GeorgiaThe Albany Civil Rights Institute commemorates the 1960s freedom struggle in southwest Georgia, and specifically the Albany Movement that mobilized here beginning in 1961. It sits beside Old Mount Zion Baptist Church, the 1906 sanctuary of a congregation organized just after the Civil War, where the movement's first mass meeting was held on November 17, 1961 and where Martin Luther King Jr. later addressed an overflow crowd of some 1,500 people. After the congregation moved to a larger home in 1994, the historic church was restored in 1998 as a museum; when that space proved too small, a 12,000-square-foot institute was completed next door in 2008. Exhibits, oral histories, and the freedom-song tradition central to the Albany Movement anchor the visitor experience in the city's historic Freedom District.
Albany Civil Rights Institute
Georgia history, up close and curated.
Albany Civil Rights Institute is a museum in Albany, Dougherty County. It is one of 4 museums documented in Dougherty County, among 62 historic sites cataloged across the county on Georgia Roam.
The site sits at 31.5722, -84.1539 near Albany. The nearest cataloged historic site is Mount Zion Baptist Church (historic place), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Georgia Civil Rights Trail: The Albany Movement, Oakview Cemetery, and Flood of July 7, 1994.
This record is drawn from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.
The Albany Civil Rights Institute commemorates the 1960s freedom struggle in southwest Georgia, and specifically the Albany Movement that mobilized here beginning in 1961. It sits beside Old Mount Zion Baptist Church, the 1906 sanctuary of a congregation organized just after the Civil War, where the movement's first mass meeting was held on November 17, 1961 and where Martin Luther King Jr. later addressed an overflow crowd of some 1,500 people. After the congregation moved to a larger home in 1994, the historic church was restored in 1998 as a museum; when that space proved too small, a 12,000-square-foot institute was completed next door in 2008. Exhibits, oral histories, and the freedom-song tradition central to the Albany Movement anchor the visitor experience in the city's historic Freedom District.
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