Graduation Speech: The Black Civil Rights Movement

“But more basically,I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C.left their villages and carried their,”thus saint the lord” far beyond the boundaries of their home towns,and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus

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

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.

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

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.

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

The letter from Birmingham Jail was written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a famous and influential activist during the period of Civil Rights struggle in 1960 's America, from a confinement cell in Birmingham as a response to the open letter written and published by eight white clergymen from

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.

In 1963 Birmingham was the most segregated city in America. From the 4th of April 1963 to the 10th May 1963 under the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr, blacks from Birmingham and around America protested against the segregation laws under the rule of Police Commissioner Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor. There are many issues which led to the Birmingham movement, some of the most significant cause were: the reconstruction period after the Civil War,the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, the continuous mistreatment of blacks in America, and the most immediate being the failure of the Albany movement in 1962.Following the successful campaign, Birmingham desegregated leading to a change in Southern attitude, President John F Kennedy became involved though

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).

Segregation had become in the laws. The Birmingham Campaign was a peaceful protest planned by young

Thus, the Albany police arrested many demonstrators for breaking the law without using nonviolent action. When their plan did not work, the members of SNCC were all confused on what had to be done next. There was no confrontation, no resources, and many protesters end up in jail. Finally, the leader of the Albany movement called Dr. King for help. The presence of Dr. King in Albany grabbed the media’s attention. After marching with many protesters, Dr. King got arrested. Following his arrest, the white power structure tried to negotiate with the black leaders to stop protesting and in return they would release the protesters, return all the bail money, and desegregate the city. Trusting the whites, black leaders went to Dr. King and told him that they got a victory. The organizational rivalry between SCLC and SNCC resulted in a disagreement regarding what strategies to use during the movement. Also, a federal injunction that restrained further protests in Albany was issued. Dr. King knew that breaking the federal injunction was a federal felony. Thus, he told everyone to obey the federal injunction and to stop marching. The

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.

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

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.