By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Georgia > Southwest Georgia > Dougherty County > Albany

Albany was a major battleground in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and that story is told at the Albany Civil Rights Movement Museum at Old Mt. Zion Church.

Nationally noted as a key civil rights battleground of the early 1960s, Albany was one of the first cities where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the four major civil rights organizations – Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC), Student National Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Committee on Racial Equality (CORE), and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) – joined forces.

The Albany Civil Rights Movement Museum at Old Mt. Zion Church, operated by the Albany Civil Rights Institute (ACRI), tells the compelling story of the Civil Rights Movement in Albany. The Albany Movement was an organization formed in 1961 to coordinate civil rights movement activities in the area. The group chose Mt. Zion Church as the site of their first mass meeting. A majestic church at the corner of Whitney Avenue and Jefferson Street, Mt. Zion Church had been built in 1906 by a congregation of former slaves, who had organized at the end of the Civil War. Mt. Zion Church continued to host the Albany Movement’s mass meetings, such as those in which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to capacity crowds. (more…)

By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Georgia > Southwest Georgia Travel Region > Dougherty County > Albany

Albany’s Thronateeska Heritage Center celebrates the history of the region, including its ties to the railroad industry, with a collection of rolling stock that includes a Georgia Northern steam locomotive. 

The Central of Georgia. Atlantic Coast Line. Georgia Northern. Albany & Northern. Seaboard Air Line. At one time, these five different railroads served the city of Albany with seven rail lines and as many as 55 trains converging daily at the city’s Union Station just one block from the Flint River. Today, that 1912 brick passenger terminal houses a local and regional history and heritage museum that is part of the Thronateeska Heritage Center.

Established in 1974, Thronateeska’s mission is to tell the story of Southwest Georgia, including that of Native Americans, steamboats on the Flint, the emergence of railroads and automobiles, and the Albany Civil Rights Movement.

Thronateeska Heritage Center, located on a wide, brick street in downtown Albany, includes several structures in addition to the depot. The Wetherbee Planetarium, which opened last year, boasts a high-definition projection system that is the first of its kind. It takes you on an exploration of the universe through three regularly scheduled programs: “Oasis in Space,” “Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity,” and “Molecularium.” (more…)