The Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham, Alabama
intact, it must make for an equilibrium in society
which is increasingly more human in character.
38. But such an order—universal, absolute and
immutable in its principles—finds its source in the
true, personal and transcendent God. He is the first
truth, the sovereign good, and as such the deepest
source from which human society, if it is to be properly constituted, creative, and worthy of man’s dignity, draws its genuine vitality. This is what St.
Thomas means when he says:
Human reason is the standard which measures the degree of goodness of the human
will, and as such it derives from the eternal
law, which is divine reason . . . Hence it is
clear that the goodness of the human will depends much more on the eternal law than on
human reason.
Characteristics of the Present Day
39. There are three things which characterize
our modern age.
40. In the first place we notice a progressive improvement in the economic and social condition of
working men. They began by claiming their rights principally in the economic and social spheres, and then
proceeded to lay claim to their political rights as well.
Finally, they have turned their attention to acquiring
the more cultural benefits of society.
Today, therefore, working men all over the world
are loud in their demands that they shall in no circumstances be subjected to arbitrary treatment,
as though devoid of intelligence and freedom. They
insist on being treated as human beings, with a
share in every sector of human society: in the socioeconomic sphere, in government, and in the realm
of learning and culture.
41. Secondly, the part that women are now playing in political life is everywhere evident. This is a
development that is perhaps of swifter growth
among Christian nations, but it is also happening
extensively, if more slowly, among nations that are
heirs to different traditions and imbued with a different culture. Women are gaining an increasing
awareness of their natural dignity. Far from being
content with a purely passive role or allowing themselves to be regarded as a kind of instrument, they
are demanding both in domestic and in public life
the rights and duties which belong to them as human persons.
42. Finally, we are confronted in this modern age
with a form of society which is evolving on entirely
new social and political lines. Since all peoples have
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either attained political independence or are on the
way to attaining it, soon no nation will rule over another and none will be subject to an alien power.
43. Thus all over the world men are either the
citizens of an independent State, or are shortly to
become so; nor is any nation nowadays content to
submit to foreign domination. The longstanding inferiority complex of certain classes because of their
economic and social status, sex, or position in the
State, and the corresponding superiority complex of
other classes, is rapidly becoming a thing of the
past. . . .
Further Resources
BOOKS
Cahill, Thomas. Pope John XXIII. New York: Viking, 2002.
Feldman, Christian. Pope John XXIII: A Spiritual Biography.
New York: Crossroad, 2000.
Johnson, Paul. Pope John XXIII. Boston: Little, Brown, 1974.
PERIODICALS
“Jewish Group Wants Pope John XXIII Declared Righteous.”
America, September 23, 2000, 5.
McBrien, Richard P. “Peasant Profundis.” America, April 8,
2002, 23.
Twomey, Gerald S. “Anniversary Thoughts: Ten Lessons from
Good Pope John.” America, October 7, 2002, 12.
WEBSITES
O’Grady, Desmond. “Almost a Saint: Pope John XXIII.” St.
Anthony Messenger. Available online at http://www.american
catholic.org/Messenger/Nov1996/feature1.asp; website home
page: http://www.americancatholic.org/default.asp (acessed
February 2, 2003).
Randall, Beth. “Illuminating Lives: Pope John XXIII.” Available online at http://www.mcs.drexel.edu/~gbrandal/Illum
_html/JohnXXIII.html (accessed February 2, 2003).
The Civil Rights Movement
in Birmingham, Alabama
“Public Statement by Eight
Alabama Clergymen”
Statement
By: C.C.J. Carpenter, Joseph A. Durick, Milton L. Grafman,
Paul Hardin, Nolan B. Harmon, George M. Murray, Edward
V. Ramage, and Earl Stallings
Date: April 12, 1963
Source: Carpenter, C.C.J., et al. “Public Statement by Eight
Alabama Clergymen.” Birmingham News, April 12, 1963.
American Decades Primary Sources, 1960 –1969
The Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham, Alabama
About the Authors: The eight Alabama clergymen represented a wide spectrum of religions, including priests, bishops, ministers, and a rabbi from the Episcopalian, Catholic,
Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, and Jewish faiths.
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail”
Letter
By: Martin Luther King Jr.
Date: April 16, 1963
Source: King, Martin Luther, Jr. “Letter from a Birmingham
Jail.” April 16, 1963. Available online at http://www
.mlkonline.com/jail.html (accessed February 2, 2003).
About the Author: Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968),
born in Atlanta, was ordained a Baptist minister in 1954 and
received his doctorate from Boston University in 1955. Instrumental in the founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, he advocated nonviolence in the
Civil Rights movement. He served as a major organizer of
the Montgomery bus boycott in 1956 and the March on
Washington in 1963. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1964, but four years later he was assassinated in Memphis,
Tennessee. ■
Introduction
In the spring of 1963, during a peaceful civil rights
march in downtown Birmingham, Alabama, Martin
Luther King Jr. found himself in a confrontation with
“Bull” Connor and other city authorities. T. Eugene
“Bull” Connor (1897–1973) was the commissioner of
public safety in Birmingham and a leader of the city’s
segregationist forces. King, the leader of the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference, was in Birmingham to
oppose racial segregation. As a result of this confrontation, King was arrested and jailed.
At the time of the protest, Birmingham was one of
the most industrialized cities in the South. With a population of about 40 percent African Americans, it was also
one of the nation’s most segregated cities. Two years earlier, in 1961, civil rights freedom riders—African Americans and whites who entered southern cities by bus to
test the local reaction to integrated seating on that bus—
had been violently attacked in Alabama. Also, Birmingham and other southern cities had been the scenes of
bombings directed at African Americans and civil rights
protesters.
On April 12, 1963, a group of eight Alabama clergymen issued a “Public Statement by Eight Alabama
Clergymen,” appealing to the African American community “to withdraw support from these demonstrations,
and to unite locally in working peacefully for a better
Birmingham.” The clergymen supported the goals of the
Civil Rights movement but opposed the tactics being employed in Birmingham. They feared that further demonstrations by King and his followers would worsen race
American Decades Primary Sources, 1960 –1969
relations and result in deadly violence. Four days later,
while in jail, King responded to this statement in a letter
to his fellow clergymen explaining why he helped organize and participate in the protests. That letter, dated April
16, 1963, was the now famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”
Significance
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail” received international as well as national attention and has been reprinted
throughout the world in newspapers, magazines, and
books. The demonstrations had clearly affected many
people beyond Alabama and the United States. For weeks,
events in Birmingham had been a leading news item, and
pictures of dogs attacking protesters and demonstrators
being drenched by fire hoses were seen worldwide.
King was released after serving eight days in jail, but
he continued leading massive civil rights demonstrations.
Rallies were held in several African American churches
for sixty-five consecutive nights, and during the day directaction protests were conducted. By the end of the first
week in May 1963, two thousand protesters had been arrested.
On May 10, 1963, a desegregation agreement affecting lunch counters, drinking fountains, and other facilities was reached and the demonstrations stopped. A
permanent biracial committee was organized, demonstrators were released from jail, and more hiring of
African Americans in clerical jobs was promised. It
would take time for social change to take place in Birmingham and racial healing to occur. Almost forty years
after these confrontations, though, the city takes pride in
its Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. The institute describes itself as “a place of remembrance, revolution and
reconciliation built at the site of the most tumultuous
events of the Civil Rights era. More than a museum, it
also serves as a forum for understanding the universal
problem of racism—while chronicling the role Birmingham played in setting a people free.”
Primary Source
“Public Statement by Eight Alabama Clergymen”
In response to civil rights protests in
Birmingham, eight Alabama clergymen composed a
statement urging restraint in the Civil Rights movement and the discontinuance of demonstrations in
Birmingham. The authors explained that progress
could best be achieved through negotiation and
through the court system and suggested that direct
action would only make the situation worse.
SYNOPSIS:
We the undersigned clergymen are among those
who, in January, issued “An Appeal for Law and
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The Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham, Alabama
Order and Common Sense,” in dealing with racial
problems in Alabama. We expressed understanding
that honest convictions in racial matters could properly be pursued in the courts, but urged that decisions of those courts should in the meantime be
peacefully obeyed.
Since that time there had been some evidence
of increased forbearance and a willingness to face
facts. Responsible citizens have undertaken to work
on various problems which cause racial friction and
unrest. In Birmingham, recent public events have
given indication that we all have opportunity for a
new constructive and realistic approach to racial
problems.
However, we are now confronted by a series of
demonstrations by some of our Negro citizens, directed and led in part by outsiders. We recognize
the natural impatience of people who feel that their
hopes are slow in being realized. But we are convinced that these demonstrations are unwise and
untimely.
We agree rather with certain local Negro leadership which has called for honest and open negotiation of racial issues in our area. And we believe
this kind of facing of issues can best be accomplished by citizens of our own metropolitan area,
white and Negro, meeting with their knowledge and
experience of the local situation. All of us need to
face that responsibility and find proper channels for
its accomplishment.
Just as we formerly pointed out that “hatred and
violence have no sanction in our religious and political traditions,” we also point out that such actions
as incite to hatred and violence, however technically
peaceful those actions may be, have not contributed
to the resolution of our local problems. We do not
believe that these days of new hope are days when
extreme measures are justified in Birmingham.
We commend the community as a whole, and
the local news media and law enforcement in particular, on the calm manner in which these demonstrations have been handled. We urge the public to
continue to show restraint should the demonstrations continue, and the law enforcement official to
remain calm and continue to protect our city from
violence.
We further strongly urge our own Negro community to withdraw support from these demonstrations, and to unite locally in working peacefully for
a better Birmingham. When rights are consistently
denied, a cause should be pressed in the courts and
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in negotiations among local leaders, and not in the
streets. We appeal to both our white and Negro citizenry to observe the principles of law and order and
common sense.
Bishop C.C.J. Carpenter, D.D., LL.D., Episcopalian Bishop
of Alabama
Bishop Joseph A. Durick, D.D., Auxiliary Bishop, Roman
Catholic Diocese of Mobile, Birmingham
Rabbi Milton L. Grafman, Temple Emanu-El,
Birmingham, Alabama
Bishop Paul Hardin, Methodist Bishop of the AlabamaWest Florida Conference
Bishop Nolan B. Harmon, Bishop of the North Alabama
Conference of the Methodist Church
Rev. George M. Murray, D.D., LL.D, Bishop Coadjutor,
Episcopal Diocese of Alabama
Rev. Edward V. Ramage, Moderator, Synod of the Alabama
Presbyterian Church in the United States
Rev. Earl Stallings, Pastor, First Baptist Church,
Birmingham, Alabama
Primary Source
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail” [excerpt]
In response to this statement, Martin
Luther King Jr. composed his famous “Letter from
a Birmingham Jail” to explain why he was active in
civil rights demonstrations—primarily the failure of
the courts and negotiation to address effectively the
issue of civil rights.
SYNOPSIS:
My Dear Fellow Clergymen:
While confined here in the Birmingham city jail,
I came across your recent statement calling present
activities “unwise and untimely.” Seldom do I pause
to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought
to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my
secretaries would have little time for anything other
than such correspondence in the course of the day,
and I would have no time for constructive work. But
since I feel that you are men of genuine good will
and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want
to try to answer your statement in what I hope will
be patient and reasonable terms.
I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view
which argues against “outsiders coming in.” I have
the honor of serving as President of the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in
Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty-five affiliated
organizations across the South, and one of them is
the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights.
Frequently we share staff, educational and financial
resources with our affiliates. Several months ago the
affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call
American Decades Primary Sources, 1960 –1969
The Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham, Alabama
Civil rights protesters kneel on a sidewalk after being arrested for parading without a permit, Birmingham, Alabama, May 2, 1963. Rev. Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. supported nonviolent civil disobedience and demonstrations to effect change in American society. © B E T T M A N N / C O R B I S .
REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION.
to engage in a nonviolent direct-action program if
such were deemed necessary. We readily consented,
and when the hour came we lived up to our promise.
So I, along with several members of my staff, am
here because I was invited here. I am here because
I have organizational ties here.
But more basically, I am in Birmingham because
injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth
century B.C. left their villages and carried their “thus
saith the Lord” far beyond the boundaries of their
home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his
village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus
Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world,
so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom
beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.
Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness
of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in
American Decades Primary Sources, 1960 –1969
Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all
indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the
narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone
who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.
You deplore the demonstrations taking place in
Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say,
fails to express a similar concern for the conditions
that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure
that none of you would want to rest content with the
superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely
with effects and does not grapple with underlying
causes. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are
taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city’s white power structure left
the Negro community with no alternative.
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The Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham, Alabama
On the basis of these promises, the Reverend Fred
Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to a moratorium on all demonstrations. As the weeks and
months went by, we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise. A few signs, briefly removed, returned; the others remained.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stares out the window of his cell in the
Jefferson County Courthouse, Birmingham, Alabama. Four days after
local religious leaders urged restraint in the Civil Rights movement, King
responded to this criticism in his famous “Letter from a Birmingham
Jail.” © B E T T M A N N / C O R B I S . R E P R O D U C E D B Y P E R M I S S I O N .
In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine
whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action. We have gone through all
these steps in Birmingham. There can be no gain
saying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly
segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record
of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There
have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes
and churches in Birmingham that [sic] in any other
city in the nation. These are the hard, brutal facts
of the case. On the basis of these conditions, Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers.
But the latter consistently refused to engage in goodfaith negotiation.
Then, last September, came the opportunity to
talk with leaders of Birmingham’s economic community. In the course of the negotiations, certain
promises were made by the merchants—for example, to remove the stores’ humiliating racial signs.
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As in so many past experiences, our hopes had
been blasted, and the shadow of deep disappointment settled upon us. We had no alternative except
to prepare for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case
before the conscience of the local and the national
community. Mindful of the difficulties involved, we
decided to undertake a process of self-purification.
We began a series of workshops on nonviolence, and
we repeatedly asked ourselves: “Are you able to accept blows without retaliation?” “are you able to endure the ordeal of jail?” We decided to schedule our
direct-action program for the Easter season, realizing
that except for Christmas, this is the main shopping
period of the year. Knowing that a strong economic
withdrawal program would be the by-product of direct
action, we felt that this would be the best time to
bring pressure to bear on the merchants for the
needed change.
Then it occurred to us that Birmingham’s mayoralty election was coming up in March, and we
speedily decided to postpone action until after election day. When we discovered that the Commissioner
of Public Safety, Eugene “Bill” Connor, had piled up
enough votes to be in the run-off, we decided again
to postpone action until the day after the run-off so
that the demonstrations could not be used to cloud
the issues. Like many others, we waited to see Mr.
Connor defeated, and to this end we endured postponement after postponement. Having aided in this
community need, we felt that our direct-action program could be delayed no longer.
You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sitins, marches, and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a
better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct
action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create
such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is
forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.
My citing the creation of tension as part of the work
of the nonviolent-resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the
word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent
American Decades Primary Sources, 1960 –1969
“Eulogy for the Martyred Children”
tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just
as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a
tension in the mind so that individuals could rise
from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the
unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective
appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent
gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that
will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice
and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.
The purpose of our direct-action program is to
create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has
our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic
effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.
One of the basic points in your statement is
that the action that I and my associates have taken
in Birmingham is untimely. Some have asked: “Why
didn’t you give the new city administration time to
act?” The only answer that I can give to this query
is that the new Birmingham administration must be
prodded about as much as the outgoing one, before it will act. We are sadly mistaken if we feel that
the election of Albert Boutwell as mayor will bring
the millennium to Birmingham. While Mr. Boutwell
is a much more gentle person that Mr. Connor, they
are both segregationists, dedicated to maintenance
of the status quo. I have hoped that Mr. Boutwell
will be reasonable enough to see the futility of massive resistance to desegregation. But he will not see
this without pressure from devotees of civil rights.
My friends, I must say to you that we have not made
a single gain in civil rights without determined legal
and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up
their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the
moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us,
groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.
We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it
must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have
yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was
“well timed” in view of those who have not suffered
unduly from the disease of segregation. For years
now I have heard the word “wait!” It rings in the ear
of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait”
has almost always meant “Never.” We must come
to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that
“justice too long delayed is justice denied.” . . .
American Decades Primary Sources, 1960 –1969
Further Resources
BOOKS
Blaustein, Albert P., and Robert L. Zangrando, eds. Civil Rights
and the American Negro: A Documentary History. New
York: Washington Square Press, 1968.
Dunn, John M. The Civil Rights Movement. New York: Lucent
Books, 1998.
Higham, John, ed. Civil Rights and Social Wrongs: Black-White
Relations Since World War II. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997.
PERIODICALS
Harris, William. “The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. Volume IV: Symbol of the Movement, January 1957–December
1958.” Journal of Southern History, August 2002, 750.
McDonald, Dora. “Sharing the Dream: Martin Luther King Jr.,
the Movement, and Me.” Library Journal, November 1,
2002, 110.
Walton, Anthony. “A Dream Deferred: Why Martin Luther
King Has Yet to Be Heard.” Harper’s, August 2002, 67.
WEBSITES
National Civil Rights Museum home page. Available online at
http://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/ (accessed February 2,
2003).
U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division home page.
Available online at http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/crt-home.html
(accessed February 2, 2003).
Western Michigan University Department of Political Science.
“Timeline of the American Civil Rights Movement.” Available online at http://www.wmich.edu/politics/mlk/ (accessed
February 2, 2003). This site contains links to articles on key
events in the Civil Rights movement.
“Eulogy for the
Martyred Children”
Eulogy
By: Martin Luther King Jr.
Date: September 18, 1963
Source: King, Martin Luther, Jr. “Eulogy for the Martyred
Children.” Delivered at Sixth Avenue Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama, September 18, 1963. Available online at
http://www.mlkonline.com/eulogy.html (accessed February
2, 2003).
About the Author: Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968),
born in Atlanta, Georgia, was ordained a Baptist minister in
1954 and received his doctorate from Boston University in
1955. Instrumental in the founding of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference in 1957, he advocated nonviolence in
the Civil Rights movement. He served as a major organizer
of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1956 and the March on
Washington in 1963. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1964, but four years later he was assassinated in Memphis,
Tennessee. ■
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