The following day, Public Safety Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor directed local police and fire departments to use force to halt the demonstrations. The Birmingham Campaign was a series of protests against racial segregation in Birmingham, Alabama that took place in April of 1963. During this time, he wrote “Letter from Birmingham Jail” on the margins of the Birmingham News, in reaction to a statement published by eight Birmingham clergymen condemning the protests. That night an explosive went off near the Gaston Motel room where King and SCLC leaders had previously stayed, and the next day the home of King’s brother Alfred Daniel King was bombed. King coordinated a campaign in Birmingham in Spring 1963. The day before this Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested for demonstrating without a permit. Children's Crusade.Mattie Howard Arrest The Children's Crusade was a controversial episode of the modern civil rights movement and the 1963 Birmingham Campaign in which African American school children marched for desegregation. King intended to force the desegregation of lunch counters in downtown shops by a non-violent protest. The Birmingham Campaign was referred to as Project C. The "C" stood for confrontation, which is a hostile or argumentative agreement or situation between two opposing groups. King made the announcement anyway, but indicated that demonstrations might be resumed if negotiations did not resolve the situation shortly. Nonetheless, Birmingham was considered one of the most successful campaigns of the civil rights era. BlackPast.org is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization. Carson et al., 1991. A neighborhood i… In April 1963, King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) joined Birmingham’s local campaign organized by Rev. 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". Don’t hold them back if they want to go to jail. Birmingham Riots took place from April of 1963 to May of 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama, and it was aiming to end segregation and gain civil rights for blacks. 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion (1945–1946), African American History: Research Guides & Websites, Global African History: Research Guides & Websites, African Americans and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Alma Stephenson Dever Page on Afro-britons, With Pride: Uplifting LGBTQ History On Blackpast, Preserving Martin Luther King County’s African American History, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Envoys, Diplomatic Ministers, & Ambassadors, African American Newspapers, Magazines, and Journals, Racial Conflict - Segregation/Integration. King contemplated whether he and Ralph Abernathy—SCLC’s second-in-command—should be arrested. Attorney General Robert Kennedy sent Burke Marshall, his chief civil rights assistant, to negotiate between the black citizens and Birmingham city business leadership. Find out more about the strategies and plans that the organizers put together to attack the city's segregation system. The next few days’ images of children being blasted by high-pressure fire hoses, clubbed by police officers, and attacked by dogs appeared on television and in newspapers, sparking international outrage. Forego a bottle of soda and donate its cost to us for the information you just learned, and feel good about helping to make it available to everyone! King offered encouragement to parents of the young protesters: “Don’t worry about your children, they’re going to be alright. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the eulogy at their funeral on September 18, 1963. The Birmingham Campaign In the spring of 1963, Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) arrived in Birmingham, Alabama, for … The Birmingham Campaign was a decisive civil rights movement protest during April and May of 1963 led by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), seeking to bring attention to attempts by local Black leaders to end the de jure racial segregation of public facilities in … Time Magazine noted in 1958 that the only thing white workers had to gain from desegregation was more competition from black workers.3 Fifty unsolved racially motivated bombings after 1945 earned the city the nickname "Bombingham." Marshall encouraged the campaign leaders to halt demonstrations and accept this interim compromise. When Birmingham’s residents enthusiastically responded, the campaign’s actions expanded to kneel-ins at churches, sit-ins at the library, and a march on the county courthouse to register voters. On 3 April the desegregation campaign was launched with a series of mass meetings, direct actions, lunch counter sit-ins, marches on City Hall, and a boycott of downtown merchants. & Goals of the protest. King, Shuttlesworth, and Abernathy, Statement, “For engaging in peaceful desegregation demonstrations,” 11 April 1963, BWOF-AB. “Birmingham Campaign” Public Broadcasting Service, They denied the request. King and the other leaders agreed on May 8, 1963, and called off further demonstrations. For they are doing a job for not only themselves, but for all of America and for all mankind” (King, 6 May 1963). On April 13, 1963, the Birmingham campaign is launched. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 Birmingham Campaign as Image Event Davi Johnson Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 Birmingham campaign was an exercise in cross-racial vision.