The birmingham campaign
TheBirmingham Campaign took place in the spring of April 1963. The Campaign worked together with SCLC and Birmingham's local movement, and it lasted longer then 2 months. Like any of the other campaigns MLK participated in the target was to stop segregation and discrimination in the state and urged civil rights for African Americans. Birmingham was known as one of the biggest racist cities in the South. Many activist / African Americans named Birmingham, "Bombingham" because of the numerous black churches that were being bombed and the violence that occurred in Birmingham.
The Campaign had a lot of counter sit in's, mass meetings, marches and boycotts known as the Project C. The movement started with a boycott to force business sales jobs and other occupational jobs to employ people of all ethnicities and stop segregated services. On April 12th, 1963 MLK was arrested for marching on Good Friday, while in jail King had written a letter known as " The letter from Birmingham jail." This letter is a very important letter because he had explained the reason for non violent precise action, the role of churches in the pursuit of racial justice. Martin Luther King had wrote to white clergy men to let them know what it meant to be a black person segregated in the South, and what it meant to be told by white "friends" to wait for a more convenient time to demonstrate and test the injustice and inhumanity of segregation. King wrote : " I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say "Wait". He then went on writing a statement to plea for understanding. Leaders thought about recruiting young / teenaged African American children to take part in the Birmingham Campaign , however were very hesitant to allow young children but eventually agreed to let them participate. On May 2nd, 1963 the Children's Crusades began, more than 3,000 black children occurred on 16th Street. Kids had said Dr. King had encouraged them to take part, kids assembled in groups of 50 to march. Police were very violent, marchers were assaulted by high powered water hoses , police dogs and beaten with clubs ; jails became so crowded kids were sent else where. On May 7th, 1993 under arrangement desegregation began in public places like lunch counters, bathrooms, fitting rooms , and water fountains. Downtown store owners began to hire black clerks The Campaign shaped the world to see how ugly segregation really was. |