Essay on Birmingham 1963 - 1346 Words

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 â€Å"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†¦show more content†¦However, even though there was evidence pointing to these four men as the perpetrator, the FBI, led by J. Edgar Hoover at the time, dragged its feet in the investigation and held evidence ba ck. This was due to the fact that Hoover wasn’t fond of Martin Luther King and some circles say that he personally believed the bombing to have been committed by people interested in gaining sympathy for the civil rights cause. Whatever the case may be, it wasn’t until 1977 that a conviction could be obtained for just one of the men accused of the bombing. The bombing itself had the effect of uniting all of the civil rights organizations in the South and also giving a face, four faces to be precise, to the rest of the nation as a kind of message about the evils of racism. The two articles to be analyzed for discrepancies is an article from the United Press and Birmingham World. Both cover the Church Bombing on September 15, 1963 and the events immediately after. The first major difference in the two articles is that the United Press article was written the day after the incident and the Birmingham World article was written three days after the event. This influences the focus of each article. Being closer to the actual event the United Press article tends to be more close to the facts of what actually occurred. Whereas the Birmingham World article was a commentary on a bit ofShow MoreRelatedThe Birmingham 1963 Campaign578 Words   |  2 PagesBirmingham 1963 1. How important was the press to the success of the Birmingham campaign? The media played a huge part in the success of the Birmingham campaign in 1963. For the first time the press lent a sympathetic view of the events as they occurred that day. Previous civil rights protest in Alabama had been unsuccessful. However, on May 3, 1963 this would all change. The media help was able to show the world the atrocities and racial hatred and intolerance that still existed in the South. 2Read MoreThe Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963532 Words   |  2 PagesHave you ever been treated unfairly? Well, in the book The Watsons go to Birmingham in 1963 they were in the middle of the civil rights movements, they were fighting to be treated equally. The main theme is stopping segregation here are three examples ,the Watson family couldnt go to the same school as whites, they couldnt use the same restrooms, they couldnt go to the same church in peace. In the south, African Americans could not go to the same school as the white children. ThatRead MoreDr. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested on April 12, 1963, in Birmingham, for having a protest700 Words   |  3 PagesLuther King Jr. was arrested on April 12, 1963, in Birmingham, for having a protest without a proper permit. On the exact day King was arrested, eight clergymen from Alabama wrote a letter called â€Å"A Call for Unity.† The letter called for termination of civil activities and demonstrations and designated King an â€Å"outsider† and saying that outsiders were the problems in Birmingham and not the blacks that are from there. On April 16 King wrote â€Å"Letter from Birmingham Jail†, which was his responds to his fellowRead MoreDevastating Bombing in Birmingham548 Words   |  2 Pages1963, many events took place in this year from blacks boycotting Boston buses to the assassination of JFK. However, that is not what is going to be elaborated on in this essay. It is going to be about the 16th Street Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama (Simkin). There is a lot of things a reader may not know unless that reader is a historian or has looked up this topic before. Anyway, in 1963 a local black church was about to have their 11:00 service on Sunday September 15, 1963 (Trueman). In theRead More Dudley Randalls Poem Ballad of Birmingham Essay593 Words   |  3 PagesDudley Randalls Poem Ballad of Birmingham The poem The Ballad of Birmingham, by Dudley Randall, is based on the historical event of the bombing in 1963 of Martin Luther King, Jr.s church by white terrorists. It is a poem in which a daughter expresses her interest in attending a civil rights rally and the mother fearful for her daughters safety refuses to let her go. In the poem the daughter in fighting for the course of the operessed people of her time/generation instead of going out toRead MoreCivil Rights Movement823 Words   |  3 Pageson people,the k-9 dogs go attack the people, people go to jail. King goes to jail and writes a report and gets out of jail. Finally, Birmingham takes down the â€Å"blacks only† and â€Å"whites only† signs from the bathroom and drinking fountains. Blacks now can use any bathroom and drinking fountain they want. The SCLC launched Project C† (for Birmingham), April 3, 1963. On April 6, police arrested forty-five protesters going from Sixteenth Street Baptist Church to city hall. The next day, more peopleRead More Analysis of Letter from Birmingham by Martin Luther King Jr.937 Words   |  4 Pagesfrom Birmingham by Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr., is one of the most recognized, if not the greatest civil rights activist in this century. He has written papers and given speeches on the civil rights movement, but one piece stands out as one of his best writings. â€Å"Letter from Birmingham† was an intriguing letter written by King in jail in the city of Birmingham, Alabama. He was responding to a letter written by eight Alabama Clergyman that was published in a Birmingham AlabamaRead MoreMartin Luther King Jr. s Letter From Birmingham Jail1132 Words   |  5 PagesDuring the time Martin Luther King Jr. wrote â€Å"Letter from Birmingham Jail† April 16, 1963, while he was in the Birmingham City Jail in Birmingham, Alabama, the world King lived was different form today. A world where blacks and whites where segregated from everything around them. The people of color were treated unequally. The laws during the time was unjustified. The treatment towards the people of color were brutal and very different than the world today. When King wrote the letter, he was in theRead MoreAn Analysis of Letter from a Birmingham Jail Essay1090 Words   |  5 Pages Letter from a Birmingham Jail was written by Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. in April of 1963, as he sat, as the title states, in a Birmingham, Alabama jail. King had been jailed for his participation in a peaceful protest of segregation in public places such as lunch counters and public restrooms (Berkley, 2003). While jailed, King read a criticism of the protest by a group of white ministers, who felt such demonstrations â€Å"directed and in part led by outsiders† were â€Å"unwise and untimely†Read More The Rhetoric of Pathos in the Writings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.1141 Words   |  5 PagesPledge of Allegiance. Its entered our culture. And so it has: I have a dream has become one of the most memorable phrases of the twentieth century. Of all the many speeches delivered at the Lincoln Memorial on that hot, steamy day of August 28, 1963, no other remarks have had such an impact as those of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His words reflected then, and con tinue to do so now, the deep sense of pathos in the plight of African-Americans throughout the United States, a socio-economic and political