Shelley Tougas - Birmingham 1963

Early April 1963

Demonstrators begin a series of small sit-ins and meetings. The news reports are short and buried in newspapers inside pages.

April 3, 1963

Civil rights leaders launch Project C (for Confrontation), a campaign to start desegregating Birmingham, Alabama. Leaders plan for local residents to march and get arrested, overfilling the jails.

April 10, 1963

City officials get a late-night order from a judge. The order forbids civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr., from marching and protesting.

April 12, 1963

King and his partner Ralph Abernathy ignore the order and march through Birmingham. Police arrest them.

April 16, 1963

King begins writing his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail to explain the need for demonstrations.

April 22, 1963

King and Abernathy return to Project C after posting bail. To this point, few adults have been willing to march and risk arrest. The jails are not overflowing.

April 26, 1963

King and Abernathy return to their homes for the weekend and leave Bevel in charge.

April 27, 1963

Bevel holds a youth rally and recruits students to march and go to jail.

April 29, 1963

Bevel hands out leaflets at schools urging students to skip school and join the demonstration. Other leaders reluctantly agree to the plan, called the Childrens Crusade.

Late April 1963

An organizer, the Reverend James Bevel, suggests that Project C use children as marchers. Leaders discuss the idea, but they disagree with Bevel.

May 2, 1963

Nearly 1,000 children miss school and head to the 16th Street Baptist Church to begin the march. Hundreds are arrested during the protest.

May 3, 1963

Hundreds of students arrive at the church for the second day of the Childrens Crusade. Jails are full, so police use threats and force to contain students. Photographer Charles Moore takes pictures of the firefighters using their hoses on children.

May 4, 1963

Demonstrations continue. Some white businesspeople want to meet with African-American leaders to discuss their demands and end the demonstrations.

May 10, 1963

White and African-American leaders reach a settlement. They agree to a plan to begin desegregation.

May 11, 1963

In protest, the Ku Klux Klan bombs the home of Kings brother and a black-owned motel. A riot breaks out.

June 11, 1963

President John F. Kennedy speaks to the nation on television. He calls for laws to ensure that all Americans have civil rights, regardless of skin color.

July 2, 1964

President Lyndon Johnson signs into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlaws segregation.

August 6, 1965

Johnson signs into law the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which removes barriers that had prevented African-Americans from voting.

September 15, 1963

The Klan bombs the 16th Street Baptist Church, a key location for the civil rights movement in Birmingham. Four young African-American girls die.