Albany leaders, activists, community members march to honor MLK

ALBANY — About 200 people gathered Monday at Shiloh Baptist Church, the birthplace of Albany’s Civil Rights Movement, to march in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the Civil Rights leader’s connection to the Albany Civil Rights Movement.

Frank Wilson, an organizer of the march to honor King on the national holiday recognizing his prominence in the battle for civil rights, said the event’s purpose was not only to commemorate King’s birthday but to spread awareness of continuing issues for the rights of women, BIPOC and other minority groups.

An hourlong program at Shiloh Baptist preceded the march, where about 150 people filled the pews to hear the words of speakers and performances by the Freedom Singers. Speakers included Wilson, Sherrell Byrd, co-founder and co-chair of non-profit SOWEGA Rising, and Mary Lawson, a former Albany State University humanities professor.

The 2024 theme for the national MLK celebration is “it starts with me,” Byrd said to the audience. She quoted King:

“The world’s most urgent and persistent question is ‘What can I do to serve others?’” she said.

We continue to walk to continue standing up for our rights and to educate the younger generations, Wilson told the crowd.

Younger citizens need to know what those footsteps mean, he said, referring to the brown and white footsteps that line Jackson Street, representing those who marched in the Albany Movement.

“At a time when all the things Dr. King marched for seem to reach the surface, including our right to vote, that people would diminish our history, distort our culture … that’s why we walk,” Wilson said.

Lawson traveled from Tallahassee, Fla., to attend Monday’s march. She was known for requiring her ASU students to attend one Freedom Singer performance and write an essay on it per term, during her time as a professor at the HBCU.

Some of the same concerns from 1961 remain concerns today, Lawson said. She pointed out Florida’s book bans and the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

“If we don’t learn from history, we’re doomed to repeat it,” Lawson said to the crowd. “It’s dangerous.”

We have to vote, and we have to march, she said.

The need for voter participation was a hot topic during Monday’s march. Members of the New Georgia Project, a nonpartisan effort to empower Georgia’s BIPOC voters, attended with a booth and clipboards to sign up supporters.

As the marchers made their way from Shiloh to Pine Street in downtown Albany, they passed the former site of the Greyhound bus station — a historical civil rights locale — and the Charles Sherrod Civil Rights Park. Marchers wore shirts that encouraged people to vote and stand up for their communities.

Children held the hands of their parents; ASU students marched with their fraternity brothers, and seniors made the historical journey with canes in hand. Eartha Watkins, a freedom singer and ASU music instructor, led the group in song.

The march was a priority for Watkins. She woke up Monday morning with freedom on her mind, she said.

“The music of the movement was the fuel of the movement,” Watkins said. “Songs were the motivating force for everybody.”

To march along the same path and sing the same songs that were being sung in 1961 now in 2024 is powerful, she said.

“It’s a good feeling to know we’re keeping the music alive,” Watkins said.

Vernice Canty, a 72-year-old Albany resident, said as long as she’s in the community, she will show up to events like the MLK march. Canty was at Monday’s program to encourage people to vote, she said.

She prioritizes staying civically engaged by attending commission meetings and events that bring the community together, Canty said. She has concerns surrounding high utility bills and a lack of opportunities and activities for young people in Albany. She said she would like to see change and more people getting to the polls.

“It takes a whole village,” Canty said. “We can’t do it if we don’t vote.”

Maggie Bell, SOWEGA Rising’s civic engagement director, said a lot of Albany’s voters are not showing up to the polls.

“There are over 68,000 registered voters in Albany,” she said to the marchers. “Last year, why did only 10,000 show up?”

Bell said she is tired of city leaders not making the changes the community wants to see, but she noted the low voter turnout is not helping.

“We’re not going to see the changes we need,” Bell said. “We’re not going to have the proper representation of folks who advocate for our beliefs and the things that our households … and our communities need.”

Byrd closed off the march by leading attendees in a chant: “It starts with me,” the marchers shouted with their fists raised.

Staff Photo: Lucille Lannigan

Staff Photo: Lucille Lannigan