Birmingham, alabama
Some civil rights workers turned their attention to integrating some Southern schools and pushing the movement into additional Southern towns. At each turn, they encountered opposition and often violence. Birmingham, a city known for its strict enforcement of total segregation in public life, had a reputation for racial violence including 18 bombings from 1957 to 1963. Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, head of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights and secretary of the SCLC, decided something had to be done about Birmingham and that it would be the ideal place to test the power o non-violence. He invited Martin Luther King Jr., and the SCLC to help desegregate the city. King flew into Birmingham to hold a planning meeting with members of the African-American community. After days of demonstrations, King and a small band of marchers were arrested during a demonstration on Good Friday, April 12. On April 20, King posted bail and began planning more demonstrations, On May 2, more than a thousand African-American children marched in Birmingham; the police arrested 959 of them. On May 3, a second “children’s crusade” came face to face with a helmeted police force. Police swept the marchers off their feet with high pressure fire hoses, set attack dogs on them, and clubbed those who fell. TV cameras captured all of it, and millions of views heard the children screaming. Continued protests, an economic boycott, and negative media coverage finally convinced Birmingham officials to end segregation. This stunning civil rights victory inspired African American across the nation. It also convinced President Kennedy that only a new civil rights act could end racial violence and satisfy the demands of African Americans—and many whites—for racial justice.
Julie F.
Julie F.