Biography
Ralph Abernathy was a Baptist minister, civil rights leader, and a close associate of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who co-founded and served as longtime president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Arrested an estimated 40+ times during the civil rights movement. After taking over SCLC following King's assassination, Abernathy led the Poor People's Campaign and was arrested on June 24, 1968 leading a "Day of Solidarity" march from Resurrection City on the National Mall to the U.S. Capitol; he served 20 days in DC Jail.
Zinn describes their December 16, 1961 Albany march arrests and transfer to Sumter County jail in Americus. One passage mistakenly calls Saturday December 15; a later passage correctly gives Saturday December 16. The report of group releases is not used to replace independently established individual endpoints. Howard Zinn, Albany, Southern Regional Council SRC22, January 8, 1962, original PDF page 19. Source: https://www.crmvet.org/info/6201_zinn_albany.pdf#page=19
Contemporary reporting and the individual appellate account identify Ralph Abernathy as arrested during the Charleston hospital strike prayer vigil late on June 20, 1969. A preliminary hearing on June 21 ordered continued jailing in lieu of $50,000 bond. Actual entry falls within the June 20–21 midnight boundary and is recorded at June 1969 month precision; the source does not establish actual release. This episode is separate from any earlier Charleston confinement.
