Birmingham campaign
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The Birmingham campaign, also known as the Birmingham movement or Birmingham confrontation, was an American movement organized in early 1963 by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to bring attention to the integration efforts of African Americans in Birmingham, Alabama.
Led by
In the early 1960s, Birmingham was one of the most racially divided cities in the United States, enforced both legally and culturally. Black citizens faced legal and economic disparities, and violent retribution when they attempted to draw attention to their problems. Martin Luther King Jr. called it the most segregated city in the country.[4] Protests in Birmingham began with a boycott led by Shuttlesworth meant to pressure business leaders to open employment to people of all races, and end segregation in public facilities, restaurants, schools, and stores. When local business and governmental leaders resisted the boycott, the SCLC agreed to assist. Organizer Wyatt Tee Walker joined Birmingham activist Shuttlesworth and began what they called Project C, a series of sit-ins and marches intended to provoke mass arrests.[5]
When the campaign ran low on adult volunteers, James Bevel thought of the idea of having students become the main demonstrators in the Birmingham campaign.
The Birmingham campaign was a model of nonviolent direct action protest and, through the media, drew the world's attention to racial segregation in the South. It burnished King's reputation, ousted Connor from his job, forced desegregation in Birmingham, and directly paved the way for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibited racial discrimination in hiring practices and public services throughout the United States.
Background
City of segregation
Birmingham, Alabama was, in 1963, "probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States", according to King.
In addition, Birmingham's economy was stagnating as the city was shifting from
Black organizers had worked in Birmingham for about ten years, as it was the headquarters of the
Campaign goals
King of the SCLC had recently been involved in a campaign to desegregate the city of Albany, Georgia, but did not see the results they had anticipated. Described by historian Henry Hampton as a "morass", the Albany Movement lost momentum and stalled.[23] King's reputation had been hurt by the Albany campaign, and he was eager to improve it.[22][24] Determined not to make the same mistakes in Birmingham, King and the SCLC changed several of their strategies. In Albany, they concentrated on the desegregation of the city as a whole. In Birmingham, their campaign tactics focused on more narrowly defined goals for the downtown shopping and government district. These goals included the desegregation of Birmingham's downtown stores, fair hiring practices in shops and city employment, the reopening of public parks, and the creation of a bi-racial committee to oversee the desegregation of Birmingham's public schools.[25][26] King summarized the philosophy of the Birmingham campaign when he said: "The purpose of ... direct action is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation".[27]
Commissioner of Public Safety
A significant factor in the success of the Birmingham campaign was the structure of the city government and the personality of its contentious Commissioner of Public Safety, Eugene "Bull" Connor. Described as an "arch-segregationist" by Time magazine, Connor asserted that the city "ain't gonna segregate no niggers and whites together in this town [sic]".[28][29] He also claimed that the Civil Rights Movement was a Communist plot, and after the churches were bombed, Connor blamed the violence on local black citizens.[30] Birmingham's government was set up in such a way that it gave Connor powerful influence. In 1958, police arrested ministers organizing a bus boycott. When the
Turmoil in the mayor's office also weakened the Birmingham city government in its opposition to the campaign. Connor, who had run for several elected offices in the months leading up to the campaign, had lost all but the race for Public Safety Commissioner. Because they believed Connor's extreme conservatism slowed progress for the city as a whole, a group of white political moderates worked to defeat him.[34] The Citizens for Progress was backed by the Chamber of Commerce and other white professionals in the city, and their tactics were successful. In November 1962, Connor lost the race for mayor to Albert Boutwell, a less combative segregationist. However, Connor and his colleagues on the City Commission refused to accept the new mayor's authority.[33] They claimed on a technicality that their terms not expire until 1965 instead of in the spring of 1963. So for a brief time, Birmingham had two city governments attempting to conduct business.[35]
Focus on Birmingham
Selective buying campaign
Modeled on the Montgomery bus boycott, protest actions in Birmingham began in 1962, when students from local colleges arranged for a year of staggered boycotts. They caused downtown business to decline by as much as 40 percent, which attracted attention from Chamber of Commerce president Sidney Smyer, who commented that the "racial incidents have given us a black eye that we'll be a long time trying to forget".[36] In response to the boycott, the City Commission of Birmingham punished the black community by withdrawing $45,000 ($450,000 in 2024) from a surplus-food program used primarily by low-income black families. The result, however, was a black community more motivated to resist.[31]
The SCLC decided that economic pressure on Birmingham businesses would be more effective than pressure on politicians, a lesson learned in Albany as few black citizens were registered to vote in 1962. In the spring of 1963, before Easter, the Birmingham boycott intensified during the second-busiest shopping season of the year. Pastors urged their congregations to avoid shopping in Birmingham stores in the downtown district. For six weeks supporters of the boycott patrolled the downtown area to make sure black shoppers were not patronizing stores that promoted or tolerated segregation. If black shoppers were found in these stores, organizers confronted them and shamed them into participating in the boycott. Shuttlesworth recalled a woman whose $15 hat ($150 in 2024) was destroyed by boycott enforcers. Campaign participant Joe Dickson recalled, "We had to go under strict surveillance. We had to tell people, say look: if you go downtown and buy something, you're going to have to answer to us."[37] After several business owners in Birmingham took down "white only" and "colored only" signs, Commissioner Connor told business owners that if they did not obey the segregation ordinances, they would lose their business licenses.[38][39]
Project C
Martin Luther King Jr.'s presence in Birmingham was not welcomed by all in the black community. A local black attorney complained in Time that the new city administration did not have enough time to confer with the various groups invested in changing the city's segregation policies.[40] Black hotel owner A. G. Gaston agreed.[40] A white Jesuit priest assisting in desegregation negotiations attested the "demonstrations [were] poorly timed and misdirected."[40]
Protest organizers knew they would meet with violence from the Birmingham Police Department and chose a confrontational approach to get the attention of the federal government.
The plan called for direct nonviolent action to attract media attention to "the biggest and baddest city of the South".[42] In preparation for the protests, Walker timed the walking distance from the 16th Street Baptist Church, headquarters for the campaign, to the downtown area. He surveyed the segregated lunch counters of department stores, and listed federal buildings as secondary targets should police block the protesters' entrance into primary targets such as stores, libraries, and all-white churches.[43]
Methods
The campaign used a variety of nonviolent methods of confrontation, including sit-ins at libraries and lunch counters, kneel-ins by black visitors at white churches, and a march to the county building to mark the beginning of a voter-registration drive. Most businesses responded by refusing to serve demonstrators. Some white spectators at a sit-in at a Woolworth's lunch counter spat upon the participants.[44] A few hundred protesters, including jazz musician Al Hibbler, were arrested, although Hibbler was immediately released by Connor.[45]
The SCLC's goals were 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 and the wisdom of the plans were being questioned in the black community. The editor of The Birmingham World, the city's black newspaper, called the direct actions by the demonstrators "wasteful and worthless", and urged black citizens to use the courts to change the city's racist policies.[46] Most white residents of Birmingham expressed shock at the demonstrations. White religious leaders denounced King and the other organizers, saying that "a cause should be pressed in the courts and the negotiations among local leaders, and not in the streets".[47] Some white Birmingham residents were supportive as the boycott continued. When one black woman entered Loveman's department store to buy her children Easter shoes, a white saleswoman said to her, "Negro, ain't you ashamed of yourself, your people out there on the street getting put in jail and you in here spending money and I'm not going to sell you any, you'll have to go some other place."[48] King promised a protest every day until "peaceful equality had been assured" and expressed doubt that the new mayor would ever voluntarily desegregate the city.[49]
City reaction
On April 10, 1963, Bull Connor obtained an
The movement organizers found themselves out of money after the amount of required bail was raised. Because King was the major fundraiser, his associates urged him to travel the country to raise bail money for those arrested. He had, however, previously promised to lead the marchers to jail in solidarity, but hesitated as the planned date arrived. Some SCLC members grew frustrated with his indecisiveness. "I have never seen Martin so troubled", one of King's friends later said.[53] After King prayed and reflected alone in his hotel room, he and the campaign leaders decided to defy the injunction and prepared for mass arrests of campaign supporters. To build morale and to recruit volunteers to go to jail, Ralph Abernathy spoke at a mass meeting of Birmingham's black citizens at the 6th Avenue Baptist Church: "The eyes of the world are on Birmingham tonight. Bobby Kennedy is looking here at Birmingham, the United States Congress is looking at Birmingham. The Department of Justice is looking at Birmingham. Are you ready, are you ready to make the challenge? I am ready to go to jail, are you?"[54] With Abernathy, King was among 50 Birmingham residents ranging in age from 15 to 81 years who were arrested on Good Friday, April 12, 1963. It was King's 13th arrest.[45]
Martin Luther King Jr. jailed
Martin Luther King Jr. was held in the Birmingham jail and was denied a consultation with an attorney from the NAACP without guards present. When historian Jonathan Bass wrote of the incident in 2001, he noted that news of King's incarceration was spread quickly by Wyatt Tee Walker, as planned. King's supporters sent telegrams about his arrest to the White House. He could have been released on bail at any time, and jail administrators wished him to be released as soon as possible to avoid the media attention while King was in custody. However, campaign organizers offered no bail in order "to focus the attention of the media and national public opinion on the Birmingham situation".[55]
Twenty-four hours after his arrest, King was allowed to see local attorneys from the SCLC. When
Using scraps of paper given to him by a janitor, notes written on the margins of a newspaper, and later a legal pad given to him by SCLC attorneys, King wrote his essay "Letter from Birmingham Jail". It responded to eight politically moderate white clergymen who accused King of agitating local residents and not giving the incoming mayor a chance to make any changes. The essay was a culmination of many of King's ideas, which he had touched on in earlier writings.[58] King's arrest attracted national attention, including that of corporate officers of retail chains with stores in downtown Birmingham. After King's arrest, the chains' profits began to erode. National business owners pressed the Kennedy administration to intervene. King was released on April 20, 1963.
Conflict escalation
Recruiting students
Despite the publicity surrounding King's arrest, the campaign was faltering because few demonstrators were willing to risk arrest.[59] In addition, although Connor had used police dogs to assist in the arrest of demonstrators, this did not attract the media attention that organizers had hoped for.[60] To re-energize the campaign, SCLC organizer James Bevel devised a controversial alternative plan he named D Day that was later called the "Children's Crusade" by Newsweek magazine.[61] D Day called for students from Birmingham elementary schools and high schools as well as nearby Miles College to take part in the demonstrations.
Bevel, a veteran of earlier nonviolent student protests with the Nashville Student Movement and SNCC, had been named SCLC's Director of Direct Action and Nonviolent Education. After initiating the idea he organized and educated the students in nonviolence tactics and philosophy. King hesitated to approve the use of children,[62] but Bevel believed that children were appropriate for the demonstrations because jail time for them would not hurt families economically as much as the loss of a working parent. He also saw that adults in the black community were divided about how much support to give the protests. Bevel and the organizers knew that high school students were a more cohesive group; they had been together as classmates since kindergarten. He recruited girls who were school leaders and boys who were athletes. Bevel found girls more receptive to his ideas because they had less experience as victims of white violence. When the girls joined, however, the boys were close behind.[63]
Bevel and the SCLC held workshops to help students overcome their fear of dogs and jails. They showed films of the Nashville sit-ins organized in 1960 to end segregation at public lunch counters. Birmingham's black radio station, WENN, supported the new plan by telling students to arrive at the demonstration meeting place with a toothbrush to be used in jail.[64] Flyers were distributed in black schools and neighborhoods that said, "Fight for freedom first then go to school" and "It's up to you to free our teachers, our parents, yourself, and our country."[65]
Children's Crusade
On May 2, 1963, 7th grader Gwendolyn Sanders helped organize her classmates, and hundreds of children from high schoolers down to first graders who joined her in a massive walkout defying the principal of Parker High School who attempted to lock the gates to keep students inside.
Some considered the use of children controversial, including incoming Birmingham mayor Albert Boutwell and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who condemned the decision to use children in the protests.[71] Kennedy was reported in The New York Times as saying, "an injured, maimed, or dead child is a price that none of us can afford to pay", although adding, "I believe that everyone understands their just grievances must be resolved."[72] Malcolm X criticized the decision, saying, "Real men don't put their children on the firing line."[73]
King, who had been silent and then out of town while Bevel was organizing the children, was impressed by the success of the children's protests. That evening he declared at a mass meeting, "I have been inspired and moved by today. I have never seen anything like it."[74] Although Wyatt Tee Walker was initially against the use of children in the demonstrations, he responded to criticism by saying, "Negro children will get a better education in five days in jail than in five months in a segregated school."[61] The D Day campaign received front page coverage by The Washington Post and The New York Times.[67][68]
Fire hoses and police dogs
When Connor realized that the Birmingham jail was full, on May 3 he changed police tactics to keep protesters out of the downtown business area. Another thousand students gathered at the church and left to walk across Kelly Ingram Park while chanting, "We're going to walk, walk, walk. Freedom ... freedom ... freedom."[75] As the demonstrators left the church, police warned them to stop and turn back, "or you'll get wet".[61] When they continued, Connor ordered the city's fire hoses, set at a level that would peel bark off a tree or separate bricks from mortar, to be turned on the children. Boys' shirts were ripped off, and girls were pushed over the tops of cars by the force of the water. When the students crouched or fell, the blasts of water rolled them down the asphalt streets and concrete sidewalks.[76] Connor allowed white spectators to push forward, shouting, "Let those people come forward, sergeant. I want 'em to see the dogs work."[28][a]
A.G. Gaston, who was appalled at the idea of using children, was on the phone with white attorney
Images of the day
The images had a profound effect in Birmingham. Despite decades of disagreements, when the photos were released, "the black community was instantaneously consolidated behind King", according to David Vann, who would later serve as mayor of Birmingham.
Standoff
Black onlookers in the area of Kelly Ingram Park abandoned
By May 6, the jails were so full that Connor transformed the stockade at the state fairgrounds into a makeshift jail to hold protesters. Black protestors arrived at white churches to integrate services. They were accepted in
Birmingham's fire department refused orders from Connor to turn the hoses on demonstrators again,[91] and waded through the basement of the 16th Street Baptist Church to clean up water from earlier fire-hose flooding.[92] White business leaders met with protest organizers to try and arrange an economic solution but said they had no control over politics. Protest organizers disagreed, saying that business leaders were positioned to pressure political leaders.[93]
City paralysis
The situation reached a crisis on May 7, 1963. Breakfast in the jail took four hours to distribute to all the prisoners.
Fire hoses were used once again, injuring police and Fred Shuttlesworth, as well as other demonstrators. Commissioner Connor expressed regret at missing seeing Shuttlesworth get hit and said he "wished they'd carried him away in a hearse".[97] Another 1,000 people were arrested, bringing the total to 2,500.
News of the mass arrests of children had reached Western Europe and the
No business of any kind was being conducted downtown. Organizers planned to flood the downtown area businesses with black people. Smaller groups of decoys were set out to distract police attention from activities at the 16th Street Baptist Church. Protesters set off false fire alarms to occupy the fire department and its hoses.[100] One group of children approached a police officer and announced, "We want to go to jail!" When the officer pointed the way, the students ran across Kelly Ingram Park shouting, "We're going to jail!"[101] Six hundred picketers reached downtown Birmingham. Large groups of protesters sat in stores and sang freedom songs. Streets, sidewalks, stores, and buildings were overwhelmed with more than 3,000 protesters.[102] The sheriff and chief of police admitted to Burke Marshall that they did not think they could handle the situation for more than a few hours.[103]
Resolution
On May 8 at 4 am, white business leaders agreed to most of the protesters' demands. Political leaders held fast, however. The rift between the businessmen and the politicians became clear when business leaders admitted they could not guarantee the protesters' release from jail. On May 10, Fred Shuttlesworth and Martin Luther King Jr. told reporters that they had an agreement from the City of Birmingham to desegregate lunch counters, restrooms, drinking fountains and fitting rooms within 90 days, and to hire black people in stores as salesmen and clerks. Those in jail would be released on bond or their own recognizance. Urged by Kennedy, the
On the night of May 11, a bomb heavily damaged the
Outgoing mayor Art Hanes left office after the Alabama State Supreme Court ruled that Albert Boutwell could take office on May 21, 1963. Upon picking up his last paycheck, Bull Connor remarked tearfully, "This is the worst day of my life."[108] In June 1963, the Jim Crow signs regulating segregated public places in Birmingham were taken down.[109]
After the campaign
Desegregation in Birmingham took place slowly after the demonstrations. King and the SCLC were criticized by some for ending the campaign with promises that were too vague and "settling for a lot less than even moderate demands".[110] In fact, Sydney Smyer, president of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, re-interpreted the terms of the agreement. Shuttlesworth and King had announced that desegregation would take place 90 days from May 15. Smyer then said that a single black clerk hired 90 days from when the new city government took office would be sufficient.[111] 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.[109]
The reputation of Martin Luther King Jr. soared after the protests in Birmingham, and he was lauded by many as a hero.[112] The SCLC was much in demand to effect change in many Southern cities.[113] In the summer of 1963, King led the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom where he delivered his most famous speech, "I Have a Dream". King became Time's
The Birmingham campaign, as well as George Wallace's refusal to admit black students to the
Birmingham's public schools were integrated in September 1963. Governor Wallace sent National Guard troops to keep black students out but President Kennedy reversed Wallace by ordering the troops to stand down.[120] Violence continued to plague the city, however. Someone threw a tear gas canister into Loveman's department store when it complied with the desegregation agreement; twenty people in the store required hospital treatment.[121]
Four months after the Birmingham campaign settlement, someone bombed the house of NAACP attorney
The Birmingham campaign inspired the Civil Rights Movement in other parts of the South. Two days after King and Shuttlesworth announced the settlement in Birmingham, Medgar Evers of the NAACP in Jackson, Mississippi demanded a biracial committee to address concerns there.[125] On June 12, 1963, Evers was murdered by a KKK member outside his home. He had been organizing demonstrations similar to those in Birmingham to pressure Jackson's city government. In 1965 Shuttlesworth assisted Bevel, King, and the SCLC to lead the Selma to Montgomery marches, intended to increase voter registration among black citizens.
Campaign impact
Historian Glenn Eskew wrote that the campaign "led to an awakening to the evils of segregation and a need for reforms in the region."
Wyatt Tee Walker wrote that the Birmingham campaign was "legend" and had become the Civil Rights Movement's most important chapter. It was "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."[128] Walker called the Birmingham campaign and the Selma marches "Siamese twins" joining to "kill segregation ... and bury the body".[129] Jonathan Bass declared that "King had won a tremendous public relations victory in Birmingham" but also stated pointedly that "it was the citizens of the Magic City, both black and white, and not Martin Luther King Jr. and the SCLC, that brought about the real transformation of the city."[130]
See also
- Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument
- Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
- In Eyes on the Prize, the award-winning documentary on the Civil Rights movement, the Birmingham campaign is one focus of Episode #4, "No Easy Walk (1961–1963)."
Notes
- ^ Time magazine originally reported that Connor said, "Look at those niggers run!" However, when the Time reporter was questioned, he admitted he did not hear the statement, which was published in any case by Newsweek magazine and several newspapers and became one of Connor's "most memorable lines".[77]
References
- ^ "Birmingham 1963". 100 Photographs That in the Digital Journalist. Retrieved December 23, 2007.
- ^ Life magazine 17 May 1963, p. 26, at Google Books – Moore's Birmingham photographs
- ISBN 978-0-313-32171-9.
- ^ Undated interview with King, included in Spike Lee's documentary 4 Little Girls.
- ^ Eyes on the Prize; Interview with Wyatt Tee Walker, retrieved February 11, 2021
- ^ Eyes on the Prize; Interview with James Bevel, retrieved February 11, 2021
- ^ a b "Children have changed America before, braving fire hoses and police dogs for civil rights". The Washington Post. March 23, 2018.
- ^ King, Martin L., Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963.
- ^ U.S. Census of Population and Housing (1990). "Birmingham's Population, 1880–2000". Birmingham (Alabama) Public Library. Archived from the original on January 21, 2008. Retrieved March 13, 2008.
- ^ Garrow, (1989) p. 166.
- ^ Garrow, (1989) p. 165.
- ^ Birmingham City Council (1963). "Birmingham Segregation Laws". Civil Rights Movement Archive. Retrieved March 14, 2008.
- ^ Eskew, p. 86.
- ^ Bass, p. 89.
- ^ a b "Birmingham: Integration's Hottest Crucible". Time. December 15, 1958. Archived from the original on January 31, 2011. Retrieved December 29, 2008.
- ^ a b Gado, Mark (2007). "Bombingham". CrimeLibrary.com/Court TV Online. Archived from the original on August 18, 2007.
- ^ Branch, pp. 570–571.
- OCLC 1099098253. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
- ^ U.S. Supreme Court (1958). "N. A. A. C. P. v. ALABAMA". FindLaw.com. Retrieved March 13, 2008.
- ^ "Interview with Fred Shuttlesworth". Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Online. December 10, 1996. Archived from the original (QuickTime) on January 1, 2008. Retrieved December 20, 2007.
- ^ Garrow, (1989) p. 168.
- ^ a b Hampton, p. 125.
- ^ Hampton, p. 112.
- ^ a b Bass, p. 96.
- ^ a b c d
Morris, Aldon (October 1993). "Birmingham Confrontation and the Power of Social Protest: An Analysis of the Dynamics and Tactics of Mobilization". JSTOR 2096278.
- ^ Maurice Isserman & Michael Kazin, 'America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s', (Oxford, 2008), p. 90.
- ^ Garrow, (1986) p. 246.
- ^ a b c "Dogs, Kids and Clubs". Time. May 10, 1963. Archived from the original on March 8, 2008. Retrieved January 29, 2008.
- ^ "Integration: Bull at Bay". Newsweek: 29. April 15, 1963.
- ^ Isserman and Kazin, p. 89.
- ^ a b Garrow, (1989) p. 169.
- ^ Manis, pp. 162–163.
- ^ a b
Jackson, Kenneth T. (1994). "Theophilus Eugene Connor". Dictionary of American Biography (Supplement 9: 1971–1975 ed.). Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN 0-283-99547-5.
- ^ McWhorter, p. 286.
- ^ Cotman, pp. 11–12.
- ^ Fairclough, p. 113
- ^ "Interview with Joe Dickson". Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Online. April 15, 1996. Archived from the original (QuickTime) on January 1, 2008.
- ^ Nunnelley, p. 132.
- ^ Davis, p. 200.
- ^ a b c "Poorly Timed Protest". Time. April 19, 1963. Archived from the original on December 22, 2008. Retrieved January 29, 2008.
- ^ Garrow, (1989) p. 175.
- ^ Hampton, p. 126.
- ^ Garrow, (1989) pp. 176–177.
- ^ Eskew, p. 218.
- ^ a b "Integration: Connor and King". Newsweek: 28, 33. April 22, 1963.
- ^ Bass, p. 105.
- ^ Wilson, p. 94.
- ^ Eskew, p. 237.
- ^ Bass, p. 16.
- ^ a b Bass, p. 108.
- ^ Eskew, p. 238.
- ^ Eskew, p. 222.
- ^ Bass p. 109.
- ^ Eskew, p. 221, Bass
- ^ Bass, p. 115.
- ^ McWhorter, p. 353.
- ^ Fairclough, p. 123.
- ^ Bass, pp. 116–117.
- ^ McWhorter, p. 357.
- ^ Eskew, pp. 227–228.
- ^ a b c d "Birmingham USA: Look at Them Run". Newsweek: 27. May 13, 1963. The term "Children's Crusade" has a notable history, originating from the 1212 Children's Crusade.
- ^ McWhorter, p. 364.
- ^ Hampton, pp. 131–132.
- ^ McWhorter, pp. 360, 366.
- ^ Sitton, Claude (May 7, 1963). "Birmingham Jails 1,000 More Negroes; Waves of Chanting Students Seized". The New York Times. p. 1.
- ^ Eskew, p. 264.
- ^ a b Gordon, Robert (May 3, 1963). "Waves of Young Negroes March in Birmingham Segregation Protest". The Washington Post. p. 1.
- ^ a b Hailey, Foster (May 3, 1963). "500 Are Arrested in Negro Protest at Birmingham". The New York Times. p. 1.
- ^ Eskew, pp. 264–265.
- ^ Nunnelley, p. 147.
- ^ Branch, pp. 761–762.
- ^ "Robert Kennedy Warns of 'Increasing Turmoil': Deplores Denials of Negroes' Rights but Questions Timing of Protests in Birmingham". The New York Times. May 4, 1963. p. 1.
- ^ Manis, p. 370.
- ^ McWhorter, p. 368.
- ^ "Fire Hoses and Police Dogs Quell Birmingham Segregation Protest". The Washington Post. May 4, 1963. p. 1.
- ^ McWhorter, pp. 370–371.
- ^ McWhorter, p. 393.
- ^ McWhorter, p. 371.
- ^ a b Hailey, Foster (May 4, 1963). "Dogs and Hoses Repulse Negroes at Birmingham". The New York Times. p. 1.
- ^ Hampton, p. 133.
- ^ "Javits Denounces Birmingham Police". The New York Times. May 5, 1963. p. 82.
- ^ "Birmingham's use of dogs assailed". The New York Times. May 7, 1963. p. 32.
- ^ "Outrage in Alabama". The New York Times. May 5, 1963. p. 200.
- ^ "Violence in Birmingham". The Washington Post. May 5, 1963. p. E5.
- ^ Eskew, p. 270.
- ^ Hailey, Foster (May 5, 1963). "U.S. Seeking a Truce in Birmingham; Hoses Again Drive Off Demonstrators; Two Aides Meeting With Leaders—Negroes Halt Protests Temporarily". The New York Times. p. 1.
- ^ Nunnelley, p. 152.
- ^ a b Hailey, Foster (May 6, 1963). "Birmingham Talks Pushed; Negroes March Peacefully". The New York Times. p. 1.
- ^ Nunnelley, p. 153.
- ^ McWhorter, p. 402.
- ^ McWhorter, p. 387.
- ^ McWhorter, p. 406.
- ^ McWhorter, pp. 388–390.
- ^ "Birmingham Jail Is So Crowded Breakfast Takes Four Hours". The New York Times. May 8, 1963. p. 29.
- ^ "Twenty Conservative Rabbis Fly to Birmingham to Back Negro Demands". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. May 9, 1963. Retrieved April 11, 2019.
- ^ Eskew, p. 283.
- ^ Sitton, Claude (May 8, 1963). "Rioting Negroes routed by police at Birmingham; 3,000 Demonstrators Crash Lines". The New York Times. p. 1.
- ^ Cotman, pp. 101–102.
- ^ Eskew, p. 282.
- ^ Eskew, p. 277.
- ^ Eskew, p. 278.
- ^ Cotman, p. 45.
- ^ Fairclough, p. 128.
- ^ Garrow, (1989) p. 182.
- ^ Nunnelley, p. 157.
- ^ "Freedom-Now" Time, May 17, 1963 Archived 2015-03-09 at the Wayback Machine; Glenn T. Eskew, But for Birmingham: The Local and National Struggles in the Civil Rights Movement (University of North Carolina Press, 1997), p. 301.
- ^ Cotman, pp. 89–90.
- ^ Nunnelley, p. 162.
- ^ a b Fairclough, pp. 132–133.
- ^ Fairclough, p. 129.
- ^ Fairclough, p. 132.
- ^ Branch, pp. 803–806.
- ^ Fairclough, p. 143.
- ^ "Never Again Where He Was". Time. January 3, 1964. Archived from the original on June 3, 2007. Retrieved December 24, 2007.
- ^ "Martin Luther King Biography". The Nobel Foundation. Retrieved December 24, 2007.
- ^ Garrow, (1989) p. 239.
- ^ Fairclough, p. 133.
- ^ Franklin, p. 52.
- ^ Fairclough, pp. 134–135.
- ^ Branch, pp. 888–889.
- ^ Branch, p. 868.
- ^ a b "Gary Thomas Rowe Jr". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Retrieved May 28, 2017.
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 28, 2017.
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- ^ Branch, p. 813.
- ^ a b Garrow, (1989) p. 94.
- ^ a b McWhorter, p. 437.
- ^ White and Manis, p. 68.
- ^ White and Manis, p. 74
- ^ Bass, p. 226.
Bibliography
- Bass, S. Jonathan (2001). Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Martin Luther King, Jr., Eight White Religious Leaders, and the 'Letter from Birmingham Jail'. ISBN 0-8071-2655-1.
- ISBN 0-671-46097-8.
- Cotman, John (1989). Birmingham, JFK, and the Civil Rights Act of 1963: Implications For Elite Theory. ISBN 0-8204-0806-9.
- Davis, Jack. (2001). The Civil Rights Movement, Oxford. ISBN 0-631-22044-5.
- Eskew, Glenn (1997). But for Birmingham: The Local and National Movements in the Civil Rights Struggle. ISBN 0-8078-6132-4.
- ISBN 0-8203-0898-6.
- Franklin, Jimmie (1989). Back to Birmingham: Richard Arrington, Jr. and His Times. ISBN 0-8173-0435-5.
- ISBN 0-688-04794-7.
- Garrow, David, ed. (1989). Birmingham, Alabama, 1956–1963: The Black Struggle for Civil Rights. Carlson Publishing. ISBN 0-926019-04-X.
- Hampton, Henry, Fayer, S. (1990). Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s Through the 1980s. ISBN 0-553-05734-0.
- Isserman, Maurice, Kazin, Michael. (2008). America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s, Oxford. ISBN 0-19-509190-6.
- Manis, Andrew (1999). A Fire You Can't Put Out: The Civil Rights Life of Birmingham's Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth. University of Alabama Press. ISBN 0-585-35440-5.
- ISBN 0-7432-1772-1.
- Nunnelley, William (1991). Bull Connor. University of Alabama Press. ISBN 0-585-32316-X.
- White, Marjorie, Manis, Andrew, eds. (2000). Birmingham Revolutionaries: The Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. ISBN 0-86554-709-2.
- Wilson, Bobby (2000). Race and Place in Birmingham: The Civil Rights and Neighborhood Movements. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-8476-9482-8.
Further reading
- King, Martin Luther Jr. (1963). Why We Can't Wait. Signet Classics. ISBN 978-0-451-52753-0.
- Raines, Howell (1976). ISBN 0-399-11853-5.
- White, Marjorie Longenecker (1998). A Walk to Freedom: The Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. Birmingham, Alabama: Birmingham Historical Society. ISBN 0-943994-24-1.
External links
- The Birmingham Campaign – Civil Rights Movement Archive
- A Film on the Letter from Birmingham Jail
- Birmingham Campaign – M. L. King Research Institute at Stanford University
- Birmingham Civil Rights Movement – Birmingham march / riots of the 60s.
- Life magazine 17 May 1963, p. 26, at Google Books – Moore's Birmingham photographs