July 10, 1962 - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a fellow minister went to jail today in Albany, Ga., to emphasize their nonviolent defiance of racial barriers. Dr. King and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy were convicted of having violated a city ordinance by leading a street demonstration without a permit last Dec. 16. They were sentenced to pay $178 in fines or spend 45 days in jail. They spurned both the fines and freedom on bond and went to jail to await assignment to prison work gangs. The integrationist leader assailed both the Albany law and the court that had convicted him. He called them unjust and said he would be “just as wrong if I paid a fine under the circumstances.” Dr. King said that he was courting neither martyrdom nor publicity but merely expressing his conviction on the principles involved.
