Changes

Lee Formwalt has recently written a book entitled ''Looking Back, Moving Forward: The Southwest Georgia Freedom Struggle - 1814-2014''. It explores the long fight for basic civil rights in Albany, Georgia. Even though local leaders had been pushing for civil rights for years, in 1961-62 the eyes of the nation focused on Albany, Georgia. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference descended on the small city in an effort to end segregation at the local Trailways bus depot. Unlike other battles of the civil rights movement, this one was notable because it was initially unsuccessful and forced leaders within the civil rights movement to reevaluate their strategies. Formwalt's book takes a much longer look at the civil rights movement than just this one year period in Albany and tries to understand the long struggle for civil rights. The book is being co-published by the Georgia Humanities Council and Albany Civil Rights Institute.