Masaryk University

4.7Birmingham

Dr. King started his protests by boycotting shops in downtown and by sit-in demonstrations at lunch counters, but on April 12, 1963, many protestors, including Martin Luther King were arrested for organizing a march. Coretta King, Reverend King’s wife, called the White House to ask for help of the administration. Robert Kennedy promised “to do all he could to have her husband’s situation improved” (Brauer 232). The Kennedys’ intervention probably influenced the manner in which Dr. King was treated. Brauer describes that the conditions of King’s imprisonment improved considerably after the administration intervention (ibid.). During the imprisonment, Reverend King wrote his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail in which he responded to a statement issued by white clergymen from Alabama, according to whom it was not correct to fight against injustice in the streets. In his letter King explained that direct actions were important because so far no civil rights would have been achieved without them. He explained that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (“Letter from Birmingham Jail”).

After Dr. King was released on bond, he knew, based on the Albany experience that jails were large enough to take a lot of black adults and that was the reason he decided to “recruit” schoolchildren for his peaceful protests. During their first march, on May 2, 1963, nine hundred children were arrested (Bryant 234). The next day, when another group of young students marched, Eugene Connor did not hesitate to order firemen with hoses and police dogs to break up the demonstrations. Governor Wallace sent sixty troopers to assist the local police. Some groups of African Americans responded to the brutal violence against demonstrators, many of whom were children and women, by violent rioting in the city. Kennedy administration was denying their right to intervene, however, Assistant Attorney General Burke Marshall was sent to Birmingham in order to negotiate with both sides – white city officials and black civil rights leaders in order to come up with a solution. The members of Kennedy administration were working also from Washington. Robert Kennedy called Dr. King and tried to persuade him not to use children in his protests. The administration also initiated negotiations with companies whose subsidiaries were located in Birmingham to contribute to a settlement of the crisis. President Kennedy started his News Conference, on May 8, 1963 with the Birmingham situation. He stressed that he had “made it clear since assuming the Presidency that [he] would use all available means to protect human rights, and uphold the law of the land” (Kennedy, “News Conference 55” p.1). Kennedy explained that his administration had been focusing on settling the problem “in a peaceful fashion” (ibid.).

As a result of negotiations it was announced on May 10, 1963, that Birmingham merchants had agreed to desegregate lunch counters and employ more African Americans. Connor responded by urging whites to boycott stores whose owners agreed to integrate. Soon after the announcement, Ku Klux Klan rallied and the house of Reverend A.D. King, Martin Luther King’s brother, was bombed and so was the motel where M.L.King resided. The events in Birmingham attracted not only national media but also media abroad. The pictures of children being attacked by police dogs were published all over the world. “A Nigerian newspaper accused ‘the USA of becoming the most barbarian state in the world’” (O’Brien 835). President Kennedy’s concern about the image of his country abroad might have also contributed to the active role his administration assumed in order to resolve the crisis.

Robert Kennedy was afraid that violence might spread into other big cities in the country and Williams reports that therefore he “convinced his brother to send in federal troops” (194). Most of the objectives, set by the civil rights activists, were fulfilled and as Brauer confirms, “the message of Birmingham to the nation’s blacks was quite clear: street demonstrations could win tangible gains” (238). Kennedy emphasized in his televised speech on May 12, 1963, that “the federal government would not permit ‘a few extremists’ on each side to sabotage the settlement (Dallek, Unfinished Life 598). The Supreme Court ruled that Mayor Boutwell and new council were legitimate representatives of Birmingham. The crisis was resolved; however, Robert Kennedy had a survey conducted, and it revealed that about thirty Southern cities “might explode in violence during the summer” (ibid. 599). The Birmingham events certainly inspired African Americans in other cities to peaceful protests. In April and May of 1963, 758 demonstrations were organized (Shattuck, “On Kennedy and King” 7). During the summer following Birmingham crisis, fourteen thousand African Americans “were arrested in the states of the old Confederacy” (Schlesinger, Thousand Days 964).

Birmingham crisis was a certain landmark with regard to two different matters. First, I believe that it is possible to say that white Americans started to change their attitude towards the problem of racial inequality. The television spots picturing black children being attacked by police dogs brought the American citizens to reality. It accused the conscience of white America in terms which could not longer be ignored. But the awakening was so belated that it could hardly claim moral credit” (Schlesinger, Thousand Days 960). The white Americans slowly came to understand the fact that they could no longer regard the South as a rather separate part of their country and ignore its problems. Secondly, the administration adopted a different approach to the situation than it had previously. They exercised their influence in different spheres of the city life which proved to be successful because they managed to persuade business leaders to desegregate lunch counters by which they contributed to the setback of Eugene Connor.