ABSTRACT
Two community-based campaigns within the space of eighteen months between December 1961 and June 1963 proved to be a turning point in King's civil rights leadership. King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) used their experiences in Albany to reflect on the mistakes that they had made there and to devise a better-planned strategy for their next campaign in Birmingham, Alabama. In August 1961, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) field secretary Charles Sherrod sought to establish a voter-registration campaign in south-west Georgia. New funds from the field foundation ensured the continuation of the SCLC's citizenship training programme. The SCLC's existing relationship with the ACMHR, King hoped, would avoid the debilitating divisions that had undermined the local movement in Albany. Developments in Birmingham stalled the SCLC campaign before it had even started. Elections for the new mayor-council government were scheduled for 5 March 1962. In implementing this strategy, King and the SCLC encountered a number of criticisms.
