ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - A traveling exhibit honoring civil rights leader Lonnie C. King Jr. opened at the Northwest Library in Albany this week, bringing national history back to its Southwest Georgia roots.

King, co-author of the influential Appeal for Human Rights, was born in Arlington, Georgia, a town of less than 2,000 people, before rising to prominence as a student activist at Morehouse College in Atlanta.

The exhibit, Lonnie C. King Jr.: The Life and Legacy of a Civil Rights Leader photographs and historical documents that trace King’s journey from rural Georgia to the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement.

From Small Town to National Stage

King’s path to activism was shaped by experiences familiar to many Black veterans of his era. After attending Morehouse College, he joined the U.S. Navy to help pay for his education through the GI Bill.

“Serving your country, coming back home, and unlike other officers who were not African American, you received a different treatment. You were still considered second class,” said Gail Evans, library director for Dougherty County Public Library.

That treatment, many believe, fueled King’s commitment to social justice.

A Legacy of Nonviolent Protest

At Morehouse, King became a driving force in the student-led civil rights movement. He founded the Atlanta Student Movement and helped organize the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), one of the most influential civil rights organizations of the 1960s.

In one of his boldest moves, King convinced Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to join protests at Rich’s department store in Atlanta. Both men were arrested.

“He made history, always fighting in a nonviolent way for civil rights for the people of not just Atlanta, but Georgia and all over,” Evans said.

King’s most enduring contribution came in 1960 when he co-wrote the Appeal for Human Rights, a document published in Atlanta newspapers that outlined Black college students’ demands for an end to segregation. The appeal helped spark sit-ins, boycotts, and demonstrations that spread across the South and became a defining moment of the student-led civil rights movement.

Bringing History Home

Library officials say the exhibit is especially meaningful for the Albany community, where civil rights history is often discussed through well-known national figures but not always through local connections.

“How else can we know our path forward if we don’t know what’s come before us?” Evans said.

Laura Wall, a visitor at the Northwest Library, remembers living through the civil rights era in Albany.

“I was born in 1956, so as a child I do remember Albany and the civil rights movement in downtown Albany,” Wall said. “Our younger generations growing up need to know the importance of what happened and why it happened. And we’ve got to keep it going.”

Organizers say a connection between past and present is central to the exhibit’s purpose, reminding the community that the Civil Rights Movement didn’t just happen somewhere else; it includes people who were born and raised in Southwest Georgia.

Visit the Exhibit

The Lonnie C. King Jr.: The Life and Legacy of a Civil Rights Leader exhibit is open through March 9 at the Northwest Library in Albany during regular library hours. Admission is free.

For more information, contact the Dougherty County Public Library.

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