Brief Background of Birmingham Riots 1963
Birmingham city was known as America's worst city for racism. In recent years, the KKK had castrated an African American; pressured the city to ban a book from book stores as it contained pictures of black and white rabbits and wanted black music banned on radio stations. [1]
Bull Connor was the head of Birmingham police. He is the guy who gave police a day off as it was Mother's Day, and that day is the day when the Freedom Riders were attacked because there was no police to protect them. [2]
Bull Connor was the head of Birmingham police. He is the guy who gave police a day off as it was Mother's Day, and that day is the day when the Freedom Riders were attacked because there was no police to protect them. [2]
Reaction to RACISM!
Between April of 1963 and May of 1963, African Americans started to protest segregation. They have used various method to demonstrate, including lunch counter sit-ins, marches on City Hall, and boycott of downtown merchants.[3] As the number of volunteers increase, actions soon expanded to kneel-ins at churches, sit-ins at the library, and a march on the county building to register voters.[4]
Where and when did the protest take place? & Goals of the protest.
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.
Leaders & Groups
Summary
The protest began with sit-ins on April 3, 1963, at several downtown "whites-only" lunch counters. Bull Connor promised to use "nonviolent resistance" in the form of polite arrests of the offenders of the city's segregation ordinances. However, he broke his promise when he ordered out police dogs to disperse a crowd of black bystanders. In order to show Connor their strength, Shuttlesworth led the first of many protest marches on City Hall to emphasize the refusal of the city commission to issue parade permits to the protestors. Many ACMHR members were arrested in this campaign.[5] On Good Friday, April 12, King was arrested in Birmingham after violating the anti-protest injunction and was kept in solitary confinement. When he was in jail, he wrote the ‘‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’’ which became the clearest statement on the righteousness of civil rights protest. Later on April 20, King got released. Then, SCLC organizer James Bevel proposed using young children in demonstrations. On May 2, more than 1,000 African American students attempted to march into downtown Birmingham.[6] Trying to avoid the use of force, Bull Connor arrested hundreds of school children and hauled them off to jail on school buses. When the jails were filled, he called out fire hoses and police dogs to contain large protests in the black business district along the city's Kelly Ingram Park. African American spectators responded with outrage, pelting police with bricks and bottles as firemen opened up the hoses on not just the nonviolent youngsters but also on enraged black bystanders who had nearly begun a riot.[7]
Consequences Success
The media captured the negative images of Connor and his men suppressing the nonviolent protest of school children with brutal blasts from water cannons and attacks from police dogs. Front-page photographs in the nation's newspapers convinced President Kennedy to send Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Burke Marshall to Birmingham to secure negotiations that would end the violent demonstrations.The national media attention helped to spread the fervor of the ACMHR-SCLC Birmingham Campaign well beyond the city's borders, and national demonstrations, international pressure, and inner city riots followed in the wake of the agreement. These actions convinced a reluctant Kennedy Administration to propose sweeping reforms that Congress ultimately passed as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.[8]
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This riot was a successful one. Since Civil Rights Act of 1964 is passed, the civil rights movement achieved its goals of gaining access to public accommodations and equal employment opportunities, thereby ending acquiescence to white supremacy and opening the system to African Americans and other minorities.[9] They promise to remove the ‘‘Whites Only’’ and ‘‘Blacks Only’’ signs in restrooms and on drinking fountains, desegregate lunch counters, upgrade black people employment, release the jailed protestors.[10]
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How did this project contribute to the social conflict of the 1960s and 1970s
It solved the conflict between white and black, segregationist and desegregationist. Blacks now are allowed to work, live, and study together with the white. They also gained their civil rights and even voting rights. This project highly promoted the status of black people. Black and white are not "equal but segregated" anymore, but "equal and integrated."
1."Birmingham 1963." History Learning Site Birmingham 1963. HistoryLearningSite.co.uk, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2013. <http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/birmingham_1963.htm>.
2. Ibid.
3."Birmingham Campaign (1963)." The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2013. <http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_birmingham_campaign/>.
4. Ibid.
5."Birmingham Campaign of 1963." Encyclopedia of Alabama. Alabama Humanities Foundation, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2013.
<http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1358>.
6. "Birmingham Campaign (1963)." The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2013. <http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_birmingham_campaign/>.
7. "Birmingham Campaign of 1963." Encyclopedia of Alabama. Alabama Humanities Foundation, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2013.
<http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1358>.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.10. "Birmingham Campaign (1963)." The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2013. <http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_birmingham_campaign/>.
2. Ibid.
3."Birmingham Campaign (1963)." The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2013. <http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_birmingham_campaign/>.
4. Ibid.
5."Birmingham Campaign of 1963." Encyclopedia of Alabama. Alabama Humanities Foundation, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2013.
<http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1358>.
6. "Birmingham Campaign (1963)." The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2013. <http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_birmingham_campaign/>.
7. "Birmingham Campaign of 1963." Encyclopedia of Alabama. Alabama Humanities Foundation, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2013.
<http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1358>.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.10. "Birmingham Campaign (1963)." The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2013. <http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_birmingham_campaign/>.