0:03 the ministers ofc left Albany but they
0:05 took with them some important lessons
0:07 lessons that defined movement strategy
0:10 for Birmingham the strength of the
0:12 albony movement was it was perhaps the
0:14 first time in this period of struggle of
0:16 black people that we had mobilized an
0:19 entire Community against
0:22 segregation and secondly we learned that
0:25 valid and crucial lesson that you must
0:28 pinpoint your targets so that you do not
0:30 dilute the strength of your attack
0:34 coming out of Albany which was what many
0:36 people consider not a
0:40 victory they needed a victory Dr King's
0:42 image at this time was slightly on the
0:44 way because he had not
0:46 projected I said I sure you if you come to
0:47 to
0:50 Birmingham this movement can not only
0:53 gain Prestige but really shake the
0:56 country scc's leaders accepted this
0:59 challenge they arrived in Birmingham in
1:01 the midst of a campaign to replace Bull
1:02 Connor and the other Commissioners with
1:05 a new form of government I'm pleased to
1:07 have a cloud removed so the people of
1:09 the city can get down to the very
1:12 serious business of securing the very
1:16 best men possible to man the new city
1:18 government regardless of what form of
1:20 government we have it is important that
1:23 we put in office men who have records
1:25 which show that they are not owned or
1:29 controlled by anybody or by any Group B
1:31 Conor tried to keep power by running for
1:35 mayor but on April 2nd 1963 he lost to
1:38 Albert boutwell a racial
1:41 moderate the next day SCC launched
1:48 confrontation learning by the Albany
1:50 circumstance I targeted three stores
1:52 pitz was one I don't call the other two
1:56 stores now and since the 16th Street
1:58 Baptist Church was going to be our
2:00 headquarters I
2:02 uh had it timed as to how long it took a
2:03 youngster to walk down there how long it
2:05 would take an older person to walk down
2:06 there how long it would take a
2:08 middle-aged person to walk down there
2:11 and I picked out what would be the best
2:14 Roots uh under some sub auge I visited
2:16 all three of these stores and counted
2:19 the stools the tables the chairs Etc and
2:21 what the best method of Ingress in egress
2:23 egress
2:25 was a
2:30 fre yes we want a fre yes
2:45 we 21 demonstrators were arrested on the
2:46 first day of
2:49 protest and the City of Birmingham
2:51 discovered it had another problem the
2:52 outgoing Commissioners announced that
2:54 they had no intention of stepping aside
2:57 for the newly elected government well I
3:00 remember now the day we swore in the
3:03 mayor and before the day was over we
3:06 discovered we had two Mayors two City
3:09 governments and Dr Martin Luther King
3:12 and thec starting marches up and down
3:15 the street the marches occurred almost
3:18 entirely during the 37 day period when
3:20 Birmingham had two governments on
3:23 Tuesdays the commission met proceeded to
3:26 govern the city and when they finished
3:28 not they would March out and nine
3:31 council members would March in and they
3:33 would proceed to adopt laws and spend
3:39 city until the courts could decide which
3:42 city government was the legal one Bull
3:44 Connor remained in charge of the police
3:46 and fire
3:48 departments and Connor took a lesson
3:50 from lri pritchet showing restraint as
4:02 a week and a half before Easter as
4:04 planned the demonstrations affected
4:07 business during a major shopping
4:10 season merchants and Community leaders were
4:17 upset we got some might good people in
4:19 this community both white and color
4:22 businessman AG Gaston supported the new
4:24 Administration we didn't anticipate the
4:27 need for modern King at that time this
4:30 this modern King thing came and all of a
4:33 of a sudden I was upset with Dr King
4:35 because he wouldn't give us a chance to
4:37 prove what we could do through the political
4:38 political
4:40 processes and a year and a day after
4:42 Connor had been elected with the largest
4:43 vote in
4:45 history we a majority of the people of
4:48 this city voted to terminate his office
4:50 and when he ran for mayor they they
4:53 rejected him I believe a representative
4:56 of my office at the Department of
4:58 Justice the federal government also
5:00 thought the protests were ill
5:03 Birmingham the fact that there were was
5:06 a change in Administration in Birmingham
5:09 that uh the new administration had not
5:12 yet taken over in their responsibilities
5:14 and their duties and that uh perhaps the
5:17 timing of these demonstrations could be
5:20 reconsidered on April 10th Birmingham
5:22 obtained a state court injunction
5:24 ordering an end to the demonstration Dr
5:26 King grew discouraged worried that the
5:29 campaign here as an Albany would stall
5:38 make we had about five or 600 people in
5:40 jail but all of the money was gone and
5:43 we couldn't get people out of jail uh
5:45 and the business Community black black
5:47 business community and some of the white
5:50 clergy were pressuring us to call off
5:52 the demonstrations and just get out of
5:55 town uh and
5:58 um we didn't know what to
6:01 do and he sat there in room 30 in the
6:05 Gaston motel and Martin didn't say
6:08 anything and then finally he got up and
6:12 he went in the bedroom and he came back
6:14 uh with his blue jeans on and his jacket
6:16 and he said look he said I don't know
6:19 what to do uh he said I just know
6:22 that something has got to change in
6:24 Birmingham I don't know whether I can
6:26 raise money to get people out of jail I
6:28 do know that I can go into jail with them
6:31 them
6:33 and not knowing how it was going to work
6:36 out he walked out of the room and let a
6:56 jail that was I think the beginning of
7:24 at this time local white clergy were
7:26 criticizing King in the campaign the
7:29 ministers published in the newspapers I
7:31 dire tribe against Martin calling him a
7:34 troublemaker and saying that he was
7:36 there stirring up trouble to get
7:38 publicity uh and he sat down and took that
7:40 that
7:43 newspaper uh and he had no paper and he
7:45 was in solitary confinement and he
7:47 started writing an answer to that
7:49 onepage ad around the margins of the New
7:53 York Times I have yet to engage in a
7:57 direct action campaign that was well
8:00 timed in the view of those who have not
8:04 suffered unduly from the disease of
8:07 segregation for years now I have heard
8:11 the word weight it rings in the ear of
8:14 every negro with piercing
8:17 familiarity this weight has almost
8:21 always met never we must come to see
8:23 with one of our distinguished jurists
8:28 that Justice too long delayed is Justice denied
8:30 denied
8:32 as king sat in Birmingham Jail the
8:35 demonstrations lost
8:38 supporters 8 days after his arrest King
8:40 accepted release on bond to plan the
8:42 next phase of project C it would be the
8:45 most controversial move yet all right we
8:47 wanted to get the black community in
8:49 Birmingham involved and the way you get
8:50 people involved get their children
8:52 involved they were taking the kids out
8:55 of school you know Maring and I thought
8:58 that was unnecessary fact my idea was
8:59 Kiss many up didn't know what all about
9:03 sare most adults have bills to pay house
9:06 notes rents car notes utility bills but
9:09 the young people wherein they can think
9:11 at the same level are not at this point
9:13 hooked with all those responsibilities
9:15 so a boy from high school he get the
9:17 same effect in terms of being in jail in
9:19 terms of putting pressure on the city as
9:21 his father and yet he's not there's no
9:23 economic threat on the family because
9:25 the father's still on the job I'm on my wayed
9:32 Thursday May 2nd was dday the day the
9:35 children began to march in Birmingham at
9:37 first the groups were small policemen
9:39 arrested them loaded them in Patty
9:49 Jail I as my
10:00 the children continued to march in
10:03 increasing numbers Patty wagons became
10:06 inadequate finally school buses were
10:18 demonstrators my mother don't
10:21 go I'll go
10:24 any if my mother don't
10:36 way there is nothing you can
10:40 do to turn me around turn me around
10:42 there's nothing you can do there's
10:45 nothing you can do to turn me around
10:48 turn by the end of that Thursday 700
11:02 Friday more than a thousand children
11:04 stayed out of school and arrived at the
11:14 March bu Conor tried to stop the marches
11:15 before they began and brought out the
11:36 next the fire department was brought in
11:38 and Bull Connor ordered water hoses
11:46 demonstrator with 100 lb of pressure per
11:48 square inch the water hit with enough
11:55 tree as water pwed the demonstrators
12:00 David Van was on the phone with ag gast
12:01 and he
12:04 was expressing a great deal of
12:07 resentment about King coming in and
12:09 messing up the thing just when we were
12:12 getting a new start and then he said to
12:15 me he said but but Loya van said they've
12:18 turned fire hoses on a little black girl
12:20 they were rolling that little girl right
12:21 down in the middle of the street and now
12:23 I can't talk to you no that it was that
12:25 stand up on my building looking down on
12:28 bullon them shooting water in the park
12:30 right across from office there in that
12:33 Park I guess that's the most outstanding
12:35 thing in my mind right now I just
12:45 happen bull Conor's White Tank patroled
12:47 the city streets as the fire hoses
12:49 stopped the demonstrator some hid behind
12:52 the Trees of Kelly Ingram Park others
12:53 Frolic and
12:56 defining the conflict gained national
12:58 attention and news coverage of the event
13:03 public and it was a
13:08 masterpiece of the use of media to
13:11 explains a cause to the general public
13:12 of the
13:15 nation because in those days you had 15
13:17 minutes of national news and 15 minutes
13:20 of local news and in marching only one
13:23 block they could get enough news filmed
13:26 to fill all of the newscast of all of
13:27 the television stations of the United
13:30 States photograph appeared in newspapers
13:32 throughout the world and the Birmingham
13:35 story was told in many
13:38 languages the Russian newspaper provda
13:40 ran a cartoon of police intimidating a
13:42 black child the federal government
13:44 worried about America's image in other
13:46 parts of the
13:49 world Governor Wallace saw it
13:51 differently it seems that other parts of
13:53 the world ought to be concerned about
13:55 what we think of them instead of what
13:57 they think of us after all we're feeding
13:59 most of them and when ever they start
14:02 rejecting 25 cents of each dollar
14:04 foreign aid money that we send to them
14:06 then I'll be concerned about their
14:08 attitude toward us but until they reject
14:11 that 25 cents out of each dollar that
14:13 southern taxpayers pay for foreign aid
14:16 to these countries I will never be
14:17 concerned about the attitude in the
14:19 first place the average man in Africa
14:22 and Asia doesn't even know where he is
14:24 much less where Alabama
14:28 is on Saturday the dogs and water hoses
14:31 provoked angry responses from bystanders
14:33 some of them carrying
14:35 weapons seeing the beginnings of
14:38 violence James bevel borrowed a bullhorn
14:39 from a nearby
14:42 policeman so I took the bullhorn okay
14:43 get off the streets now we're not going
14:44 to have violence if you're not going to
14:46 respect policeman uh you're not going to
14:49 be in the movement and uh you know so
14:51 it's strange I guess to them I'm with
14:53 the police talking through the bullhorn
14:54 and giving orders and everybody was
14:57 obeying the
14:59 orders he was like was why
15:02 but but but what what was at stake was
15:05 the the possibility of a riot and that
15:07 uh once in a movement once a riot
15:09 breakout you have to stop takes you four
15:11 or five more days to get reestablished
15:17 situation Monday the fifth day of the children's
15:20 children's
15:22 campaign comedian Dick Gregory arrived
15:24 in Birmingham and March with the young
15:27 demonstrators like hundreds before him
15:29 he was arrested la enforcement officials
15:31 were working overtime to keep up with
15:34 the arrest there was no such thing as
15:37 off days everybody had working seven
15:40 days sleeping kidnapping and just
15:43 holding fire we all had the confirmed
15:47 belief that this couldn't go on for long
15:57 wall the confrontation moved outside the
16:09 farm with no place to run no trees for
16:11 protection the demonstrators were hit
16:33 by Monday night 2500 demonstrators had
16:36 been arrested over 2,000 of them
16:38 children all jails in the city and
16:40 county were
16:44 filled at one time I had here in this
16:47 building on the E 7th and eth floor we
16:48 had over
16:53 12200 male juvenile black on top of our
16:57 regular compliment of probably uh near a
17:01 thousand at the same time I had 600
17:04 female juveniles in the fa dormatory at
17:07 the fairground meanwhile the justice
17:09 department tried to move negotiations
17:13 forward I participated in in all of in
17:15 order to try to get some kind of
17:18 agreement between people that that often
17:19 wouldn't talk to each other at all I
17:21 don't mean that the blacks wouldn't talk
17:23 to anybody but I mean there were many
17:25 whites that wouldn't talk to any blacks
17:29 and there were and there were some and
17:30 there were many more whites that
17:32 wouldn't talk to certain blacks and
17:35 there were no whites I think except for David
17:36 David
17:45 King Tuesday May 7th fighting broke out
17:47 between blacks and whites in the
17:49 downtown area Burke Marshall and the
17:50 Business Leaders had just left the
18:00 lunch this situation was fast reaching
18:02 the riot proportions James bevel had
18:05 feared the businessmen quickly returned
18:08 to negotiations ready to
18:10 talk and so we began analyz what are
18:13 your problems what are our problems you
18:15 got to recognize one that we don't that
18:17 we don't have a government we've got two
18:19 governments neither of them can be
18:22 effective uh we've got to find a way to
18:25 work this thing out within private sector
18:26 sector
18:29 formats both sides agree to a day of
18:32 truce a resolution was reached but there
18:35 was a last minute hitch after we reached
18:38 the settlement and it looks like a mole
18:39 hill today to say that we're going to
18:42 take down the signs we have a 60-day
18:45 cooling off period and and desegregate
18:49 lunch counters and begin a program of
18:50 employment in downtown Birmingham with
18:54 at least three clerks hired I think
18:57 somebody in New York asked reever
19:00 Shuttlesworth did he why he would settle
19:02 for just three clerks in downtown
19:04 Birmingham and he said I meant three in every
19:05 every
19:09 store and uh the thing almost came
19:11 unglued by that time Reverend
19:14 Shuttlesworth was so worked up uh that I
19:17 can remember Fred cussing and David Van
19:20 crying uh and it just seemed like when
19:22 David Van wanted to settle Fred wasn't
19:25 ready to settle well you must remember
19:29 that there's always some disagreement
19:31 when it looks as if you're not
19:34 getting what you're aiming at and there
19:37 are people who want victories social
19:38 Victor to come
19:42 quickly on Friday May 10th 38 days after
19:45 project C began an agreement was reached
19:47 with the business Community Reverend
19:49 Shuttlesworth had been right when the
19:51 movement came to Birmingham it won a
19:53 much-needed Victory and it gained
20:01 the next night the Klux Clan met outside
20:03 the city and Grand Dragon Robert Shelton
20:05 gave this opinion of the Birmingham
20:08 agreement no business people in
20:11 Birmingham or any other city has the
20:13 authority to attempt any type of
20:15 negotiation when a deals and
20:18 governmental Affairs of a
20:20 municipality Martin Luther King in my
20:22 opinion depth can be written here in
20:25 Birmingham several hours later a bomb
20:27 exploded outside Martin Luther King's
20:30 room at the Gaston Hotel King had
20:32 already left Birmingham and no one was
20:33 in the room at the
20:36 time as a large crowd gathered the
20:38 Alabama State Police moved in and began
20:41 beating blacks with clubs and rifles in
20:43 response angry blacks rioted and set
20:46 fire to several
20:48 buildings over the next few weeks the
20:50 riots that began in Birmingham spread to
20:53 other cities racial tensions grip the
20:55 country and President Kennedy was moved
20:58 to action on June 11th he took a strong
21:00 stronger position than any president
21:02 since Lincoln calling civil rights a
21:05 moral issue now the time has come for
21:08 this nation to fulfill its promise the
21:10 events in Birmingham and elsewhere have
21:14 so increased the cries for equality that
21:18 no city or state or legislative body can
21:20 prudently choose to ignore them the
21:23 fires of frustration and Discord of
21:26 burning in every city north and south
21:29 where legal remedies are not at hand
21:32 redress is sought in the streets in
21:35 demonstrations parades and protests
21:37 which create tensions and threaten
21:40 violence and threaten lives next week I
21:42 shall ask the Congress of the United
21:45 States to act to make a commitment it is
21:47 not fully made in this Century to the
21:50 proposition that race has no place in
21:54 American life or law Kennedy pushed for
21:56 a new Civil Rights bill but was troubled
21:58 when the movement announced plans for
