Albany firm proposes renaming library for civil rights ‘foot soldier’
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ALBANY, Georgia (Albany Herald) — An Albany-based cultural projects firm is asking that the main branch of the Dougherty County Public Library be named in honor of a 12-year-old civil rights “foot soldier.”
Albany native Gwendolyn Crawford, now 74, became an iconic image of the 1961-62 Albany Movement after she and others were arrested for attempting to desegregate Albany’s downtown library.
Clennon L. King, whose cultural projects firm Augustine Monica Films is making the proposal to manage and facilitate the project, said the honor is overdue.
“Not to take away from the MLKs, the Dr. Andersons, the Rev. Sherrods or the C.B. and Slater Kings, but the truth is many of the people who were boots-on-the-ground in the Albany Movement were women and children,” King said. “Ms. Crawford turns 75 next month, and what better way to honor her sacrifice, and those of others, who helped kick open the doors of the library to ensure equal access, than to name the main branch The Gwendolyn Crawford Branch?”
In August 1962, Crawford was among more than a dozen who left a mass meeting at Shiloh Baptist Church and marched on foot 5 1/2 blocks to attempt to desegregate the Carnegie Public Library at 215 N. Jackson St., the current home to the Albany Area Arts Council.
Newsreel footage and stills of Crawford and others finding the doors locked and being hauled off the front steps by police made front page news and circled the globe.
“As they took us to the paddy wagon, we kept singing ‘Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around,’ and we meant that,” Crawford said recently from her east Albany home.
With Asa Kelley serving as Albany’s mayor and Laurie Pritchett serving as Albany’s police chief, the library remained closed for a year in response to desegregation efforts. Upon re-opening, the library did not have any chairs.
After her arrest, Crawford was transported to the Mitchell County Jail in Camilla, where she spent nearly two weeks. A Carver Junior High School student at the time, she graduated from Monroe High School before earning a bachelor’s degree from Albany State College and a master’s degree from Georgia State University. After teaching the bulk of her career in the Dougherty County School System, she relocated to Montgomery, Ala., to work with the Department of Education there, before returning to Albany upon retirement.
Meanwhile, King said the project holds a threefold purpose: 1) To underscore the Albany Movement as a victorious and key battlefield in the national fight for democracy; 2) to celebrate the unsung veterans of the campaign; and 3) to teach the children in this community where they come from.
“With all this gun violence here in Dougherty County, our kids need desperately to see what kids here were doing 60 years ago,” King said. “Kids like Ms. Crawford were doing the right thing and stand as a powerful example and model for changing all of our lives for the better.”
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