Freedom Facts and Firsts. Jessie Carney Smith
Montgomery Bus Boycott and the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation was unconstitutional, the ACMHR decided to desegregate the Birmingham busses. Two hundred and fifty members of the ACMHR were to ride the buses on December 26, 1956. Before this happened violence broke out and the Reverend Shuttlesworth’s home was bombed on December 25; the bed in which he slept was demolished, but he survived unscathed. He took his good fortune to mean that the boycott was sanctioned by God and that the fight for civil rights was to continue.
Twenty-one protesters were arrested during the bus ride on December 26, and the ACMHR filed a suit in federal court. Following this, Shuttlesworth and others made several attempts to desegregate other places, such as the railroad station and the all-white school. These attempts were met with varying degrees of violent resistance. Birmingham was known for its violence and frequent bombings in the black community; consequently, it had gained the name “Bombingham.” Three months after the bus boycott, in 1957 there was another attempt to ride the segregated buses. Arrests were again made, and some 5,000 blacks gathered on the courthouse lawn in silent protest of the jailings. The riders were soon released on bond, and the ACMHR again filed another injunction against the city and the bus company. When the appeal reached the federal court, the law was repealed on October 14, 1958.
A new ordinance was passed, however, that authorized the Birmingham Transit System to enforce segregated seating. This was challenged by the ACMHR on October 20, 1958. Commissioner of Public Safety Eugene “Bull” Connor arrested 14 black challengers, including Shuttlesworth and three members of the Montgomery Improvement Association, who had arrived in the city to support the fight, charging them with vagrancy. Because of the dependency of the black populace on the city transit system, police brutality and intimidation, and the press blackout, the boycott failed. It was not until December 14, 1959, that desegregated seating on Birmingham buses was legalized.
Nevertheless, segregation and violence were so well entrenched in Birmingham in other aspects of daily life that it was felt that an organization with a national image and broader connections might provide the visibility needed to realize full equality for blacks. To this end, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference were asked to come and lead workshops and demonstrations against Birmingham’s racist practices. When they arrived, the strategic goals were to demolish segregation in Birmingham, to generate so much national awareness that the Kennedy Administration would be forced to actively support civil rights for all citizens regardless of race, and to mobilize enough northern support to break the southern filibuster and pass a national civil rights act that would overturn segregation laws everywhere and outlaw all forms of discrimination.
Birmingham was known for its violence and frequent bombings in the black community.
The plan of action had the codename “Project C” for “Confrontation,” and it was based at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. The confrontations began April 3, 1963, with sit-ins. Four days later, “Bull” Connor set police attack dogs and high powered water hoses on the demonstrators, effectively drawing national attention to the struggle. Demonstrators were arrested, an injunction was issued barring further demonstrations, and King and the Reverend Ralph David Abernathy were among those arrested on April 12, 1963, Good Friday. It was during this period that King wrote his “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” in response to eight white clergymen who accused him of agitating citizenry by addressing the subject of direct action. On April 26, 1963, all were convicted of criminal contempt and released on appeal, which resulted in the [Wyatt Tee] Walker v. City of Birmingham court case, in which it was determined that the city could put an injunction on protests, even though the parade ordinance it passed was constitutionally questionable.
With the release of King from jail, the third phase of the Birmingham campaign began. Children ages 6 to 16 participated as demonstrations began on May 2, 1963. The next day, Connor responded again with powerful fire hoses and German Shepard dogs; the citizens retaliated with bricks and rocks. During the confrontations there were mass arrests of children. The jails were so full by May 6 that Connor turned the stockade at the state fairground into a jail. President John F. Kennedy subsequently sent his assistant attorney general for civil rights to aid in the negotiation of the settlement that took place May 10, 1963.
Helen R. Houston
Black Power Movement (1960s)
The Black Power Movement of the mid-1960s was an outgrowth from the modern civil rights movement. However, the failure of legal and political decisions, and the non-violent movement for African American equality and justice in the American South to bring about significant transformation, resulted in a more militant posture against the prevailing white system of belief and the development of a distinctly African American ideology known as Black Power. Although the phrase had been used by African American writers and politicians for years, the expression gained currency in the civil rights vocabulary during the James Meredith March Against Fear in the summer of 1966, when Stokely Carmichael (later Kwame Turé), head of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), used the expression as a means to galvanize African Americans. Later, Carmichael, in collaboration with Charles Hamilton, provided an explanation of its meaning in Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America (1967). The Black Power Movement stressed racial pride, self-determination, economic independence, and social equality through the creation of black political and cultural institutions. Although the civil rights legislation was an effective attempt toward eliminating inequality between African Americans and whites, blacks were still encumbered by lower wages, police brutality, and racial discrimination. Later in 1966, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale formed the Black Panther Party for self-Defense. By the late 1960s, the Black Power Movement had made a significant impact on American culture and society. Considered by some to be an affirmative and proactive force designed to help African Americans attain full equality with whites, others ostracized it as a radical, at times violent faction whose principal purpose was to further broaden the racial chasm. While the movement essentially disappeared after 1970, the concept of positive racial identity remained embedded in the African American consciousness.
Linda T. Wynn
Bloody Sunday (1965)
March 7, 1965, was called “Bloody Sunday” because of the violence directed toward civil rights demonstrators during an attempted march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, on that date. The purpose of the march was to protest against police brutality and the denial of voting rights; it was a continuation of earlier civil rights efforts in the Selma area that began in 1963. Participants included key leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, such as John Lewis and Hosea Williams, as well as many unsung heroes from the local community and outside supporters. Martin Luther King Jr. had been in the Selma area on several previous occasions, enduring arrest and physical as well as verbal attacks, including death threats. His decision not to participate in the march created some confusion, disagreement, and resentment among other activists, but King had delegated Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) representation and leadership to aides Andrew Young, James Bevel, and Williams. Lewis was the chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), but his decision to participate was personal, as his SNCC colleagues had also decided not to support the march.
The black community in Selma intended to move forward with or without the presence of King and other more high-profile leaders. Lewis, a native of the state, felt he needed to show solidarity with fellow Alabamians and others involved in the effort. Alabama white leaders, including Governor George Wallace, Alabama Public Safety Director Al Lingo, Selma Mayor Jimmy Smitherman, Selma Public Safety Director Wilson Baker, and Dallas County Sheriff Jim Clark, were committed to preventing the march from being successful. An injunction was issued by Wallace in support of efforts to stop the march.
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