disappointment. (Yeah) We will be able to face the dangers that lie ahead. (Yeah) We will be able to move through the clouds that may be gathered by state patrolmen. (Yeah) Then we will get up to a point and we will see the sunlight of freedom shining with all of its radiant beauty. (Yeah) This is what Longfellow meant, I believe, when he said:
Be still, sad heart! and cease repining; (Yeah)
For behind the dark cloud the sun is still shining; (Yeah)
Thy fate is the common fate of all, (Preach)
Into each life some rain must fall, (Yeah)
Some days must be dark and dreary.8 (Yeah)
Get on your walking shoes. (Yeah) Live together children. Don’t you get weary! (Yeah) [enthusiastic applause] There’s a great camp meeting.9 [sustained applause] [audience sings “We Shall Overcome.”]
1. Due to an “important turn of events in Albany,” King canceled his appearance at a testimonial dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York honoring Jackie Robinson’s induction to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Wyatt Tee Walker read the speech King had prepared for the event (“It was Jackie Robinson’s Week: Honored, Inducted,” New York Amsterdam News, 28 July 1962; King, Address for Hall of Fame Dinner in Honor of Jackie Robinson, 20 July 1962; also see King to Jackie Robinson Testimonial Dinner, 20 July 1962, pp. 544–545 in this volume).
2. At the behest of Albany mayor Asa Kelley, city manager Stephen A. Roos, and police chief Laurie Pritchett, U.S. District Court Judge J. Robert Elliott issued an injunction enjoining a planned demonstration by the Albany Movement. Those named in the injunction included: King, William G. Anderson, Marion S. Page, Slater King, Charles Jones, Ralph Abernathy, Wyatt Tee Walker, Ruby Hurley, and members of CORE, SCLC, SNCC, and NAACP (“U.S. Judge Halts Albany Negro Marchers,” Albany Herald, 21 July 1962).
3. Don McKee, “Sweeping Order Halts Albany Demonstrations,” Americus Times Recorder, 21 July 1962; Claude Sitton, “Negroes Defy Ban, March in Georgia,” New York Times, 22 July 1962. Two days before the planned protest, Anderson wrote Albany city manager Stephen Roos requesting a permit to march to Albany City Hall. Requesting a police escort to help approximately 300–500 marchers cross the street, Anderson described in detail the route the marches planned to take. The purpose of the march, Anderson wrote, is to “manifest in the presence of God, the Albany community, and the world our great concern over the inability of Negro citizens of Albany to effectively communicate to the city fathers their community problems” (William G. Anderson to Roos, 19 July 1962).
4. On 12 March 1930, Mahatma Gandhi and seventy-eight volunteers began a 200-mile march from Ahmadabad, India, to Dandi on the Gulf of Khambhat in protest of the British salt tax. Thousands had joined the protest by the time Gandhi reached the shore several weeks later and began to manufacture salt in violation of British law. This act of civil disobedience touched off similar protests across India and gained worldwide attention.
5. The Kings visited India during February and March 1959. For more on King’s trip to India, see Introduction in Papers 5:2–12. King visited the Sabarmati ashram, the starting point of Gandhi’s Salt March, on 1 March 1959.
6. Ten Downing Street is the official residence and office of the British Prime Minister.
7. King attended the Baptist World Alliance conference in Rio de Janeiro from 28 June to 3 July 1960.
8. Cf. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “The Rainy Day” (1842).
9. King paraphrases the lyrics of the spiritual “There’s a Great Camp Meeting”: “Walk together children/ Don’t you get weary/ There’s a great camp meeting in the Promised Land.”
Source: Nashville, Tenn.: Creed Records, Nashboro Record Company, 1984.