DECATUR, Ga. (WALB) - On October 25, 1960, Martin Luther King Jr. was sentenced in Decatur, Georgia for protesting segregation at a department store lunch counter.

King’s attendance at that protest reportedly violated his parole conditions after he was convicted for driving without a Georgia license. King had a valid Alabama license, but he was still arrested and convicted.

The civil rights leader was sentenced to four months of hard labor and was held in the Georgia State Prison. From there, he wrote to his wife, “I have faith that this excessive suffering that is now coming to our family will in some little way serve to make Atlanta a better city, Georgia a better state, and America a better country.”

The harsh sentence for a parole violation energized civil rights activists, who amplified their calls to end racist policies.

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