In 1960, the population of
Birmingham was 350,000, with 60 percent white over 40 percent black. The
Birmingham Campaign against the segregation of the city was an incessant
struggle. In 1963, there was still brutal and violent enforcement of white
supremacy, water hoses, dogs and police brutality were just a few of the ways
in which this was imposed. Martin Luther King, Jr. believed this behaviour
indicated that Birmingham was trapped in the decades from before the
Emancipation Proclamation, 1863.
August 1963, King was arrested and
held in Birmingham jail. He was denied consultation and no bail was offered.
This shows the attitudes towards the black population in the city of Birmingham
during the sixties. However, King knew that during this campaign, everyone in
America was watching the events in Birmingham, and Jonathon Bass notes that the
probability that all of his actions were planned, is very high.
In the ‘Letter from Birmingham
Jail,’ August, 1963, King responded to a critical public statement which
deplored the unfortunateness of the campaigning in the city. King is
sarcastically apologetic, suggesting that the only reason they need to be there
is the injustice that Birmingham has. He declares, in Why Can’t We Wait, that Birmingham is the most segregated city in
America, which is notorious for the way they treat the black population. For
example, there were 17 unsolved bombings of the black’s houses, churches and
community areas (1957-1963), this displays again the way that white supremacy
ruled the city, also known as ‘Bombingham’. The black community was threatened,
beaten up, and segregated, with a nonviolent response from the blacks, this
emphasises the nonviolent approach that they had from the very start, as early
as the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
King choosing the year of 1963 to
campaign and write his book and letter was a strategic move, just like all his
others. He calls for the need of a ‘Negroe Revolution,’ which should be fought
with non-violent direct action. Avoiding violence yet being an irritation in
everyday life, was the King’s method of fighting for change. In Why We Can’t Wait, he explicitly
outlines the main five factors making the issue of civil rights even more
urgent. The slow speed of the desegregating of schools after Brown v. Board.
The lack of confidence in civil politics and congress. The decolonisation of
Africa associated with the international perception of the black race being
inferior. The economic inequality growing wider between the white and black
population. Lastly, the centennial anniversary of the 1863 Emancipation
Proclamation, reminding America of the suppression of the slave trade.
The Birmingham Campaign ended in a
hollow victory. Desegregation was a legal obligation, however the victory was
only for Birmingham, there was still numerous fights to be won. This
bittersweet end was won through civil disobedience and eventually resulted in
the Civil Rights Act, 1964. Society had shifted in the sixties to a more active
and fearless one, in which people could fight for their rights. The fight for
racial equality was just one of numerous movements in the sixties for all kinds
of equality and rights, and all of these movements have a turning point which
boils up a national interest and push for change.
Further
Reading:
Bass, Jonathon, Blessed are the Peacemakers: Martin
Luther King Jr., Eight White Religious Leaders and the "Letter from
Birmingham Jail"
(Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 2001)
Martin Luther King, Jr., Why Can’t We Wait (1963)
Reider,
Jonathon, Gospel of Freedom: Martin
Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail and the Struggle That Changed a
Nation (USA: Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2013)
By Adele
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