Mennonite Central Committee News Service
July 27,1962
HARDING ARRESTED AT ALBANY, GA. CITY HALL
PRAYER SERVICE
Akron, Pa. (MCC)--Vincent Harding, MCC representative
in the South, was arrested in Albany, Ga., Monday evening, July
23, when he and six other Negroes met in front of the city hall
for a prayer service.
The group prayed that a spirit of Christian
love might reign in this city, where racial tension was reaching
the cracking point because of the recent beating of Mrs. Slater
King, wife of one of the Negro leaders in Albany, by policemen
in a nearby town.
Harding, after his release from jall on Thursday,
July 26, stated that the prayer service was his "attempt
to find a Christian response to the situation." Violence
seemed ready to break out. In this situation, he felt, there
seemed to be a desperate need for a Christian witness to bring
the desegregation activities back to their nonviolent channel.
He was one of the speakers at the large Monday
night service in Mt. Zion Baptist Church following Mrs. King's
(no relation to Martin Luther King) beating. At the conclusion
of his speech, in which he presented the biblical teaching on
the use of force, he stated his intention to pray at the city
hall. Six people, four men and two women, joined him. Harding
discussed the implications of this action with his companions
and he felt that they were very much aware of what they were
doing.
At the city hall more than 150 Albany policemen, state patrolmen,
and revenue agents were patrolling the area against possible
demonstrations. Harding and his group prayed in front of the
building, but not in a place where they would impede traffic.
The chief of police talked to them several
times, telling them that they would be arrested if they did not
move on. Later he told Harding that they would not have been
arrested had it not been for the tense situation in Albany at
that time. The group continued their prayer in spite of the threatened
arrest. At 11 p.m. they were jailed.
Numerous offers to pay his bail came in, but
Harding felt he could not accept. On Thursday, however, it became
evident that the Christian forces would need all the resource
per- sons they could muster to keep further violence from occurring.
A rock-and-bottle-throwing incident had taken place on Tuesday,
July 24. The Negro leaders had immediately called for a day of
prayer in penance for the deeds of the few who had succumbed
to violence, but they needed persons to guide the desegregation
forces to a deeper understanding of the Christian teaching against
violence.
Thus, after meditation and discussions with
Christian leaders and police officials, Harding decided to accept
bail and to help with the difficult assignment of restoring the
desegregation activity to its basis of Christian love and nonviolence.
Throughout this experience Harding attempted
to keep a line of communication open to both the Whites and the
Negroes. He was able to talk with dozens of people, including
the chief of police, concerning his understanding of Christian
reconciliation.
The MCC ministry in the South was begun in
autumn, 1961. The work is centered at Atlanta. Albany, a city
of 56,000, is 140 miles south of Atlanta.
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