On November 1, 1961, SNCC and the local NAACP tried to desegregate the train stations and bus depots in Albany, Georgia. Albany Police Chief Laurie Pritchett had the demonstrators arrested. The Albany Movement soon formed to combat discrimination in that community. With the help of the NAACP, SNCC, and the SCLC, the Albany Movement organised boycotts of white owned stores and businesses.

Among other things, they refused to ride on segregated buses. The town leaders actually allowed the bus business to go bankrupt rather than to allow it to be desegregated. No violence was committed by police during this attempt to desegregate the city, and the organisations that were helping the Albany Movement soon abandoned the town to fight the battle for civil rights in cities where the police would use more violent tactics. The first city on the list was Birmingham, Alabama, and their police chief, "Bull" Connor did not disappoint the hopes of protesters. Police violence was so brutal and ugly that the city soon found itself under the eye of the nation's broadcast industry.