Graduation Speech: The Black Civil Rights Movement

There were four basic steps about nonviolent campaign: collection of the facts to determine, injustices exist, negotiation, and self-purification. They have gone through all these steps and they can be no opposing that fact of racial injustice overwhelms this community. Birmingham is most segregated city in the United States. There have experienced ugly record of black people and a lot of unsolved problem were still there. Negro leaders were trying to negotiated with the city commander to solve these but they refused to opened their mouth. So many people were in

But reason behind why the campaign was held there was because King believed that if he could stop segregation in Birmingham he had the ability to stop it anywhere. But also it was at this one demonstration that was the turning point in the fight for black civil rights thanks to new technology at this time being the television people both white and black could see for themselves the innocent brutal treatment received by the blacks from whites, therefore it convinced many people to join the bid for civil rights. In 1964 saw civil rights movement for black Americans progress further through another organised march from Selma Alabama to Montgomery to draw attention about their right to vote. But their protest did not run like clock works as white officers tried to oppose the black demonstrators by using several methods to bring down moral including hosing and beating them down and gassing the determined crowd.

Additionally, Birmingham and other southern urban areas had been the scenes of bombings coordinated at African Americans and social equality nonconformists. “One of the tragedies of the struggle against racism is that up to now there has been no national organization which could speak to the growing militancy of young black people in the urban ghetto (Carmichael).” One of the tragedies of the battle against bigotry is that up to now there has been no national association which could address the developing militancy of youthful dark individuals in the urban ghetto. This shows how even today things have curved in a good way because of leaders who stood ground and believed that this was not the right way.

Although there was significant improvement in the lives of black people through the Success of the civil rights movement by the late 1960s, there were also some failures and aspects that the civil rights movement had not achieved. These failures were social, economical, political and cultural. These failures included the fact that some laws were not upheld. Black people saw this as an injustice and inconvenience and as a failure economically.

Martin Luther King Jr. also seeks to further his point logically by explaining to the people of Birmingham that most places in the United States aren’t segregated to the extent that Birmingham is. He also makes a point to say Birmingham’s “ugly record of police brutality is known in every section of the country” and that “it’s unjust treatment of Negroes in the courts is a notorious reality“ (King 233). King also states “there have been more unsolved bombings in Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than any city in this nation” (King 233). By making the statements that no other city treats African Americans as badly as Birmingham and that the injustice that is taking place in Birmingham is a reality that everyone throughout the country is aware of, King

Alabama was often the epicenter of civil rights activism and steadfast perseverance for African Americans during the 1960s. It is where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led his congregation and where four little girls were murdered and 22 citizens were injured when the 16th Street Baptist Church was bombed. It is also where Dr. King and other activists planned the march on Washington, where he and others leaders like John Lewis were met with violence but ultimately claimed victory in the Selma to Montgomery March of 1965. And who could forget the powerful images of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade of 1963, where young, non-violent protesters were met with high-power water hoses, beaten with batons and threatened by police

However, the SCLC chose to hold out because Birmingham had impending mayoral elections. Though the notorious racist Eugene “Bull” Connor was defeated in the election, his successor, Albert Boutwell, was also a pronounced segregationist. Therefore, the protests began.

You hate the demonstrations that are presently taking place in Birmingham, but I am sorry that your statement did not express a similar concern for the conditions that brought the demonstrations here. I am sure that each of you would want to go beyond the effects and find the underlying causes. I would agree it is unfortunate that these demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham at this time, but I would say more clearly that it is even more unfortunate that the white people in control of this city left the Negro community with no other alternative.

In Birmingham, Ala., in the spring of 1963, King's campaign to end segregation at lunch counters and segregated hiring practices drew nationwide attention when police turned attacks dogs and fire hoses on peaceful demonstrators.

Through establishing his credibility, King prepares the readers to be open as to how his actions were justified in Birmingham. He simply establishes in paragraph 6 that “In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: (1) collection of the facts to determine whether injustices are alive, (2) negotiation, (3) self-purification, and (4) direct action. He later goes on in the letter to describe how before they even left to go to Birmingham, they realized that the city was full of injustice. Secondly, King describes how they attempted to negotiate with local leaders and business owners to start implementing laws for desegregation, only to realize that it was a waste of their time since none of the leaders were actually being truthful in their promises. At this point, King states that they decided to go through a process of self-purification. They went through the self-purification process by establishing workshops on nonviolence, training themselves by asking, “Are you able to accept blows without retaliating? … Are you able to endure the ordeals of jail?” (King 8).

The four steps of a nonviolent campaign are the determination of such injustices, negotiation, direct action, self-purification. Within Birmingham, all such steps are present since the injustice is seen, personal sacrifice is made, direct action is taken yet the negotiations have failed (King,

The Birmingham campaign was a movement organized by King Martin Luther in the spring of 1963 to bring attention to the integration efforts of African Americans in Birmingham, Alabama. In the early 1960s, Birmingham was a very segregated city. This meant that black and white people were kept separated. They had different schools, restaurants, water fountains and even different place to stay. There were laws that allowed and enforced segregation called Jim Crow Laws. The movement which began in April, utilized massive direct action to attack Birmingham’s strongly engrained system of segregation. The protests were co-named “Project C”. The “C” stood for “confrontation”. The protests were non violent and included boycotting downtown stores, sit-ins, marches. The organizers thought that if enough people protested, then the local government would be forced to confront them and this would make national news gaining them support the federal government and the rest of the country. This project C brought national attention to the inequality of America’s economic, legal and social system- attention that led to the civil rights act of 1964.

King had identified a way to campaign nonviolently with four basic steps “collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action” (MLK). King had called Birmingham the most segregated city in the country. The black community have been treated poorly, had been faced with legal and economic disparities. Collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist, by injustices, King Jr.

In April and May of 1963, Birmingham, Alabama was a focal point for the civil rights movement. Birmingham was home to one of the most violent cells of the KKK and violence against black people was so commonplace (especially in the form of explosives) that it was referred to as “Bombingham.” It was these conditions that lead Martin Luther King to arrive and organize a series of non-violent protests in the city. These protests were relatively low key and weren’t very well attended. This was due to the fact that political rivalries between King’s organization, the SCLC, and other civil right’s organizations like CORE and the NAACP. However, the Birmingham protests soon became headlines due to the response of the city’s police

I believe that the Birmingham Campaign has been all good because this campaign put an end to segregation because on the 7th May 1963, over a month after the Birmingham Campaign began, the business leader agreed to the demands of the SCLC. But Connor and Governor Wallace reacted angrily, but the Birmingham’s business leaders made the deal public and thus brought the protest to an end by an agreement of desegregate places such as lunch bars, parks and swimming pools and the also Businesses agreed to hire blacks on an equal basis with the whites. The prisoners were to be released from jails and other steps were taken to improve relations between two community and this campaign made a change integrated in Birmingham public schools. As well President Kennedy publicly congratulated both sides for having a better solution and outcome for both communities in Birmingham.