“Bombingham:” Racists Bomb Birmingham Motel
The A. G. Gaston Motel in Birmingham, Alabama, where many civil rights leaders stayed during the protracted civil rights protests, was bombed by racists on this day.
There were so many racist bombings in Birmingham during the civil rights years that the city earned the dubious nickname of “Bombingham.”
In the spring of 1963, Birmingham was the scene of massive civil rights demonstrations that were among the most important events of the civil rights era. Martin Luther King was arrested at one point, and while in jail wrote his famous “Letter From Birmingham Jail” (April 16, 1963), one of the most powerful documents of the civil rights movement. Massive demonstrations that included children who skipped school and were arrested from demonstrating occurred May 2, 1963, which was known as “D Day.” And on May 3, 1963 the police attacked demonstrators with police dogs and fire hoses in one of the most notorious events of the entire civil rights movement. Televised newsreel footage of the event aroused public opinion about civil rights around the country. In
In response to the dramatic Birmingham events President John Kennedy on June 11, 1963 gave a nationwide television address in which he promised to introduce a comprehensive civil rights bill. After he was assassinated in November 1963, President Lyndon Johnson secured passage of the bill and signed into law the historic 1964 Civil Rights Act.
The most notorious bombing involved the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, on September 15, 1963, in which four African-American girls were killed.
Read: Diane McWhorter, Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution (2001)
Find original documents about the Birmingham struggle: http://www.crmvet.org/docs/bhamdocs.htm
Watch a documentary on the civil rights struggle in Birmingham, 1963: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCxE6i_SzoQ
On the September 1963 bombing, see the Spike Lee-produced documentary, 4 Little Girls.