Birmingham

Campaign
Alabama 1963
In 1960, 35% of Birmingham’s population was black. Racial segregation of public and commercial facilities
throughout Jefferson County was legally required, and was rigidly enforced in the city.
"Bombingham" There were no black police officers, firefighters, sales clerks in department stores, bus
drivers, bank tellers or store cashiers. The city had the nickname “Bombingham” after
fifty unsolved racially motivated bombs between 1945 and 1962.

Alabama banned the NAACP in 1956, and so the

Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights "If you come to Birmingham, you will
(ACMHR) was formed by Reverend Fred not only gain prestige, but really
Shuttlesworth the same year, based at the
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. After repeated
shake the country. If you win in
bombing of his home and church, as well as total Birmingham, as Birmingham goes, so
disregard of their attempts to challenge Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, ACMHR goes the nation."
segregation, he invited Martin Luther King and
the SCLC to come to the city.

The SCLC arrived and started in 1962 with boycotts of

"My theory was that if we mounted a many Birmingham businesses, based on tactics of the
strong nonviolent movement, the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Custom dropped by over
opposition would surely do 40%, but those businesses who took down their
“Whites only” signs were threatened with losing their
something to attract the media, and licenses by the city. The SCLC decided greater action
in turn induce national sympathy was needed with more direct confrontation, and so
Project C was born. A variety of methods were used
and attention…" Wyatt Tee Walker, SCLC including sit-ins at libraries, white churches and shops
as well as marches. The SCLC plan was to fill the jails with protesters to force the city government to negotiate as
demonstrations continued. However, not enough people were arrested to affect the functioning of the city. Some
blacks in the city opposed the protests, including the The Birmingham World, a Black paper in the city which called
the direct action "wasteful and worthless" and urged people to challenge segregation only in the courts.

The commissioner of public safety (a powerful position filled by Bull Connor, an

“arch segregationist” who predicted “bloodshed” if the North attempted to force "The eyes of the
desegregation) obtained an injunction barring the protests and subsequently world are on
raised bail bond for those arrested from $300 to $1,200. The SCLC soon ran out
of money to meet the higher bails, and King seemed indecisive. Eventually it was
Birmingham
decided to defy the injunction and prepare for mass arrests. tonight… … Are you
On Good Friday, 1963, 50 protestors including Martin Luther King and Ralph
ready, are you ready
Abernathy were arrested. As planned, news of his (thirteenth) arrest was spread to make the
quickly across the country. He could have been released on bail at any time, and challenge? I am
jail administrators wished him to be released as soon as possible to avoid the
media attention while he was in custody. However, campaign organizers offered ready to go to jail,
no bail in order "to focus the attention of the media and national public opinion Ralph Abernathy are you?"
on the Birmingham situation.” SCLC
Coretta Scott King was concerned after she heard nothing from her husband, and it was suggested she ring President
Kennedy directly. The Monday after the arrest the president phoned her and told her she could expect a call from
her husband soon. Several days later, Jacqueline Kennedy called Coretta Scott King to express her concern for King
while he was incarcerated. While in jail on April 16, King released his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, written on the
margins of a newspaper, scraps of paper given to him by a janitor, and
later a legal pad given by his SCLC attorneys. The letter responded to "Injustice anywhere is
eight politically moderate white clergymen who accused King of agitating a threat to justice
local residents, and not giving the incoming mayor a chance to make any
changes. It has been suggested that "Letter from Birmingham Jail" was
everywhere"
pre-planned, as was every move King and his associates made in Martin L. King- Letter from Birmingham Jail
Birmingham. King's arrest attracted national attention, and the profits of
corporate chains with premises in Birmingham soon began to see their profits erode. National business owners
pressed the Kennedy administration to intervene. King was released on April 20, 1963.

Though publicity after King’s arrest was high, the campaign itself was failing after few
"Fight for people were willing to get themselves arrested, and the use of police dogs had not
freedom first attracted the attention expected. The D-Day plan was developed to use students from
then go to local schools in the protests. Students were seen as more of a cohesive group, and it was
observed that the arrest of a child would not hurt families economically like the arrest of
school" adults. Workshops on non-violent tactics and overcoming fear of dogs and jail were run.
Flyers distributed Girls were often easier to recruit, having less experience of white violence, however boys
soon followed.

On May 2 over one thousand students skipped school and met at the church. They were sent downtown in small
organised groups. More than 600 students were arrested, some as young as 8. The mood of children was compared
to that of a school picnic as they sang and danced while waiting to be transported to jail. Connor, though expecting
the march, was dumbfounded by the numbers and mood, and used fire engines and school buses to move children
to jail. 1,200 protestors now filled the 900 capacity Birmingham Jail. Though some, including Malcolm X, opposed the
use of children, Wyatt Tee Walker (of the SCLC and initially against their use) stated "Negro children will get a better
education in five days in jail than in five months in a segregated school."

On May the 3rd, Connor, realising the Jails were full, changed tactics to keep
"Let those people protestors out of the downtown area. Protesting children were warned by
come forward, police they would “get wet” if they continued downtown. They continued, and
Connor ordered fire hoses, at a pressure that would separate bricks from
sergeant. I want mortar, to be used on the children. At this, Black parents and adults there to
'em to see the observe and cheer on the children started to throw rocks and bottles at police.
dogs work." Bull Connor Dogs were used to stop this, and James Bevel (SCLC Director of Direct Action
and Director of Nonviolent Education) warned "If any cops get hurt, we're
going to lose this fight." At 3:00 the protest ended in a kind of cease fire and the streets reopened. King addressed a
crowd of over a thousand worried parents that evening.
"Don't worry about your children who are in jail. The eyes of the
world are on Birmingham. We're going on in spite of dogs and fire
hoses. We've gone too far to turn back."
A number of reporters and photographers had attended
the protest. Charles Moore, a Marine combat
photographer was “jarred” and “sickened” by the use of
children and what had been done. He suspected his
photos of the day were:

"…likely to obliterate in the

national psyche any notion of a
'good southerner'."

They Fight a Fire That Won’t Go Out

Bill Hudson, an Associated Press photographer, observed the arrest of
Walter Gadsden, a High School senior related to the editor of The
Birmingham World who had attended the protest only as an observer.
He was arrested “for parading without a permit”. Hudson’s photo
appeared above the fold on the front page of the next day’s New York
Times.

The photographs and images from television broadcasts caused

national outrage. President Kennedy said the photograph made him
feel “sick” and called the
"Why didn't you scenes “shameful” and said
bring a meaner dog; that they were "so much more
this one is not the eloquently reported by the
news camera than by any
vicious one." number of explanatory
Bull Connor words." In Birmingham itself,
as future mayor David Vann
stated "the black community was instantaneously consolidated behind
King" Many Northern senators expressed their outrage (one Oregon
senator compared it to South Africa under apartheid), and pushed for
a Civil Rights Bill. President Kennedy sent Assistant Attorney General
Burke Marshall to Birmingham to help negotiate a truce. Marshall
faced a stalemate when merchants and protest organizers refused to
budge.

"The spectacle in Birmingham ... must
excite the sympathy of the rest of the
country for the decent, just, and
reasonable citizens of the community,
who have so recently demonstrated at
the polls their lack of support for the
very policies that have produced the
Birmingham riots. The authorities
who tried, by these brutal means, to
stop the freedom marchers do not
speak or act in the name of the
enlightened people of the city."
"No American schooled in respect for
human dignity can read without
shame of the barbarities committed
by Alabama police authorities against
Negro and white demonstrators for
civil rights. The use of police dogs
and high-pressure fire hose to subdue
schoolchildren in Birmingham is a
national disgrace. The herding of
hundreds of teenagers and many not
yet in their teens into jails and
detention homes for demanding their
birthright of freedom makes a
mockery of legal process."

On May 5th, Black onlookers in the Kelly Ingram Park area of the city abandoned the non-violent ideals of the
protests. SCLC leaders begged people to leave if they were going to be violent. Connor ordered the doors of churches
to be blocked to prevent students leaving. Blacks went to various white churches in the city to try and integrate
services; they were accepted at Roman Catholic, Episcopal, and Presbyterian ones, but turned away at others. By
May 6th overcrowding was such that the stockade at the State Fairground was turned into a makeshift jail. Many
public figures, including comedians and singers pledged their support, while a comedian and a television writer were
arrested. The fire department refused orders from Connor to fire their hoses at protestors again, and helped clear
water from the basement of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church after flooding caused by the fire hoses.
On May 7th events escalated further. Breakfast in Birmingham Jail took four hours to distribute, 70 members of the
Chamber of Commerce pleaded with organisers for an end to the protests, the NAACP called for simultaneous
picketing in 100 US cities, 19 rabbis flew to New York City and compared silence about segregation to the Holocaust
(though local rabbis disagreed and asked them to return home).

Fire hoses were again used, injuring police and other demonstrators, including
"I’m sorry I missed Fred Shuttlesworth. One thousand more people were arrested, making the total
it. … I wish they’d 2,500. Stories about the mass arrests of children and conflicts reached Western
Europe and the Soviet Union, who used it as anti-America propaganda, devoting
carried him away in 25% of news output to the story and accusing Kennedy’s administration of
a hearse." Bull Connor neglect and inactivity. Alabama’s governor sent state troopers to assist Connor
while the Attorney General prepared the Alabama National Guard and an
infantry of the Army for deployment to Birmingham.

The downtown area was almost entirely closed down. Organisers planned to flood the downtown businesses with
Black protestors. Small decoy groups were sent out to divert police
attention, and fire alarms were set off to occupy the fire department and "We want to go to jail!"
their hoses. A group of children approached a police officer and announced “We want to go to jail”. After he pointed
the way they ran across Kelly Ingram Park shouting “We’re going to jail!” 3000 protestors overwhelmed streets
stores and buildings, large groups sitting in shops and singing freedom songs. Police officials admitted they could not
hold the situation for more than a few hours.

On May 8th business leaders agreed to most of the protestors demands. Meanwhile political leaders held fast. On
May 10th Shuttlesworth and King announced a deal had been reached with the city to desegregate lunch counters,
restrooms, drinking fountains and fitting rooms within 90 days, and to hire Black salesmen and clerks. Unions, mainly
of the industrial and manufacturing jobs which almost all Blacks in Birmingham held raised $237,000 for bail to free
demonstrators. Connor and the outgoing mayor condemned this. On May 11th bombs destroyed the house of Martin
L. King’s brother, and the hotel he himself had just left. Police arriving to inspect the sites were bombarded with
rocks and bottles by local Black people, and by May 13th 3000 federal troops were deployed to restore order, Martin
Luther King returned to stress the importance of non-violence. In June 1963 the Jim row signs that regulated
segregation were removed.

Some criticised King and the SCLC for accepting for too vague and moderate promises after the protests, and
desegregation took place slowly. The deals were very suspectly interpreted, with the president of the Chamber of
Commerce announcing that hiring one Black clerk 90 days after the announcement would be enough. By July, most
of the city's segregation ordinances had been overturned. Some of the lunch counters in department stores complied
with the new rules. City parks and golf courses were opened again to black and white citizens. Mayor Boutwell
appointed a biracial committee to discuss further changes. However, no hiring of black clerks, police officers, and
firefighters had yet been completed and the Birmingham Bar Association rejected membership by black attorneys. It
was mostly the Black middle classes that benefited from what change there was, wall little altered for the working
classes. Martin Luther King’s reputation soared, and he was lauded as a hero and the SCLC was in high demand
across Southern cities. Events in Birmingham have been cited as persuading Kennedy to address racial inequalities in
the South. Four months after the campaign the house of an NAACP attorney was bombed. In September the KKK
bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. It was a Sunday morning and four young girls were killed. Other
bombings and riots took place, particularly as desegregation was introduced, including events at public schools
almost identical to Little Rock.

Kennedy: "The events in Birmingham and elsewhere have so increased cries for equality that no city or state or
legislative body can prudently choose to ignore them." Wyatt Tee Walker: “the chief watershed of the nonviolent
movement in the United States. It marked the maturation of the SCLC as a national force in the civil rights arena of
the land that had been dominated by the older and stodgier NAACP.”
Judge: I often think of what the Founding Boy: Well, you can say that because
Fathers said: “There is no freedom you’ve got your freedom. The
without restraint.” Now I want you to Constitution says we’re all equal, but
go home and go back to school. Will Negroes aren’t equal.
you do that?
Judge: But you people have made great
Boy: Can I say something? gains and they still are. It takes time.

Judge: Anything you like. Boy: We’ve been waiting over 100 years.
Trial of a 15-year-old boy arrested on May 3rd