 For decades, the situation in segregated Albany had been insufferable for its black inhabitants, who made up 40% of the town's population.At the time of the Albany Movement's formation, sexual assaults against female students of all-black Albany State College by white men remained virtually ignored by law enforcement officials.Local news stations such as WALB and newspapers such as "The Albany Herald" refused to truthfully report on the abuse suffered by the Movement workers at the hands of local white people, even referring to blacks as "niggers [and] nigras" on air and in print.