Call Number:

Mss.005

Repository:

Villanova University: Special Collections

Extent:

1 linear feet (2 manuscript boxes)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

[Item], SC Mss 005 Hotel Albert Collection, 1965-1966, undated, Villanova Special Collections.

Date:

1965-1966, undated (inclusive)

Abstract:

The Hotel Albert Collection contains hotel receipts and room keys from the time of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s stay at the hotel as well as promotional material for the hotel.

The Hotel Albert in Selma, Alabama's construction began in 1860 with the labor of enslaved peoples. Construction was halted until the end of the Civil War and began again in 1867. In its heyday, it was marketed as a winter getaway in the South for Northerners who wanted to escape the cold. It was a segregated hotel into the 1960s, and did not have a single Black guest until Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and eight members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) along with other Civil Rights activists decided to stay there during a voting registration event that had been planned with President Lyndon B. Johnson. Notably, Alabama governor George Wallace had a standing room at the hotel which served as his "headquarters." By 1969, the hotel had shuttered its doors and was demolished. The Hotel Albert Records contain receipts, room keys, and promotional material from the Hotel Albert in 1965 and 1966 documenting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's historic trip to the hotel. In early January 1965, King and President Lyndon B. Johnson planned a massive voter registration drive through the South, kicking off on January 18th in Selma, Alabama. Along with members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), King chose to stay at the Hotel Albert because it had never had a Black hotel guest, despite segregation of public spaces being outlawed the previous year. There, King was physically assaulted by a member of the States Rights Party, a white supremacist organization. The attacker, James A. Robinson was not the only member of the party in attendance, as multiple members were staying with George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party.

The collection includes records of dozens of journalists staying at the hotel to document the events of the registration campaign and King's hotel stay, including notable names like Ted Koppel, Lew Wood, Gay Talese, and Oliver Noonan among others. The collection is arranged alphabetically.