 As the Civil Rights movement got underway MLK quickly became the leader  he led a group known as SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) that would travel the south to organize protests  The heart of SCLC protest was nonviolence  if they used violence they would be discredited  2 wrongs do not make a right  this would all be on TV and it could be used to gain sympathy and support for the movement  SCLC members were trained for the demonstrations  pushed around and yelled at (obscenities and racial terms) to prepare them to not fight back

 SCLC would travel around the south to different places where there were problems  some whites saw SCLC as outsiders coming in to their communities to cause problems  believed that if SCLC would not be going around stirring up trouble everything would be fine  MLK soon became the prime target of the hatred of southern leaders

 MLK was arrested on multiple occasions for being a troublemaker  at one time he wanted to be arrested to show to stupidity of the situation  some whites realized that he was using them for propaganda purposes and some even tried to keep him out of jail

 Birmingham was a hotbed of violence and MLK and SCLC wanted to protest  Bull Connor was a leader in Birmingham and he wanted to shut SCLC down with violence (was not going to let “them” tell him how to run his city)  MLK and SCLC chose to use children at the front of the protest  plan was to have the children at the front be arrested to show the stupidity of the leadership in the south  this would also fill up the jails with children

 As the protests get underway Bull Connor decided to use violence to break up the movement  ordered fire hoses to be used and police dogs to be unleashed against the protestors  this is all shown on national TV and it disgusts a lot of Americans who did not normally really care about what was going in in the south  The hotel MLK was staying in was bombed (MLK had moved to a new hotel right before this)

 MLK was arrested in Birmingham for creating the problem that led to the violence  He sat in jail and while there read a sad letter  A group of white religious leaders wrote a letter to the newspaper calling on King to stop his protests calling him a troublemaker  said he was an outsider who had no business in Birmingham and he was creating the violence