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<br />-2- <br /> <br />It was evident by 1958 that Kingls activities in the movement to <br /> <br />secure <br /> <br />equal <br /> <br />rights <br /> <br />interfered <br /> <br />with <br /> <br />his <br /> <br />pastoral <br /> <br />duties. <br /> <br />He <br /> <br />was <br /> <br />traveling constantly and his association with such other leaders as A. <br /> <br />Phillip <br /> <br />Randolph, <br /> <br />Ttfui tney <br /> <br />Young, <br /> <br />and <br /> <br />Roy <br /> <br />Wilkins <br /> <br />required <br /> <br />regular <br /> <br />meetings. <br /> <br />Consequently, <br /> <br />in <br /> <br />1960, <br /> <br />King <br /> <br />resigned <br /> <br />his <br /> <br />pastorate <br /> <br />in <br /> <br />Montgomery, <br /> <br />moved <br /> <br />to Atlanta, <br /> <br />and became <br /> <br />president of the <br /> <br />Southern <br /> <br />Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), a new but rapidly growing civil <br /> <br />rights <br /> <br />organization <br /> <br />committed <br /> <br />to <br /> <br />non-violence. <br /> <br />He <br /> <br />also <br /> <br />served <br /> <br />as <br /> <br />co-pastor with his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church and worked with <br /> <br />the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). <br /> <br />Increasingly, <br /> <br />King advocated and practiced civil disobedience to <br /> <br />what he termed "immoral laws." <br /> <br />In 1960 he was sentenced to four months <br /> <br />in Reidsville State Prison in Georgia for allegedly trespassing at a <br /> <br />department store in Atlanta and for violating probation for a traffic <br /> <br />violation several months earlier. <br /> <br />Because of widespread fears for his <br /> <br />safety in Reidsville, his jailing became an issue in the presidential <br /> <br />election <br /> <br />when <br /> <br />Democratic <br /> <br />candidate <br /> <br />John <br /> <br />F. <br /> <br />Kennedy <br /> <br />expressed <br /> <br />his <br /> <br />concern to Mrs. King, while Republican candidate Richard M. Nixon did <br /> <br />not. <br /> <br />In the next few years King intensified his drive for equal rights, <br /> <br />staging boycotts <br /> <br />in Albany, <br /> <br />Georgia, <br /> <br />in <br /> <br />1961-62 <br /> <br />and <br /> <br />in <br /> <br />Birmingham, <br /> <br />Ala. , <br /> <br />in the spring of 1963. <br /> <br />There were violent responses from parts <br /> <br />of the public as well as from the police, as homes and churches were <br /> <br />bombed and civil rights workers were murdered. <br /> <br />Meanwhile, King urged <br /> <br />his followers to practice non-violence as they committed acts of civil <br /> <br />disobedience. <br /> <br />King himself <br /> <br />was <br /> <br />arrested <br /> <br />and <br /> <br />jailed. <br /> <br />When <br /> <br />eight <br />