What was the impact of the civil rights protests in birmingham?

In April 1963 Martin Luther King went to Birmingham, Alabama, a city where public facilities were separated for blacks and whites. King intended to force the desegregation of lunch counters in downtown shops by a non-violent protest.

Birmingham was one of the most challenging places to demonstrate for civil rights. George Wallace, the new Governor of Alabama, did not like integration, the bringing together of different racial groups. Birmingham was also a stronghold for the Ku Klux Klan that had been responsible for 18 bombings in the city. Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor, the man in charge of police and firemen, supported the Ku Klux Klan when they attacked black ‘freedom fighters’.

King wanted to gain full national attention for events in Birmingham. He hoped that President Kennedy would be forced to intervene.

The protests began at segregated lunch counters and the protesters were repeatedly arrested. Others marched in protest to the city hall. They were arrested and further marching was banned. King was arrested after leading another march. From jail he wrote a letter saying that people have a moral duty to disobey unjust laws.

King was released and the protest continued to grow. The plan was to use high school children as protesters, get them to fill up the city’s prisons and shame the city on a national level. On 2 May police arrested over a thousand young people aged 6-18 years. The next day more children joined the protest. This time ‘Bull’ Connor ordered the police to use clubs and dogs on the marchers and instructed firemen to get rid of the crowds with high-pressure water hoses.

As the protests continued, the images of police brutality shocked the world and gained a lot of sympathy for the civil rights movement. After pressure from President Kennedy and his brother, the Attorney General, Birmingham shops and businesses finally agreed on 10 May to desegregate all rest rooms, lunch counters, fitting rooms and drinking fountains, and to hire more black workers. The President started to push for a new Civil Rights law.

- "the civil rights movements"

- "following the american civil war and abolition of slavery, the united states entered a period known as reconstruction, during which black americans continued to suffer from disenfranchisement, racial segregation, and economic oppression. beginning in the early 1950's, black americans launched a series of major campaigns of civil resistance, emphasizing the need for nonviolent protests and civil disobedience."

"such as the montgomery bus boycott of 1955-56, a campaign launched by rosa parks against the policy of racial segregation of the public transit system in alabama. “sit-ins” became popular across the american south, particularly in greensboro, north carolina, increase national sentiment."

- "the counterculture movement"

- "counterculture began to develop in the united states following the rise of conformity in american culture during the 1950s. by 1963, youth, particularly those of the white middle class, began rejecting the cultural standards and normality of their parents, opting for progressive attitudes instead. the movement gained momentum as the civil rights movement became increasingly successful and as the u.s. military intervention of vietnam began to take a negative turn."

"hippie counterculture moved further into popular culture following the summer of love in 1967 when thousands of people came together in the haight-ashbury neighborhood of san francisco. along with greenwich village in new york city, haight-ashbury became a hub for the counterculture movement."

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