Birmingham Campaign: Consequences
Read “Birmingham – the results”, p.48
Limited desegregation
Despite the success of the campaign in crippling Birmingham economically, real progress
was limited. Desegregation in Birmingham took place only slowly after the
demonstrations had ended, despite the guarantees. Indeed, King and SCLC were
criticized by some for ending the campaign with promises that were too vague and
"settling for a lot less than even moderate demands". Under the agreement with the
City, desegregation was supposed to take place within 90 days from May 15th. At the end
of this period a single black clerk was hired: there was no hiring of the promised black
police officers or firefighters. Despite this, by July most of the city's segregation laws
had been overturned. Some of the lunch counters in department stores complied with
the new rules, city parks and golf courses were opened again to black and white citizens,
and Birmingham's public schools were integrated in September 1963. (Governor Wallace,
however, sent National Guard troops to keep black students out but President Kennedy
ordered the troops to stand down.)
King/SCLC
The reputation of Martin Luther King soared after the protests in Birmingham, and he
was congratulated in many cities as a hero. SCLC rose to prominence as a national force
in the civil rights arena where previously the older and stodgier NAACP and their legal
approach had dominated. As such, SCLC was much in demand to bring about change in
many other Southern cities. As for King himself, late that year (1963) he was one of the
leaders of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom [see p.59] where he
delivered his famous ”I Have a Dream" speech. King became Time magazine's “Man of
the Year” for 1963. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 [see p.60].
Federal action
The Birmingham campaign, as well as Governor George Wallace's refusal to admit black
students to the newly desegregated University of Alabama, convinced President Kennedy
to address the severe inequalities between black and white citizens in the South: "The
events in Birmingham and elsewhere have so increased cries for equality that no city or
state or legislative body can prudently [wisely] choose to ignore them." Kennedy's
administration drew up the Civil Rights Act which was passed into law in 1964 [see pp.5960]. The Civil Rights Act applied to the whole nation, prohibiting racial discrimination in
employment and in access to public places.
Inspiration for other campaigns
The Birmingham campaign inspired the Civil Rights Movement in other parts of the
South. As noted below, Medgar Evers of the NAACP in Jackson, Mississippi, organized
demonstrations similar to those in Birmingham. Elsewhere, local organisations and
individuals were acting on the new mood of change. More and more whites were also
becoming involved. Over 1600 marches and protests occurred in 1963 alone, directed
mostly by local organisations rather than by national ones such as SCLC or SNCC. When
long-time labour union leader A. Philip Randolph proposed a march on Washington, he
argued in a June 1963 meeting with President Kennedy that "the Negroes are already in
the streets. It is very likely impossible to get them off." Randolph assured Kennedy that
the march would not increase grassroots militancy but would instead divert that
militancy into safer channels: "If they are bound to be in the streets in any case, is it
not better that they be led by organizations dedicated to civil rights and disciplined by
struggle rather than to leave them to other leaders who care neither about civil rights
nor about nonviolence?" In 1965 King and SCLC led further marches in Selma, Alabama,
related to a voter registration drive. However, such civil rights protests were already
declining in significance within the larger African-American freedom struggle.
White backlash
[See pp.52-54]
Where blacks felt real hope in the lengthy struggle for civil rights, many whites felt
that their way of life was under threat. On May 11th, a bomb destroyed the Gaston Motel
in Birmingham where Martin Luther King had been staying earlier, and another damaged
the house of King's brother. Four months after the Birmingham campaign settlement,
someone bombed the house of NAACP attorney Arthur Shores, injuring his wife in the
attack. On September 15th, 1963, Birmingham again earned international attention when
Ku Klux Klan members bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church and killed four
young girls. In addition to this, Medgar Evers of the NAACP in Jackson, Mississippi [see
above], was fatally shot outside his home. He had been organizing demonstrations similar
to those in Birmingham to pressure Jackson's city government.
Black backlash
Some historians argue that the riots that occurred after the bombing of the Gaston
Motel foreshadowed the rioting that occurred in larger cities later in the 1960s [see
p.65]. While non-violent direct action had proved successful in Birmingham, some looked
to the greater and more immediate impact that violence seemed to have. The "Burn,
baby, burn" cry used in later race riots in Watts (Los Angeles), Detroit, and other
American cities showed that "The 'rules of the game' in race relations were permanently
changed after Birmingham."