Jackson Advocate

King Reneges On Promise To Spend Forty-Five Days In Jail Rather Than Pay Fine For Demonstration
Released After Spending Only Two Days In Jail As Controversy Whirls Over Who Paid His Fine of $178.00

Albany, Ga., July 16 - Rank and file Negroes in the street here are saying with a tongue-in-cheek chuckle, that a Georgia jail right now is too hot for the Rev. Martin Luther King, famed exponent of the use of Gandhi Type Non-violent Resistance on the part of Negroes in this country in their struggle for full civil rights and first-class citizenship. The cause of such action is Rev. King himself who reneged on his widely publicized promise to spend forty-five days in the Albany jail rather than pay a fine for staging a demonstration parade without a City permit. The obtaining of a permit being a primary requirement before any parade can be staged on the city streets.

Charged along with Rev. King was one of his chief officers in his Southern Christian Non-violent Leadership Movement, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, of

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Georgia Jail
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Montgomery, Alabama. Both were given the choice of serving 45 days in jail or paying a $178 fine. They refused to pay the fines branding them unjust, and were then ordered jailed by the presiding city judge.
After being ordered to jail, in a statement reported throughout the nation by press, radio, and TV, King told Reporters, "I am not doing this in any spirit of martyrdom or for publicity but because of my strong belief in the principles involved. I would be as wrong as the court if I paid a fine under the circumstances."
Despite his stirring statement after only two days of confinement he was released as was Rev. Abernathy. Rev. King professed no knowledge as to who or how the fines were paid, thus giving rise to a whirl of nation-wide controversy over that subject.
Chief of Police Laurie Pritchett, after saying that the fine was paid by a well dressed Negro man, had refused to give any further information on the subject.
Following the release there was a report that in New York the members of a County Republican Committee had contributed $1 each to raise the fines and sent the money to Albany. There were also reports that New York's Governor Rockefeller had gotten into the case by calling upon U. S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to take steps to assure Rev. King's personal safety.
It was also reported, but without White House Confirmation, that the President had taken some action in regard to Rev. King's release from jail.