1. The Civil Rights Movement
Birmingham, Alabama
The Civil Rights Movement

2. Civil Rights How do you fight Jim Crow and Racism?
Legally with the NAACP
Civil Rights Act of 1957
Non violence
Boycotts
Allowing themselves to be arrested
Go to Page 271 in the book and tell me what the Civil Rights act of 1957 did.
Why do you combine Non-Violent protest with Boycotts?
Why is allowing yourself to get arrested scary?

3. Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is a pretty new city- it was incorporated in 1871 after the Civil War at the junction of different train lines and was a big steel production city.
It was hit really hard by the great depression- all the factories shut down and the farm workers from all over the area came to town looking for work and help.
President Roosevelt called it the Worst hit town in America.

4. Dixiecrats
Poverty and the deep South mixed to create an incredibly racist society.
The Dixiecrats were part of the democratic party that decided to pull away from the main Democratic party in the 1940s because of the efforts of Harry Truman that they saw as unacceptable.
President Truman had started desegregating the Army and government jobs.
They met for the first time in Birmingham, nominating the governor of South Carolina, Strom Thurmond as their presidential candidate.
2. Look up Strom Thurmond and find out
when he switched from Democrat to Republican
What political offices he held in his life
How old he was when he died
What is interesting about his daughter Essie MaeWashington-Williams?

5. Dixiecrat party platform
They actively ran a racist platform.
“We stand for the segregation of the races and the racial integrity of each race; the constitutional right to choose one's associates; to accept private employment without governmental interference, and to earn one's living in any lawful way. We oppose the elimination of segregation, the repeal of miscegenation statutes, the control of private employment by Federal bureaucrats called for by the misnamed civil rights program. “

6. Bombingham
Birmingham was one of the most segregated cities in America. The KKK was very powerful there and because of mining and factories in the area they had access to dynamite, which they used on people’s homes who fought for civil rights.
It became known as “bombingham” because so many homes and churches were bombed by White Terrorists, starting in the 40s and going all the way through the 60s.
1948

7. During 1949 there were several bombings in the North Smithfield neighborhood, where middle-class blacks began buying houses in areas zoned for white residents.

8. 1958
Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth’s Bethel Baptist Church was bombed Three times because of his involvement in desegregation efforts.
3. Look up Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and find out who he was and why people would want to bomb his church t hree times.

9. 1960
Bethel Baptist bombed again, also in 1962

10. Bethel Baptist today.

11. Birmingham Campaign April-May 1963
Reverend Shuttlesworth called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference which was led by MLK jr. to help him desegregate Birmingham.
Dr King had been unsuccessful in Albany, Georgia so he came prepared with a new attitude and approach.
4. Look in the book and tell me why Albany was unsuccessful.

12. Birmingham Campaign April-May 1963
Theophilus Eugene Connor (July 11, 1897 – March 10, 1973), known as Bull Connor, was an American politician who served as an elected Commissioner of Public Safety for the city of Birmingham, Alabama, for more than two decades. This gave him control over the fire, police, schools and public health in Birmingham.
He was a candidate with the Dixiecrats in he ran for governor but lost.
He was violently racist and acted on it.

13. Birmingham Campaign April-May 1963
Bull Connor actively encouraged the KKK to attack the freedom riders in by telling them the police wouldn’t be at the bus station for at least 20 minutes after they arrived in the station.

14. Birmingham Campaign April-May 1963
He arrested Rev Shuttlesworth and other ministers for organizing and to prevent them from organizing.
in 1962, Connor ordered the closing of 60 Birmingham parks rather than follow a federal court order to desegregate public facilities.

15. Birmingham Campaign April-May 1963
The organizers of the campaign in the ScLc and SNCC knew that Bull Connor could be counted on to be awful, so they created something called “Project C”
It was about Confrontation- knowing that they could use media attention in their favor.
They boycotted segregated businesses the two weeks before easter.
They planned walks, boycotts, sit-ins and other protests.
The 16th street Baptist Church was the center of the movement.

16. Birmingham
This is the house of Alfred Daniels King, Dr Martin Luther King’s younger brother. It was bombed in May of 1963.

17. The Gaston Hotel was also bombed on May 11, 1963
The Gaston Hotel was also bombed on May 11, It was a Black hotel where many Black activists stayed, including Dr. King when he was in town.

18. What did they do to the Protestors?
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