Birmingham campaign

===Martin Luther King Jr. jailed===
{{main|Letter from Birmingham Jail}}
[[File:Martin Luther King Jr NYWTS 4.jpg|thumb|right|upright|alt=A black and white photograph of Martin Luther King Jr. speaking at a podium with an enlarged cardboard cover of his book ''Why We Can't Wait'' in the background|[[Martin Luther King Jr.]], a year later in 1964, promoting the book ''[[Why We Can't Wait]]'', based on his "Letter from Birmingham Jail"]]

Martin Luther King Jr. was held in the Birmingham jail and was denied a consultation with an attorney from the NAACP without guards present. When historian Jonathan Bass wrote of the incident in 2001, he noted that news of King's incarceration was spread quickly by Wyatt Tee Walker, as planned.  King's supporters sent telegrams about his arrest to the [[White House]]. He could have been released on bail at any time, and jail administrators wished him to be released as soon as possible to avoid the media attention while King was in custody.  However, campaign organizers offered no bail in order "to focus the attention of the media and national public opinion on the Birmingham situation".<ref>Bass, p.&nbsp;115.</ref>

Twenty-four hours after his arrest, King was allowed to see local attorneys from the SCLC. When [[Coretta Scott King]] did not hear from her husband, she called Walker and he suggested that she call President Kennedy directly.<ref>McWhorter, p.&nbsp;353.</ref> Mrs. King was recuperating at home after the birth of their fourth child when she received a call from President Kennedy the Monday after the arrest. The president told her she could expect a call from her husband soon. When Martin Luther King Jr. called his wife, their conversation was brief and guarded; he correctly assumed that his phones were tapped.<ref>Fairclough, p.&nbsp;123.</ref> Several days later, [[Jacqueline Kennedy]] called Coretta Scott King to express her concern for King while he was incarcerated.<ref name="morris"/>

Using scraps of paper given to him by a janitor, notes written on the margins of a newspaper, and later a legal pad given to him by SCLC attorneys, King wrote his essay "[[Letter from Birmingham Jail]]". It responded to eight politically moderate white clergymen who accused King of agitating local residents and not giving the incoming mayor a chance to make any changes. The essay was a culmination of many of King's ideas, which he had touched on in earlier writings.<ref>Bass, pp.&nbsp;116–117.</ref> King's arrest attracted national attention, including that of corporate officers of retail chains with stores in downtown Birmingham. After King's arrest, the chains' profits began to erode. National business owners pressed the Kennedy administration to intervene. King was released on April 20, 1963.