143-738: Events City of Birmingham City of Montgomery City of Selma City of Tuscaloosa City of Tuskegee Other localities The Birmingham campaign , also known as the Birmingham movement or Birmingham confrontation , was an American movement organized in early 1963 by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to bring attention to the integration efforts of African Americans in Birmingham, Alabama . Led by Martin Luther King Jr. , James Bevel , Fred Shuttlesworth and others,
286-426: A bullhorn from the police and shouted, "Everybody get off this corner. If you're not going to demonstrate in a nonviolent way, then leave!" Commissioner Connor was overheard saying, "If you'd ask half of them what freedom means, they couldn't tell you." To prevent further marches, Connor ordered the doors to the churches blocked to prevent students from leaving. By May 6, the jails were so full that Connor transformed
429-551: A two-by-four to get his attention. Well, it got his attention all right." After he was reinstated, King prepared a four-year plan outlining a stronger direction for the organization, agreeing to dismiss McMorris and announcing plans to present a strong challenge to the George W. Bush administration in an August convention in Montgomery, Alabama . He also planned to concentrate on racial profiling, prisoners' rights, and closing
572-732: A Graham crusade in New York City in 1957. Despite tactical differences, which arose from Graham's willingness to continue affiliating himself with segregationists, the SCLC and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association had similar ambitions and Graham would privately advise the SCLC. During its early years, SCLC struggled to gain footholds in black churches and communities across the South. Social activism in favor of racial equality faced fierce repression from
715-595: A March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. On July 2, 1963, King, Randolph, and Rustin met with James Farmer Jr. of the Congress of Racial Equality , John Lewis of SNCC , Roy Wilkins of the NAACP, and Whitney Young of the Urban League to plan a united march on August 28. The media and political establishment viewed the march with great fear and trepidation over the possibility that protesters would run riot in
858-484: A call from President Kennedy the Monday after the arrest. The president told her she could expect a call from her husband soon. When Martin Luther King Jr. called his wife, their conversation was brief and guarded; he correctly assumed that his phones were tapped. Several days later, Jacqueline Kennedy called Coretta Scott King to express her concern for King while he was incarcerated. Using scraps of paper given to him by
1001-516: A college education, whether or not they work in a blue-collar job. Some people who find themselves in academic jobs who were raised by parents or belong to families that are predominately blue-collar may take on some of the habits, processes, and philosophies utilized by laborers and workers. Some of these students, staff, and faculty refer to themselves as blue-collar scholars . With the Information Age , Western nations have moved towards
1144-467: A crisis on May 7, 1963. Breakfast in the jail took four hours to distribute to all the prisoners. Seventy members of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce pleaded with the protest organizers to stop the actions. The NAACP asked for sympathizers to picket in unity in 100 American cities. Twenty rabbis flew to Birmingham to support the cause, equating silence about segregation to the atrocities of
1287-658: A hearse". Another 1,000 people were arrested, bringing the total to 2,500. News of the mass arrests of children had reached Western Europe and the Soviet Union . The Soviet Union devoted up to 25 percent of its news broadcast to the demonstrations, sending much of it to Africa, where Soviet and U.S. interests clashed. Soviet news commentary accused the Kennedy administration of neglect and "inactivity". Alabama Governor George Wallace sent state troopers to assist Connor. Attorney General Robert Kennedy prepared to activate
1430-414: A high school diploma is required, and many of the skills required for blue-collar jobs are learned by the employee while working . In higher level blue collar jobs, such as becoming an electrician or plumber , vocational training or apprenticeships are required and state-certification is also necessary. For this reason, it is common to apply the label "blue collar" or "working class" to people without
1573-585: A janitor, notes written on the margins of a newspaper, and later a legal pad given to him by SCLC attorneys, King wrote his essay " Letter from Birmingham Jail ". It responded to eight politically moderate white clergymen who accused King of agitating local residents and not giving the incoming mayor a chance to make any changes. The essay was a culmination of many of King's ideas, which he had touched on in earlier writings. King's arrest attracted national attention, including that of corporate officers of retail chains with stores in downtown Birmingham. After King's arrest,
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#17327726627721716-695: A lesson learned in Albany as few black citizens were registered to vote in 1962. In the spring of 1963, before Easter, the Birmingham boycott intensified during the second-busiest shopping season of the year. Pastors urged their congregations to avoid shopping in Birmingham stores in the downtown district. For six weeks supporters of the boycott patrolled the downtown area to make sure black shoppers were not patronizing stores that promoted or tolerated segregation. If black shoppers were found in these stores, organizers confronted them and shamed them into participating in
1859-422: A letter informing Shuttlesworth that his petition had been thrown in the garbage. Looking for outside help, Shuttlesworth invited Martin Luther King Jr. and the SCLC to Birmingham, saying, "If you come to Birmingham, you will not only gain prestige, but really shake the country. If you win in Birmingham, as Birmingham goes, so goes the nation." King of the SCLC had recently been involved in a campaign to desegregate
2002-509: A massive walkout defying the principal of Parker High School who attempted to lock the gates to keep students inside. Demonstrators were given instructions to march to the downtown area, to meet with the Mayor, and integrate the chosen buildings. They were to leave in smaller groups and continue on their courses until arrested. Marching in disciplined ranks, some of them using walkie-talkies , they were sent at timed intervals from various churches to
2145-400: A popular education effort on a massive scale. On top of these 10,000 teachers, citizenship schools reached and taught more than 25,000 people. By 1968, over 700,000 African Americans became registered voters thanks to Clark's dedication to the movement. As a result of the SCLC acquiring the already-established Citizenship Schools program, as its director, Clark became the first woman allowed
2288-524: A position on the SCLC board, despite continued resistance from the other (exclusively male) SCLC leaders. Andrew Young , who had joined Highlander the previous year to work with the Citizenship Schools, also joined the SCLC staff. The SCLC staff of citizenship schools were overwhelmingly women, as a result of the daily experience gained by becoming a teacher. Clark would struggle against relentless sexism and male supremacy during her time on
2431-407: A series of sit-ins and marches intended to provoke mass arrests. When the campaign ran low on adult volunteers, James Bevel thought of the idea of having students become the main demonstrators in the Birmingham campaign. He then trained and directed high school, college, and elementary school students in nonviolence, and asked them to participate in the demonstrations by taking a peaceful walk 50 at
2574-568: A service and white-collar economy. Many manufacturing jobs have been offshored to developing nations which pay their workers lower wages. This offshoring has pushed formerly agrarian nations to industrialized economies and concurrently decreased the number of blue-collar jobs in developed countries. In the U.S., blue collar and service occupations generally refer to jobs in precision production, craft, and repair occupations; machine operators and inspectors; transportation and moving occupations; handlers, equipment cleaners, helpers, and laborers. In
2717-400: A sit-in at a Woolworth's lunch counter spat upon the participants. A few hundred protesters, including jazz musician Al Hibbler , were arrested, although Hibbler was immediately released by Connor. The SCLC's goals were to fill the jails with protesters to force the city government to negotiate as demonstrations continued. However, not enough people were arrested to affect the functioning of
2860-521: A time from the 16th Street Baptist Church to City Hall in order to talk to the mayor about segregation. This resulted in over a thousand arrests, and, as the jails and holding areas filled with arrested students, the Birmingham Police Department, at the direction of the city Commissioner of Public Safety, Eugene "Bull" Connor , used high-pressure water hoses and police attack dogs on the children and adult bystanders. Not all of
3003-712: Is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta , Georgia . SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr. , who had a large role in the American civil rights movement . On January 10, 1957, following the Montgomery bus boycott victory against the white establishment and consultations with Bayard Rustin , Ella Baker , and others, Martin Luther King Jr. invited about 60 black ministers and leaders to Ebenezer Church in Atlanta. Prior to this, Rustin, in New York City, conceived
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#17327726627723146-605: Is justice denied." We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The most dramatic moments of the Birmingham campaign came on May 2, when, under the direction and leadership of James Bevel , who would soon officially become SCLC's Director of Direct Action and Director of Nonviolent Education, more than 1,000 Black children left school to join the demonstrations; hundreds were arrested. The following day, 2,500 more students joined and were met by Bull Connor with police dogs and high-pressure fire hoses. That evening, television news programs reported to
3289-463: Is looking at Birmingham. Are you ready, are you ready to make the challenge? I am ready to go to jail, are you?" With Abernathy, King was among 50 Birmingham residents ranging in age from 15 to 81 years who were arrested on Good Friday , April 12, 1963. It was King's 13th arrest. Martin Luther King Jr. was held in the Birmingham jail and was denied a consultation with an attorney from the NAACP without guards present. When historian Jonathan Bass wrote of
3432-589: The Alabama National Guard and notified the Second Infantry Division from Fort Benning , Georgia that it might be deployed to Birmingham. No business of any kind was being conducted downtown. Organizers planned to flood the downtown area businesses with black people. Smaller groups of decoys were set out to distract police attention from activities at the 16th Street Baptist Church. Protesters set off false fire alarms to occupy
3575-517: The Albany Movement , a broad protest against segregation in Albany, Georgia . It is generally considered the organization's first major nonviolent campaign. At the time, it was considered by many to be unsuccessful: despite large demonstrations and many arrests, few changes were won, and the protests drew little national attention. Yet, despite the lack of immediate gains, much of the success of
3718-575: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 had outlawed segregation of public facilities, the law had not been applied in Grenada which still maintained rigid segregation. After black students were arrested for trying to sit downstairs in the "white" section of the movie theater, SCLC and the GCFM demanded that all forms of segregation be eliminated, and called for a boycott of white merchants. Over the summer,
3861-710: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) initiated a probe amid allegations of police misconduct for the arrests, Connor responded that he "[hadn't] got any damn apology to the FBI or anybody else", and predicted, "If the North keeps trying to cram this thing [desegregation] down our throats, there's going to be bloodshed." In 1961, Connor delayed sending police to intervene when Freedom Riders were beaten by local mobs. The police harassed religious leaders and protest organizers by ticketing cars parked at mass meetings and entering
4004-415: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) instructed its program " COINTELPRO " to "neutralize" what the FBI called "black nationalist hate groups" and other dissident groups. The initial targets included Martin Luther King Jr. and others associated with the SCLC. After the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, leadership was transferred to Ralph Abernathy , who presided until 1977. Abernathy
4147-754: The Montgomery Improvement Association and the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR). This organizational form differed from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) who recruited individuals and formed them into local chapters. The organization also drew inspiration from the crusades of evangelist Billy Graham , who befriended King after he appeared at
4290-581: The Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia , the Citizenship Schools focused on teaching adults to read so they could pass the voter-registration literacy tests , fill out driver's license exams, use mail-order forms, and open checking accounts. Under the auspices of the Highlander Folk School (now Highlander Research and Education Center ) the program was expanded across the South. The Johns Island Citizenship School
4433-600: The working class . In contrast, the white-collar worker typically performs work in an office environment and may involve sitting at a computer or desk. A third type of work is a service worker ( pink collar ) whose labor is related to customer interaction, entertainment, sales or other service-oriented work. Particularly those service jobs that have historically been female dominated such as nurses, teachers, early childhood educators, florists, etc. Many occupations blend blue, white, or pink-collar work and are often paid hourly wage-labor , although some professionals may be paid by
Birmingham campaign - Misplaced Pages Continue
4576-477: The "demonstrations [were] poorly timed and misdirected." Protest organizers knew they would meet with violence from the Birmingham Police Department and chose a confrontational approach to get the attention of the federal government. Wyatt Tee Walker , one of the SCLC founders and the executive director from 1960 to 1964, planned the tactics of the direct action protests, specifically targeting Bull Connor's tendency to react to demonstrations with violence: "My theory
4719-553: The "racial incidents have given us a black eye that we'll be a long time trying to forget". In response to the boycott, the City Commission of Birmingham punished the black community by withdrawing $ 45,000 ($ 450,000 in 2024) from a surplus-food program used primarily by low-income black families. The result, however, was a black community more motivated to resist. The SCLC decided that economic pressure on Birmingham businesses would be more effective than pressure on politicians,
4862-543: The Alabama State Supreme Court ruled that Albert Boutwell could take office on May 21, 1963. Upon picking up his last paycheck, Bull Connor remarked tearfully, "This is the worst day of my life." In June 1963, the Jim Crow signs regulating segregated public places in Birmingham were taken down. Southern Christian Leadership Conference The Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC )
5005-687: The City of Birmingham to desegregate lunch counters, restrooms, drinking fountains and fitting rooms within 90 days, and to hire black people in stores as salesmen and clerks. Those in jail would be released on bond or their own recognizance. Urged by Kennedy, the United Auto Workers , National Maritime Union , United Steelworkers Union, and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) raised $ 237,000 in bail money ($ 2,360,000 in 2024) to free
5148-512: The Deep South that will use the courts to perpetuate the unjust and illegal systems of racial separation". Incoming mayor Albert Boutwell called King and the SCLC organizers "strangers" whose only purpose in Birmingham was "to stir inter-racial discord". Connor promised, "You can rest assured that I will fill the jail full of any persons violating the law as long as I'm at City Hall." The movement organizers found themselves out of money after
5291-696: The Highlander staff reincorporated as the Highlander Research and Education Center and moved to Knoxville . Under the innocuous cover of adult-literacy classes, the schools secretly taught democracy and civil rights, community leadership and organizing, practical politics, and the strategies and tactics of resistance and struggle, and in so doing built the human foundations of the mass community struggles to come. Eventually, close to 69,000 teachers, most of them unpaid volunteers and many with little formal education taught Citizenship Schools throughout
5434-457: The Holocaust . Local rabbis disagreed and asked them to go home. The editor of The Birmingham News wired President Kennedy and pleaded with him to end the protests. Fire hoses were used once again, injuring police and Fred Shuttlesworth, as well as other demonstrators. Commissioner Connor expressed regret at missing seeing Shuttlesworth get hit and said he "wished they'd carried him away in
5577-773: The SCLC held workshops to help students overcome their fear of dogs and jails. They showed films of the Nashville sit-ins organized in 1960 to end segregation at public lunch counters. Birmingham's black radio station, WENN , supported the new plan by telling students to arrive at the demonstration meeting place with a toothbrush to be used in jail. Flyers were distributed in black schools and neighborhoods that said, "Fight for freedom first then go to school" and "It's up to you to free our teachers, our parents, yourself, and our country." On May 2, 1963, 7th grader Gwendolyn Sanders helped organize her classmates, and hundreds of children from high schoolers down to first graders who joined her in
5720-595: The SCLC, much as Ella Baker had, with particularly harsh sexism emanating from Martin Luther King Jr. himself. Ralph Abernathy also objected to a woman being allowed to participate in SCLC decision making and leadership, as Clark said: "I can remember Reverend Abernathy asking many times, why was Septima Clark on the Executive Board of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference? And Dr. King would always say, 'She
5863-543: The South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. ... Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct-action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promise. So I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here I am here because I have organizational ties here. King also addressed
Birmingham campaign - Misplaced Pages Continue
6006-473: The South. Many of the Civil Rights Movement 's adult leaders such as Fannie Lou Hamer and Victoria Gray , and hundreds of other local leaders in black communities across the South attended and taught citizenship schools. Under the leadership of Clark, the citizenship school project trained over 10,000 citizenship schoolteachers who led citizenship schools throughout the South, representing
6149-473: The South. It burnished King's reputation, ousted Connor from his job, forced desegregation in Birmingham, and directly paved the way for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibited racial discrimination in hiring practices and public services throughout the United States. Birmingham, Alabama was, in 1963, "probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States", according to King. Although
6292-957: The U.S., an area known as the Rust Belt , comprising the Northeast and Midwest , including Western New York and Western Pennsylvania , has seen its once large manufacturing base shrink significantly. With the deindustrialization of these areas beginning in the mid-1960s and accelerating throughout the late 20th century, cities like Allentown , Bethlehem , Erie , and Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania ; Cleveland , Toledo , and Youngstown in Ohio ; Detroit in Michigan ; Buffalo and Rochester in New York ; and St. Louis in Missouri experienced
6435-486: The amount of required bail was raised. Because King was the major fundraiser, his associates urged him to travel the country to raise bail money for those arrested. He had, however, previously promised to lead the marchers to jail in solidarity, but hesitated as the planned date arrived. Some SCLC members grew frustrated with his indecisiveness. "I have never seen Martin so troubled", one of King's friends later said. After King prayed and reflected alone in his hotel room, he and
6578-402: The attention of the media and national public opinion on the Birmingham situation". Twenty-four hours after his arrest, King was allowed to see local attorneys from the SCLC. When Coretta Scott King did not hear from her husband, she called Walker and he suggested that she call President Kennedy directly. Mrs. King was recuperating at home after the birth of their fourth child when she received
6721-431: The barricades and re-opened the streets to traffic. That evening King told worried parents in a crowd of a thousand, "Don't worry about your children who are in jail. The eyes of the world are on Birmingham. We're going on in spite of dogs and fire hoses. We've gone too far to turn back now." The images had a profound effect in Birmingham. Despite decades of disagreements, when the photos were released, "the black community
6864-506: The behavior of the Birmingham police "a national disgrace." The Washington Post editorialized, "The spectacle in Birmingham ;... must excite the sympathy of the rest of the country for the decent, just, and reasonable citizens of the community, who have so recently demonstrated at the polls their lack of support for the very policies that have produced the Birmingham riots. The authorities who tried, by these brutal means, to stop
7007-571: The black children until public pressure and a Federal court order finally forced Mississippi lawmen to intervene. By the end of the first week, many black parents had withdrawn their children from the white schools out of fear for their safety, but approximately 150 black students continued to attend, still the largest school integration in state history at that point in time. Inside the schools, blacks were harassed by white teachers, threatened and attacked by white students, and many blacks were expelled on flimsy pretexts by school officials. By mid-October,
7150-411: The black-owned and integrated Gaston Motel. Comedian Dick Gregory and Barbara Deming , a writer for The Nation , were both arrested. The young Dan Rather reported for CBS News . The car of Fannie Flagg , a local television personality and recent Miss Alabama finalist, was surrounded by teenagers who recognized her. Flagg worked at Channel 6 on the morning show, and after asking her producers why
7293-462: The boycott. Shuttlesworth recalled a woman whose $ 15 hat ($ 150 in 2024) was destroyed by boycott enforcers. Campaign participant Joe Dickson recalled, "We had to go under strict surveillance. We had to tell people, say look: if you go downtown and buy something, you're going to have to answer to us." After several business owners in Birmingham took down "white only" and "colored only" signs, Commissioner Connor told business owners that if they did not obey
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#17327726627727436-446: The bystanders were peaceful, despite the avowed intentions of SCLC to hold a completely nonviolent walk, but the students held to the nonviolent premise. Martin Luther King Jr. and the SCLC drew both criticism and praise for allowing children to participate and put themselves in harm's way. The Birmingham campaign was a model of nonviolent direct action protest and, through the media, drew the world's attention to racial segregation in
7579-518: The campaign leaders decided to defy the injunction and prepared for mass arrests of campaign supporters. To build morale and to recruit volunteers to go to jail, Ralph Abernathy spoke at a mass meeting of Birmingham's black citizens at the 6th Avenue Baptist Church: "The eyes of the world are on Birmingham tonight. Bobby Kennedy is looking here at Birmingham, the United States Congress is looking at Birmingham. The Department of Justice
7722-539: The campaign of nonviolent direct action culminated in widely publicized confrontations between young black students and white civic authorities, and eventually led the municipal government to change the city's discrimination laws. In the early 1960s, Birmingham was one of the most racially divided cities in the United States, enforced both legally and culturally. Black citizens faced legal and economic disparities, and violent retribution when they attempted to draw attention to their problems. Martin Luther King Jr. called it
7865-595: The campaign, SCLC organizer James Bevel devised a controversial alternative plan he named D Day that was later called the "Children's Crusade" by Newsweek magazine. D Day called for students from Birmingham elementary schools and high schools as well as nearby Miles College to take part in the demonstrations. Bevel, a veteran of earlier nonviolent student protests with the Nashville Student Movement and SNCC, had been named SCLC's Director of Direct Action and Nonviolent Education. After initiating
8008-458: The chains' profits began to erode. National business owners pressed the Kennedy administration to intervene. King was released on April 20, 1963. Despite the publicity surrounding King's arrest, the campaign was faltering because few demonstrators were willing to risk arrest. In addition, although Connor had used police dogs to assist in the arrest of demonstrators, this did not attract the media attention that organizers had hoped for. To re-energize
8151-401: The children. Boys' shirts were ripped off, and girls were pushed over the tops of cars by the force of the water. When the students crouched or fell, the blasts of water rolled them down the asphalt streets and concrete sidewalks. Connor allowed white spectators to push forward, shouting, "Let those people come forward, sergeant. I want 'em to see the dogs work." A.G. Gaston, who was appalled at
8294-403: The church and left to walk across Kelly Ingram Park while chanting, "We're going to walk, walk, walk. Freedom ... freedom ... freedom." As the demonstrators left the church, police warned them to stop and turn back, "or you'll get wet". When they continued, Connor ordered the city's fire hoses, set at a level that would peel bark off a tree or separate bricks from mortar, to be turned on
8437-486: The city "ain't gonna segregate no niggers and whites together in this town [ sic ]". He also claimed that the Civil Rights Movement was a Communist plot, and after the churches were bombed, Connor blamed the violence on local black citizens. Birmingham's government was set up in such a way that it gave Connor powerful influence. In 1958, police arrested ministers organizing a bus boycott. When
8580-419: The city and the wisdom of the plans were being questioned in the black community. The editor of The Birmingham World , the city's black newspaper, called the direct actions by the demonstrators "wasteful and worthless", and urged black citizens to use the courts to change the city's racist policies. Most white residents of Birmingham expressed shock at the demonstrations. White religious leaders denounced King and
8723-413: The city of Albany, Georgia , but did not see the results they had anticipated. Described by historian Henry Hampton as a "morass", the Albany Movement lost momentum and stalled. King's reputation had been hurt by the Albany campaign, and he was eager to improve it. Determined not to make the same mistakes in Birmingham, King and the SCLC changed several of their strategies. In Albany, they concentrated on
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#17327726627728866-570: The city the nickname " Bombingham ". A neighborhood shared by white and black families experienced so many attacks that it was called "Dynamite Hill". Black churches in which civil rights were discussed became specific targets for attack. Black organizers had worked in Birmingham for about ten years, as it was the headquarters of the Southern Negro Youth Congress (SNYC). In Birmingham, SNYC experienced both successes and failures, as well as arrests and official violence. SNYC
9009-494: The city's population of almost 350,000 was 60% white and 40% black, Birmingham had no black police officers, firefighters, sales clerks in department stores, bus drivers, bank tellers, or store cashiers. Black secretaries could not work for white professionals. Jobs available to black workers were limited to manual labor in Birmingham's steel mills, work in household service and yard maintenance, or work in black neighborhoods. When layoffs were necessary, black employees were often
9152-451: The course of their work. Navy and light blue colors conceal potential dirt or grease on the worker's clothing, helping them to appear cleaner. For the same reason, blue is a popular color for boilersuits which protect workers' clothing. Some blue collar workers have uniforms with the name of the business or the individual's name embroidered or printed on it. Historically, the popularity of the colour blue among manual labourers contrasts with
9295-536: The courthouse, where many of them were abused and arrested by Dallas County Sheriff Jim Clark — a staunch segregationist. Black voter applicants were subjected to economic retaliation by the White Citizens' Council , and threatened with physical violence by the Ku Klux Klan . Officials used the discriminatory literacy test to keep blacks off the voter rolls. Nonviolent mass marches demanded
9438-546: The courts and that direct action excited white resistance, hostility, and violence. Traditionally, leadership in black communities came from the educated elite—ministers, professionals, teachers, etc.—who spoke for and on behalf of the laborers, maids, farmhands, and working poor who made up the bulk of the black population. Many of these traditional leaders were uneasy about involving ordinary blacks in mass activity such as boycotts and marches. SCLC's belief that churches should be involved in political activism against social ills
9581-499: The crowd; in the early hours of the morning, thousands of black people rioted, numerous buildings and vehicles were burned, and several people, including a police officer, were stabbed. By May 13, three thousand federal troops were deployed to Birmingham to restore order, even though Alabama Governor George Wallace told President Kennedy that state and local forces were sufficient. Martin Luther King Jr. returned to Birmingham to stress nonviolence. Outgoing mayor Art Hanes left office after
9724-418: The decision, saying, "Real men don't put their children on the firing line." King, who had been silent and then out of town while Bevel was organizing the children, was impressed by the success of the children's protests. That evening he declared at a mass meeting, "I have been inspired and moved by today. I have never seen anything like it." Although Wyatt Tee Walker was initially against the use of children in
9867-452: The demonstrations, he responded to criticism by saying, "Negro children will get a better education in five days in jail than in five months in a segregated school." The D Day campaign received front page coverage by The Washington Post and The New York Times . When Connor realized that the Birmingham jail was full, on May 3 he changed police tactics to keep protesters out of the downtown business area. Another thousand students gathered at
10010-462: The demonstrators. Commissioner Connor and the outgoing mayor condemned the resolution. On the night of May 11, a bomb heavily damaged the A.G. Gaston Motel where King had been staying—and had left only hours before—and another damaged the house of A. D. King , Martin Luther King Jr.'s brother. When police went to inspect the motel, they were met with rocks and bottles from neighborhood black citizens. The arrival of state troopers only further angered
10153-443: The desegregation of the city as a whole. In Birmingham, their campaign tactics focused on more narrowly defined goals for the downtown shopping and government district. These goals included the desegregation of Birmingham's downtown stores, fair hiring practices in shops and city employment, the reopening of public parks, and the creation of a bi-racial committee to oversee the desegregation of Birmingham's public schools. King summarized
10296-496: The digital divide between whites and blacks. However, King also suggested in a statement that the group needed a different approach than it had used in the past, stating, "We must not allow our lust for 'temporal gratification' to blind us from making difficult decisions to effect future generations." Martin Luther King III resigned in 2004, upon which Fred Shuttlesworth was elected to replace him. Shuttlesworth resigned
10439-426: The downtown business area. More than 600 students were arrested; the youngest of these was reported to be eight years old. Children left the churches while singing hymns and "freedom songs" such as " We Shall Overcome ". They clapped and laughed while being arrested and awaiting transport to jail. The mood was compared to that of a school picnic. Although Bevel informed Connor that the march was to take place, Connor and
10582-780: The enormous public pressure generated by the Selma Voting Rights Movement by enacting into law the Voting Rights Act of 1965 . When the Meredith Mississippi March Against Fear passed through Grenada, Mississippi on June 15, 1966, it sparked months of civil rights activity on the part of Grenada blacks. They formed the Grenada County Freedom Movement (GCFM) as an SCLC affiliate, and within days 1,300 blacks registered to vote. Though
10725-542: The fire department and its hoses. One group of children approached a police officer and announced, "We want to go to jail!" When the officer pointed the way, the students ran across Kelly Ingram Park shouting, "We're going to jail!" Six hundred picketers reached downtown Birmingham. Large groups of protesters sat in stores and sang freedom songs. Streets, sidewalks, stores, and buildings were overwhelmed with more than 3,000 protesters. The sheriff and chief of police admitted to Burke Marshall that they did not think they could handle
10868-434: The first to go. The unemployment rate for black people was two and a half times higher than for white people. The average income for black employees in the city was less than half that of white employees. Significantly lower pay scales for black workers at the local steel mills were common. Racial segregation of public and commercial facilities throughout Jefferson County was legally required, covered all aspects of life, and
11011-518: The formerly white schools under a court desegregation order. This was by far the largest school integration attempt in Mississippi since the Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954. The all-white school board resisted fiercely, whites threatened black parents with economic retaliation if they did not withdraw their children, and by the first day of school the number of black children registered in
11154-475: The freedom marchers do not speak or act in the name of the enlightened people of the city." President Kennedy sent Assistant Attorney General Burke Marshall to Birmingham to help negotiate a truce. Marshall faced a stalemate when merchants and protest organizers refused to budge. Black onlookers in the area of Kelly Ingram Park abandoned nonviolence on May 5. Spectators taunted police, and SCLC leaders begged them to be peaceful or go home. James Bevel borrowed
11297-650: The governor of Massachusetts and Mrs. John Burgess, wife of the Episcopal Bishop of Massachusetts. Nightly marches to the Old Slave Market were attacked by white mobs, and when blacks attempted to integrate "white-only" beaches they were assaulted by police who beat them with clubs. On June 11, King and other SCLC leaders were arrested for trying to lunch at the Monson Motel restaurant, and when an integrated group of young protesters tried to use
11440-592: The group settled on Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) as its name, expanding its focus beyond buses to ending all forms of segregation. A small office was established in the Prince Hall Masonic Temple Building on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta with Ella Baker as SCLC's first—and for a long time only—staff member. SCLC was governed by an elected board, and established as an organization of affiliates, most of which were either individual churches or community organizations such as
11583-402: The idea he organized and educated the students in nonviolence tactics and philosophy. King hesitated to approve the use of children, but Bevel believed that children were appropriate for the demonstrations because jail time for them would not hurt families economically as much as the loss of a working parent. He also saw that adults in the black community were divided about how much support to give
11726-765: The idea of initiating such an effort and first sought C. K. Steele to make the call and take the lead role. Steele declined, but told Rustin he would be glad to work right beside him if he sought King in Montgomery for the role. Their goal was to form an organization to coordinate and support nonviolent direct action as a method of desegregating bus systems across the South . In addition to King, Rustin, Baker, and Steele, Fred Shuttlesworth of Birmingham, Joseph Lowery of Mobile, and Ralph Abernathy of Montgomery, all played key roles in this meeting. The group continued this initial meeting on January 11, calling it (in keeping with
11869-441: The idea of using children, was on the phone with white attorney David Vann trying to negotiate a resolution to the crisis. When Gaston looked out the window and saw the children being hit with high-pressure water, he said, "Lawyer Vann, I can't talk to you now or ever. My people are out there fighting for their lives and my freedom. I have to go help them", and hung up the phone. Black parents and adults who were observing cheered on
12012-488: The incident in 2001, he noted that news of King's incarceration was spread quickly by Wyatt Tee Walker, as planned. King's supporters sent telegrams about his arrest to the White House . He could have been released on bail at any time, and jail administrators wished him to be released as soon as possible to avoid the media attention while King was in custody. However, campaign organizers offered no bail in order "to focus
12155-446: The injunction a "flagrant denial of our constitutional rights" and organizers prepared to defy the order. The decision to ignore the injunction had been made during the planning stage of the campaign. King and the SCLC had obeyed court injunctions in their Albany protests and reasoned that obeying them contributed to the Albany campaign's lack of success. In a press release they explained, "We are now confronted with recalcitrant forces in
12298-399: The local members: I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against "outsiders coming in." I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty-five affiliated organizations across
12441-542: The march was King's famous " I Have a Dream " speech in which he articulated the hopes and aspirations of the Civil Rights Movement and rooted it in two cherished gospels—the Old Testament and the unfulfilled promise of the American creed. When civil rights activists protesting segregation in St. Augustine, Florida were met with arrests and Ku Klux Klan violence, the local SCLC affiliate appealed to King for assistance in
12584-421: The marching students, but when the hoses were turned on, bystanders began to throw rocks and bottles at the police. To disperse them, Connor ordered police to use German Shepherd dogs to keep them in line. James Bevel wove in and out of the crowds warning them, "If any cops get hurt, we're going to lose this fight." At 3 pm, the protest was over. During a kind of truce , protesters went home. Police removed
12727-426: The mayor's office also weakened the Birmingham city government in its opposition to the campaign. Connor, who had run for several elected offices in the months leading up to the campaign, had lost all but the race for Public Safety Commissioner. Because they believed Connor's extreme conservatism slowed progress for the city as a whole, a group of white political moderates worked to defeat him. The Citizens for Progress
12870-475: The mayoral election, they used code words for demonstrations. The plan called for direct nonviolent action to attract media attention to "the biggest and baddest city of the South". In preparation for the protests, Walker timed the walking distance from the 16th Street Baptist Church, headquarters for the campaign, to the downtown area. He surveyed the segregated lunch counters of department stores, and listed federal buildings as secondary targets should police block
13013-424: The meetings in plainclothes to take notes. The Birmingham Fire Department interrupted such meetings to search for "phantom fire hazards". Connor was so antagonistic towards the Civil Rights Movement that his actions galvanized support for black Americans. President John F. Kennedy later said of him, "The Civil Rights Movement should thank God for Bull Connor. He's helped it as much as Abraham Lincoln." Turmoil in
13156-465: The most segregated city in the country. Protests in Birmingham began with a boycott led by Shuttlesworth meant to pressure business leaders to open employment to people of all races, and end segregation in public facilities, restaurants, schools, and stores. When local business and governmental leaders resisted the boycott, the SCLC agreed to assist. Organizer Wyatt Tee Walker joined Birmingham activist Shuttlesworth and began what they called Project C,
13299-586: The motel swimming pool the owner poured acid into the water. TV and newspaper stories of the struggle for justice in St. Augustine helped build public support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that was then being debated in Congress . When voter registration and civil rights activity in Selma, Alabama were blocked by an illegal injunction, the Dallas County Voters League (DCVL) asked SCLC for assistance. King, SCLC, and DCVL chose Selma as
13442-622: The name used for their January meetings, the group briefly called their organization Negro Leaders Conference on Nonviolent Integration , then Southern Negro Leaders Conference and the Southern Leadership Conference . King served as president, Steele as first vice president, A.L. Davis as second vice president, T. J. Jemison as secretary, Medgar Evers as assistant secretary, Abernathy as treasurer, and Shuttlesworth as historian. At its third meeting, in August 1957,
13585-808: The nation and the world scenes of fire hoses knocking down schoolchildren and dogs attacking individual demonstrators. Public outrage led the Kennedy administration to intervene more forcefully and a settlement was announced on May 10, under which the downtown businesses would desegregate and eliminate discriminatory hiring practices, and the city would release the jailed protesters. After the Birmingham Campaign, SCLC called for massive protests in Washington, DC , to push for new civil rights legislation that would outlaw segregation nationwide. A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin issued similar calls for
13728-474: The nonviolent civil disobedience of the activists. After his arrest in April, King wrote the " Letter from Birmingham Jail " in response to a group of clergy who had criticized the Birmingham campaign, writing that it was "directed and led in part by outsiders" and that the demonstrations were "unwise and untimely." In his letter, King explained that, as president of SCLC, he had been asked to come to Birmingham by
13871-516: The number of blacks attending the white schools had dropped to roughly 70. When school officials refused to meet with a delegation of black parents, black students began boycotting both the white and black schools in protest. Many children, parents, GCFM activists, and SCLC organizers were arrested for protesting the school situation. By the end of October, almost all of the 2600 black students in Grenada County were boycotting school. The boycott
14014-555: The number of protests increased and many demonstrators and SCLC organizers were arrested as police enforced the old Jim Crow social order. In July and August, large mobs of white segregationists mobilized by the KKK violently attacked nonviolent marchers and news reporters with rocks, bottles, baseball bats and steel pipes. When the new school year began in September, SCLC and the GCFM encouraged more than 450 black students to register at
14157-426: The organization drift into inaction. In a June 25 letter to King, the group's national chairman at the time, Claud Young, wrote, "You have consistently been insubordinate and displayed inappropriate, obstinate behavior in the (negligent) carrying out of your duties as president of SCLC." King was reinstated only one week later after promising to take a more active role. Young said of the suspension, "I felt we had to use
14300-554: The organization have included Joseph Lowery , Ralph Abernathy , Ella Baker , James Bevel , Diane Nash , Dorothy Cotton , James Orange , C. O. Simpkins Sr , Charles Kenzie Steele , C. T. Vivian , Fred Shuttlesworth , Andrew Young , Hosea Williams , Jesse Jackson , Walter E. Fauntroy , Claud Young, Septima Clark , Martin Luther King III , Curtis W. Harris , Maya Angelou , and Golden Frinks . Because of its dedication to direct-action protests, civil disobedience , and mobilizing mass participation in boycotts and marches, SCLC
14443-403: The other organizers, saying that "a cause should be pressed in the courts and the negotiations among local leaders, and not in the streets". Some white Birmingham residents were supportive as the boycott continued. When one black woman entered Loveman's department store to buy her children Easter shoes, a white saleswoman said to her, "Negro, ain't you ashamed of yourself, your people out there on
14586-470: The philosophy of the Birmingham campaign when he said: "The purpose of ... direct action is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation". A significant factor in the success of the Birmingham campaign was the structure of the city government and the personality of its contentious Commissioner of Public Safety, Eugene "Bull" Connor . Described as an "arch-segregationist" by Time magazine, Connor asserted that
14729-408: The police were dumbfounded by the numbers and behavior of the children. They assembled paddy wagons and school buses to take the children to jail. When no squad cars were left to block the city streets, Connor, whose authority extended to the fire department, used fire trucks. The day's arrests brought the total number of jailed protesters to 1,200 in the 900-capacity Birmingham jail. Some considered
14872-468: The police, White Citizens' Council and the Ku Klux Klan . Only a few churches had the courage to defy the white-dominated status-quo by affiliating with SCLC, and those that did risked economic retaliation against pastors and other church leaders, arson, and bombings. SCLC's advocacy of boycotts and other forms of nonviolent protest was controversial among both whites and blacks. Many black community leaders believed that segregation should be challenged in
15015-485: The popularity of white dress shirts worn by people in office environments. The blue collar/white collar colour scheme has socio-economic class connotations. However, this distinction has become blurred with the increasing importance of skilled labor , and the relative increase in low-paying white-collar jobs. Since many blue-collar jobs consist of mainly manual labor, educational requirements for workers are typically lower than those of white-collar workers. Often, not even
15158-422: The position of president. In a written statement, she said that her decision came "after numerous attempts to connect with the official board leaders on how to move forward under my leadership, unfortunately, our visions did not align." The best-known member of the SCLC was Martin Luther King Jr. , who was president and chaired the organization until he was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Other prominent members of
15301-605: The position, however, King was being criticized by the Conference board for alleged inactivity. He was accused of failing to answer correspondence from the board and take up issues important to the organization. The board also felt he failed to demonstrate against national issues the SCLC previously would have protested, like the disenfranchisement of black voters in the Florida election recount or time limits on welfare recipients implemented by then- President Bill Clinton . King
15444-452: The project or salaried. There are a wide range of payscales for such work depending upon field of specialty and experience. The term blue collar was first used in reference to trades jobs in 1924, in an Alden, Iowa newspaper. The phrase stems from the image of manual workers wearing blue denim or chambray shirts as part of their uniforms. Industrial and manual workers often wear durable canvas or cotton clothing that may be soiled during
15587-442: The protesters' entrance into primary targets such as stores, libraries, and all-white churches. The campaign used a variety of nonviolent methods of confrontation, including sit-ins at libraries and lunch counters, kneel-ins by black visitors at white churches, and a march to the county building to mark the beginning of a voter-registration drive. Most businesses responded by refusing to serve demonstrators. Some white spectators at
15730-407: The protests. Bevel and the organizers knew that high school students were a more cohesive group; they had been together as classmates since kindergarten. He recruited girls who were school leaders and boys who were athletes. Bevel found girls more receptive to his ideas because they had less experience as victims of white violence. When the girls joined, however, the boys were close behind. Bevel and
15873-564: The question of "timeliness": One of the basic points in your statement is that the action that I and my associates have taken in Birmingham is untimely. ... Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed
16016-580: The recent bus segregation issue) a Southern Negro Leaders Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration when they held a press conference that day. The press conference allowed them to introduce their efforts: On February 15, a follow-up meeting was held in New Orleans, at the New Zion Baptist Church at the corner of Third and LaSalle streets. Out of this meeting came a new organization with King as its president. Shortening
16159-532: The right to vote and the jails filled up with arrested protesters, many of them students. On February 1, King and Abernathy were arrested. Voter registration efforts and protest marches spread to the surrounding Black Belt counties — Perry , Wilcox , Marengo , Greene , and Hale . On February 18, an Alabama State Trooper shot and killed Jimmie Lee Jackson during a voting rights protest in Marion , county seat of Perry County. In response, James Bevel, who
16302-424: The right to vote — which became known as "Bloody Sunday" — horrified the nation. King, Bevel, Diane Nash and others called on clergy and people of conscience to support the black citizens of Selma. Thousands of religious leaders and ordinary Americans came to demand voting rights for all. One of them was James Reeb , a white Unitarian Universalist minister, who was savagely beaten to death on
16445-603: The same year that he was appointed, complaining that "deceit, mistrust, and a lack of spiritual discipline and truth have eaten at the core of this once-hallowed organization". He was replaced by Charles Steele Jr. who served until October 2009. On October 30, 2009, Elder Bernice King , King's youngest child, was elected SCLC's new president, with James Bush III taking office in February 2010 as Acting President/CEO until Bernice King took office. However, on January 21, 2011, fifteen months after her election, Bernice King declined
16588-498: The same year to challenge the city's segregation policies through lawsuits and protests. When the courts overturned the segregation of the city's parks, the city responded by closing them. Shuttlesworth's home was repeatedly bombed, as was Bethel Baptist Church, where he was pastor. After Shuttlesworth was arrested and jailed for violating the city's segregation rules in 1962, he sent a petition to Mayor Art Hanes' office asking that public facilities be desegregated. Hanes responded with
16731-519: The segregation ordinances, they would lose their business licenses. Martin Luther King Jr.'s presence in Birmingham was not welcomed by all in the black community. A local black attorney complained in Time that the new city administration did not have enough time to confer with the various groups invested in changing the city's segregation policies. Black hotel owner A. G. Gaston agreed. A white Jesuit priest assisting in desegregation negotiations attested
16874-660: The show was not covering the demonstrations, she received orders never to mention them on air. She rolled down the window and shouted to the children, "I'm with you all the way!" Birmingham's fire department refused orders from Connor to turn the hoses on demonstrators again, and waded through the basement of the 16th Street Baptist Church to clean up water from earlier fire-hose flooding. White business leaders met with protest organizers to try and arrange an economic solution but said they had no control over politics. Protest organizers disagreed, saying that business leaders were positioned to pressure political leaders. The situation reached
17017-688: The site for a major campaign around voting rights that would demand national voting rights legislation in the same way that the Birmingham and St. Augustine campaigns won passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 . In cooperation with SNCC who had been organizing in Selma since early 1963, the Voting Rights Campaign commenced with a rally in Brown Chapel on January 2, 1965, in defiance of the injunction. SCLC and SNCC organizers recruited and trained blacks to attempt to register to vote at
17160-431: The situation for more than a few hours. On May 8 at 4 am, white business leaders agreed to most of the protesters' demands. Political leaders held fast, however. The rift between the businessmen and the politicians became clear when business leaders admitted they could not guarantee the protesters' release from jail. On May 10, Fred Shuttlesworth and Martin Luther King Jr. told reporters that they had an agreement from
17303-440: The spring of 1963. So for a brief time, Birmingham had two city governments attempting to conduct business. Modeled on the Montgomery bus boycott , protest actions in Birmingham began in 1962, when students from local colleges arranged for a year of staggered boycotts. 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
17446-406: The spring of 1964. SCLC sent staff to help organize and lead demonstrations and mobilized support for St. Augustine in the North. Hundreds were arrested on sit-ins and marches opposing segregation, so many that the jails were filled, and the overflow prisoners had to be held in outdoor stockades. Among the northern supporters who endured arrest and incarceration were Mrs. Malcolm Peabody, the mother of
17589-501: The stockade at the state fairgrounds into a makeshift jail to hold protesters. Black protestors arrived at white churches to integrate services. They were accepted in Roman Catholic , Episcopal , and Presbyterian churches but turned away at others, where they knelt and prayed until they were arrested. Well-known national figures arrived to show support. Singer Joan Baez arrived to perform for free at Miles College and stayed at
17732-546: The street by Klansmen who severely injured two other ministers in the same attack. After more protests, arrests, and legal maneuvering, Federal Judge Frank M. Johnson ordered Alabama to allow the march to Montgomery. It began on March 21 and arrived in Montgomery on the 24th. On the 25th, an estimated 25,000 protesters marched to the steps of the Alabama capitol in support of voting rights where King spoke. Within five months, Congress and President Lyndon Johnson responded to
17875-503: The street getting put in jail and you in here spending money and I'm not going to sell you any, you'll have to go some other place." King promised a protest every day until "peaceful equality had been assured" and expressed doubt that the new mayor would ever voluntarily desegregate the city. On April 10, 1963, Bull Connor obtained an injunction barring the protests and subsequently raised bail bond for those arrested from $ 200 to $ 1,500 ($ 2,000 to $ 15,000 in 2024). Fred Shuttlesworth called
18018-465: The streets of the capital. But despite their fears, the March on Washington was a huge success, with no violence, and an estimated number of participants ranging from 200,000 to 300,000. It was also a logistical triumph—more than 2,000 buses, 21 special trains, 10 chartered aircraft, and uncounted autos converged on the city in the morning and departed without difficulty by nightfall. The crowning moment of
18161-430: The subsequent Birmingham Campaign can be attributed to lessons learned in Albany. By contrast, the 1963 SCLC campaign in Birmingham, Alabama , was an unqualified success. The campaign focused on a single goal—the desegregation of Birmingham's downtown merchants—rather than total desegregation, as in Albany. The brutal response of local police, led by Public Safety Commissioner "Bull" Connor , stood in stark contrast to
18304-513: The use of children controversial, including incoming Birmingham mayor Albert Boutwell and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy , who condemned the decision to use children in the protests. Kennedy was reported in The New York Times as saying, "an injured, maimed, or dead child is a price that none of us can afford to pay", although adding, "I believe that everyone understands their just grievances must be resolved." Malcolm X criticized
18447-500: The white schools had dropped to approximately 250. On the first day of class, September 12, a furious white mob organized by the Klan attacked the black children and their parents with clubs, chains, whips, and pipes as they walked to school, injuring many and hospitalizing several with broken bones. Police and Mississippi State Troopers made no effort to halt or deter the mob violence. Over the following days, white mobs continued to attack
18590-650: Was also deeply controversial. Many ministers and religious leaders—both black and white—thought that the role of the church was to focus on the spiritual needs of the congregation and perform charitable works to aid the needy. To some of them, the social-political activity of King and SCLC amounted to dangerous radicalism which they strongly opposed. SCLC and King were also sometimes criticized for lack of militancy by younger activists in groups such as Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and CORE who were participating in sit-ins and Freedom Rides . Originally started in 1954 by Esau Jenkins and Septima Clark on
18733-461: Was backed by the Chamber of Commerce and other white professionals in the city, and their tactics were successful. In November 1962, Connor lost the race for mayor to Albert Boutwell , a less combative segregationist. However, Connor and his colleagues on the City Commission refused to accept the new mayor's authority. They claimed on a technicality that their terms not expire until 1965 instead of in
18876-1109: Was considered more "radical" than the older NAACP, which favored lawsuits, legislative lobbying, and education campaigns conducted by professionals. At the same time, it was generally considered less radical than Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) or the youth-led Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Blue collar A blue-collar worker is a person who performs manual labor or skilled trades . Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled labor. The type of work may involve manufacturing , retail , warehousing , mining , excavation , carpentry , electricity generation and power plant operations , electrical construction and maintenance, custodial work , farming , commercial fishing , logging , landscaping , pest control , food processing , oil field work, waste collection and disposal , recycling , construction , maintenance , shipping , driving , trucking , and many other types of physical work. Blue-collar work often involves something being physically built or maintained. In social status, blue-collar workers generally belong to
19019-507: Was directing SCLC's Selma actions, called for a march from Selma to Montgomery , and on March 7 close to 600 protesters attempted the march to present their grievances to Governor Wallace . Led by Reverend Hosea Williams of SCLC and John Lewis of SNCC, the marchers were attacked by State Troopers, deputy sheriffs, and mounted possemen who used tear-gas, horses, clubs, and bullwhips to drive them back to Brown Chapel. News coverage of this brutal assault on nonviolent demonstrators protesting for
19162-471: Was forced out in 1949, leaving behind a Black population that thus had some experience of civil rights organizing. A few years later, Birmingham's black population began to organize to effect change. After Alabama banned the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1956, Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth formed the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR)
19305-450: Was further criticized for failing to join the battle against AIDS , allegedly because he feels uncomfortable talking about condoms . He also hired Lamell J. McMorris, an executive director who, according to The New York Times , "rubbed board members the wrong way." The Southern Christian Leadership Conference suspended King from the presidency in June 2001, concerned that he was letting
19448-545: Was housed at The Progressive Club , listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. According to Septima Clark's autobiography, Echo In My Soul (page 225), the Highlander Folk School was closed because it engaged in commercial activities in violation its charter; Highlander Folk School was chartered by the State of Tennessee as a non-profit corporation without stockholders or owners. However, in 1961,
19591-520: Was instantaneously consolidated behind King", according to David Vann, who would later serve as mayor of Birmingham. Horrified at what the Birmingham police were doing to protect segregation, New York Senator Jacob K. Javits declared, "the country won't tolerate it", and pressed Congress to pass a civil rights bill. Similar reactions were reported by Kentucky Senator Sherman Cooper , and Oregon Senator Wayne Morse , who compared Birmingham to South Africa under apartheid . A New York Times editorial called
19734-1134: Was not ended until early November when SCLC attorneys won a Federal court order that the school system treat everyone equal regardless of race and meet with black parents. In 1966, Allen Johnson hosted the Tenth Annual Southern Christian Leadership Conference at the Masonic Temple in Jackson, Mississippi . The theme of the conference was human rights - the continuing struggle. Those in attendance, among others, included: Edward Kennedy , James Bevel , Martin Luther King Jr. , Ralph Abernathy , Curtis W. Harris , Walter E. Fauntroy , C. T. Vivian , Andrew Young , The Freedom Singers , Charles Evers , Fred Shuttlesworth , Cleveland Robinson , Randolph Blackwell , Annie Bell Robinson Devine , Charles Kenzie Steele , Alfred Daniel Williams King , Benjamin Hooks , Aaron Henry and Bayard Rustin . In August 1967,
19877-402: Was replaced by Joseph Lowery who was SCLC president until 1997. In 1997, MLK's son, Martin Luther King III , became the president of SCLC. In 2004, for less than a year, it was Fred Shuttlesworth . After him, the president was Charles Steele Jr. , and in 2009, Howard W. Creecy Jr. Next were Isaac Newton Farris Jr. and C. T. Vivian , who took office in 2012. In 1997, Martin Luther King III
20020-443: Was rigidly enforced. Only 10 percent of the city's black population was registered to vote in 1960. In addition, Birmingham's economy was stagnating as the city was shifting from blue collar to white collar jobs. According to Time magazine in 1958, the only thing white workers had to gain from desegregation was more competition from black workers. Fifty unsolved racially motivated bombings between 1945 and 1962 had earned
20163-446: Was that if we mounted a strong nonviolent movement, the opposition would surely do something to attract the media, and in turn induce national sympathy and attention to the everyday segregated circumstance of a person living in the Deep South." He headed the planning of what he called Project C, which stood for "confrontation". Organizers believed their phones were tapped , so to prevent their plans from being leaked and perhaps influencing
20306-437: Was the one who proposed this citizenship education which is bringing to us not only money but a lot of people who will register and vote.' And he asked that many times. It was hard for him to see a woman on that executive body." Clark attested that deliberate and widespread discrimination and even overt suppression of women was "one of the greatest weaknesses of the civil rights movement." In 1961 and 1962, SCLC joined SNCC in
20449-470: Was unanimously elected to head the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, replacing Joseph Lowery . Under King's leadership, the SCLC held hearings on police brutality, organized a rally for the 37th anniversary of the " I Have a Dream " speech and launched a successful campaign to change the Georgia state flag , which previously featured a large Confederate cross . Within only a few months of taking
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