Birmingham, Alabama was known as the most segregated city in the United States in the 1960s. Every public facility was segregated including cabs, fitting rooms, and restrooms. A baseball league was discontinued due to the risk of playing against other integrated schools. Only 8 percent of the city’s African American students went to school with white students. Birmingham’s leaders did everything and anything they could to keep the blacks in line. Even the Ku Klux Klan tried to keep the blacks in line. In between the years of 1957 and 1963, Birmingham experienced 50 cross burnings and 18 bombings. With the terror and danger increasing, Martin Luther King Jr.’s concern increased as well.
King helped set up marches, boycotts and protests in order to gain attention to the horrific treatment blacks were receiving in Birmingham, Alabama. Each day people would protest and each day more and more people were arrested, including Martin Luther King Jr. himself. From jail he continued to promote the protests and marches. "I am in Birmingham because injustice is here," Martin Luther King Jr. wrote. "I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham...Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." With these letters, King was able to build confidence in the black community to continue fighting for equality.
Therefore, younger people began to join the protests.
On May 3rd, people were protesting near the 16th street church and where either trapped inside or outside and were soon being threatened. These threats turned into officers beating men, women and children with nightsticks, setting dogs loose on them and/or spraying them with water from a fire hose. People were being injured everywhere because they were protesting for a life with freedom and everyone saw. This type of reaction continued on for other protests. Publicity about Birmingham sky rocketed with all of the smaller protests, so this particular ended up being filmed. With the nation watching the horrific scene from their very living room, the change was already occurring. Blacks then gained their civil rights and integration was finally able to occur. It was one of the fastest integration acceptance rates ever. Within three months, whites and blacks were integrated in cabs, fitting rooms, and restrooms. Martin Luther King Jr. and every other person involved in the Project “C” helped set a new tone for the civil rights movement. The harsh truth shown on thousands of television screens that day was yet again another milestone in creating equal rights for everyone.
Sources: Freedom Now! May 16, 2003. Socailworker.org. May 30, 2009. http://socialistworker.org/2003-1/453/453_08_Birmingham.shtml
The Story of the Movement. 2008. Pbs.org. May 30, 2009. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/story/07_c.html
King helped set up marches, boycotts and protests in order to gain attention to the horrific treatment blacks were receiving in Birmingham, Alabama. Each day people would protest and each day more and more people were arrested, including Martin Luther King Jr. himself. From jail he continued to promote the protests and marches. "I am in Birmingham because injustice is here," Martin Luther King Jr. wrote. "I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham...Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." With these letters, King was able to build confidence in the black community to continue fighting for equality.
Therefore, younger people began to join the protests.
On May 3rd, people were protesting near the 16th street church and where either trapped inside or outside and were soon being threatened. These threats turned into officers beating men, women and children with nightsticks, setting dogs loose on them and/or spraying them with water from a fire hose. People were being injured everywhere because they were protesting for a life with freedom and everyone saw. This type of reaction continued on for other protests. Publicity about Birmingham sky rocketed with all of the smaller protests, so this particular ended up being filmed. With the nation watching the horrific scene from their very living room, the change was already occurring. Blacks then gained their civil rights and integration was finally able to occur. It was one of the fastest integration acceptance rates ever. Within three months, whites and blacks were integrated in cabs, fitting rooms, and restrooms. Martin Luther King Jr. and every other person involved in the Project “C” helped set a new tone for the civil rights movement. The harsh truth shown on thousands of television screens that day was yet again another milestone in creating equal rights for everyone.
Sources: Freedom Now! May 16, 2003. Socailworker.org. May 30, 2009. http://socialistworker.org/2003-1/453/453_08_Birmingham.shtml
The Story of the Movement. 2008. Pbs.org. May 30, 2009. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/story/07_c.html
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