“D” Day in Birmingham – Martin Luther King Mobilizes Children for Demonstrations
“D” Day was one of the pivotal events of Martin Luther King’s civil rights campaign in Birmingham, Alabama. Against the advice of some of his advisors, he mobilized hundreds of school children to demonstrate against segregation. A reported 959 children were jailed, filling the Birmingham jail, and 1,000 stayed out of school the next day.
The most famous –or infamous– part of the Birmingham campaign was the use of fire hoses and police dogs against demonstrators the following day, May 3, 1963. Photographs of the incident are among the most famous from the entire history of the civil rights movement. The events in Birmingham created national and international outrage. They inspired demonstrations across the U.S. and severely damaged America’s image around the world.
President Kennedy and his advisors were deeply worried about massive demonstrations and possible violence during the coming summer months. In response to the crisis, Kennedy went on national television on June 11, 1963, and promised to send a civil rights bill to Congress. The national television speech solidified his reputation as a strong pro-civil rights president, when in fact he had waffled on civil rights since he took office.
An amended version of Kennedy’s civil rights became the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which President Lyndon Johnson signed into law on July 2, 1964.
The city of Birmingham had a terrible reputation even before the King-led demonstrations. There had been so many racist bombings that the city became known as “Bombingham.” The bombings continued, and one of the most horrific events during the civil rights movement, racists bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church at 10:22 a.m. on Sunday morning September 15, 1963, killing four young girls: Addie Mae Collins (age 14), Cynthia Wesley (14), Carole Robertson (14) and Carol Denise McNair (11).
A documentary film about the bombing, 4 Little Girls, directed by the noted director Spike Lee, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary and won numerous other awards.
Watch the Birmingham “Children’s March” (with later interviews with some of the children): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c113fq3vhQ
Visit the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute: http://bcri.org/index.html
Read: Diane McWhorter, Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution (2001)