BIRMINGHAM CAMPAIGN ESSAY level 1 – Flashcards

It evidently progressed the BCR movement.

Despite the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, 100 years before the campaign, AA's lack of change in status was evident.

The Albany campaign, MLK needed to tackle Birmingham, the most segregated city in the South, so they could get the results they wanted and raise awareness for the cause, so that change for the status of African Americans could happen.

13th and 14th amendments (the reconstruction acts) which were put in place changing their status in society but, racism and prejudice still continuing.

The attitude since slavery still continued; AA's were still seen as secondary class citizens. Though they had jumped from being owned by whites to being free, they still had next to no human rights.

Because it resulted in the creation of prejudice groups and laws: like the KKK, White Citizens Council and the Jim Crow laws, meaning there needed to be a campaign like Birmingham because black lives and human rights were at stake.

Shortly after the Brown vs Board case which ended segregation in schools in June, 1954.

The Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation in the South started in the Reconstruction period in 1877 and ended at the beginning of the civil rights movement in the 1950s.

In 1865.

Because it motivated a campaign like the 1963 Birmingham campaign . The creation of groups like SNCC and SCLC furthered the progress of the BCR movement. E.G, positive change like the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which desegregated buses and Brown vs Board, officially desegregating schools.

Student Nonviolent Co-ordinating Committee.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

In 1955 a black woman named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white person on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama and was arrested. MLK organised a bus boycott for 381 days where no black people took buses, making the bus companies lose a lot of money. It ended in 1956 when the US supreme court ruled that the Alabama segregation on buses rule was unconstitutional.

It all started when a little girl named Linda Brown tried to enrol at a white school that was safer and closer to her home and was denied entry. Four other cases like this one combined because they all wanted the desegregation of schools because of the terrible conditions in blacks only schools. The 'separate but equal" doctrine was overturned and segregation in schools was illegal. State governments could override this but if they did, their schools would not be funded.

It taught MLK and SCLC that non-violent protest had to be planned and for it to work, it had to meet violence. The campaign did not cause enough outrage like Project C did therefore failing to further the progress the BCR movement and forcing MLK to tackle Birmingham, because he knew there would be controversy. This is significant to Project C because its failure pushed MLK and other civil rights leaders to try a different tactic of protesting.

It was Birmingham, Alabama being the most segregated city in the South. The city was segregated in law and in society in general. MLK knew that if they could desegregate Birmingham, then anything was possible. He needed to redeem himself and restart up the movement and Birmingham was the way to do this. He knew that it would be violent because Bull Connor left the Freedom riders in 1961 to the white mobs. This was an immediate cause of the campaign because it was the very reason MLK announced he would tackle desegregating Birmingham.

Because of the failure of the Albany campaign.

King knew that the results of protests would be violent or at least newsworthy due to the fact that in 1961, Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor delayed sending police to intervene when Freedom riders were left at the mercy of white local mobs. Bull Connor was a violent segregationist.

Known as Bomingham. May 2nd, 1000 students left school gathered to protest at church and were jailed. May 3rd was a repeat of the day before and because there was no spave in the jails, Bull Connor used fire hoses and police dogs to fight them off. JFK named this Birminghams day of shame. This was all televised to all of America.

Because of the KKK activity and the corrupted police force.

Over 1000 students skipped school and gathered at the 16th Street Baptist Church and began to protest. They were all jailed.

When another march began through Kelly Ingram Park, on the 3rd of May there was no more space in the jails and Connor changed his tactics and began to put fire hoses on them all. He even used them on children as young as eight and when bystanders started to throw bottles and rocks and police to stop, they set police dogs on them. This was named as Birmingham's 'day of shame'.

It proved that non-violent protest works to bring about change. MLK proved that if the protests are planned and met with violence- Unlike the Albany Campaign, then they will successful, as the campaign was successful in desegregating Birmingham. The Birmingham Manifesto was the product of this. This is a significant consequence because it helped future campaigns that could occur, teaching the BCR movement that non-violent protesting can bring change for the status of African Americans.

The Birmingham Manifesto was the product of Project C and desegregated public facilities, established fair hiring practices in Birmingham businesses and integrated swimming pools and libraries that were previously shut down, rather than integrating.

MLK's house was bombed and NAACP secretary Medgar Evers was murdered outside of his home on June 12th 1963. The 16th Street Baptist Church was planted with 16 sticks of dynamite killing four little girls on their way to Sunday School. This is a significant consequence of Project C because it injured/took many black lives because of the progress the movement was making.

National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People.

MLK had redeemed himself after the failure of the Albany Campaign and was back in favour of the Black protesters, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. MLK led the March on Washington, 200,000 people sharing a day of songs, prayers and speeches including MLK's famous "I have a dream" speech. This showed how important civil rights for African Americans had become. In 1964 President Johnson issued the Civil Rights Act and the Voter registration act. This is a significant consequence because it progressed equality for AA's immensely and motivated the movement for further successes.

The Civil rights bill was written in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy and issued in 1964 by President Lyndon Johnson. It ended segregation in public places, banning employment discrimination on the basis of sex, ethnicity, gender and religion.

It made literacy tests illegal.

List the causes that led up to the Birmingham Campaign and then say the consequences.