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Do not fill this in! ==Conflict escalation== ===Recruiting students=== Despite the publicity surrounding King's arrest, the campaign was faltering because few demonstrators were willing to risk arrest.<ref>McWhorter, p. 357.</ref> In addition, although Connor had used police dogs to assist in the arrest of demonstrators, this did not attract the media attention that organizers had hoped for.<ref>Eskew, pp. 227–228.</ref> To re-energize the campaign, SCLC organizer [[James Bevel]] devised a controversial alternative plan he named D Day that was later called the "Children's Crusade" by ''[[Newsweek]]'' magazine.<ref name="newsweek5-13"> {{cite journal |title=Birmingham USA: Look at Them Run |journal=[[Newsweek]] |date=1963-05-13 |pages=27}} The term "Children's Crusade" has a notable history, originating from the 1212 [[Children's Crusade]].</ref> D Day called for students from Birmingham elementary schools and high schools as well as nearby [[Miles College]] to take part in the demonstrations. Bevel, a veteran of earlier nonviolent student protests with the [[Nashville Student Movement]] and SNCC, had been named SCLC's Director of Direct Action and Nonviolent Education. After initiating the idea he organized and educated the students in nonviolence tactics and philosophy. King hesitated to approve the use of children,<ref>McWhorter, p. 364.</ref> but Bevel believed that children were appropriate for the demonstrations because jail time for them would not hurt families economically as much as the loss of a working parent. He also saw that adults in the black community were divided about how much support to give the protests. Bevel and the organizers knew that high school students were a more cohesive group; they had been together as classmates since kindergarten. He recruited girls who were school leaders and boys who were athletes. Bevel found girls more receptive to his ideas because they had less experience as victims of white violence. When the girls joined, however, the boys were close behind.<ref>Hampton, pp. 131–132.</ref> Bevel and the SCLC held workshops to help students overcome their fear of dogs and jails. They showed films of the [[Nashville sit-ins]] organized in 1960 to end segregation at public lunch counters. Birmingham's black radio station, [[WENN (AM)|WENN]], supported the new plan by telling students to arrive at the demonstration meeting place with a toothbrush to be used in jail.<ref>McWhorter, pp. 360, 366.</ref> Flyers were distributed in black schools and neighborhoods that said, "Fight for freedom first then go to school" and "It's up to you to free our teachers, our parents, yourself, and our country."<ref name="nyt5-7-63"> {{cite news |last=Sitton |first=Claude |title=Birmingham Jails 1,000 More Negroes; Waves of Chanting Students Seized |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=1963-05-07 |page=1}}</ref> ===Children's Crusade=== {{Main article|Children's Crusade (1963)}} On May 2, 1963, 7th grader Gwendolyn Sanders helped organize her classmates, and hundreds of children from high schoolers down to first graders who joined her in a massive walkout defying the principal of Parker High School who attempted to lock the gates to keep students inside.<ref>Eskew, p. 264.</ref> Demonstrators were given instructions to march to the downtown area, to meet with the Mayor, and integrate the chosen buildings.<ref name=":0" /> They were to leave in smaller groups and continue on their courses until arrested. Marching in disciplined ranks, some of them using [[walkie-talkies]], they were sent at timed intervals from various churches to the downtown business area.<ref name="post5-3-63"> {{cite news |last=Gordon |first=Robert |title=Waves of Young Negroes March in Birmingham Segregation Protest |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=1963-05-03 |page=1}}</ref> More than 600 students were arrested; the youngest of these was reported to be eight years old. Children left the churches while singing hymns and "freedom songs" such as "[[We Shall Overcome]]". They clapped and laughed while being arrested and awaiting transport to jail. The mood was compared to that of a school picnic.<ref name="nyt5-2-63"> {{cite news |last=Hailey |first=Foster |title=500 Are Arrested in Negro Protest at Birmingham |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=1963-05-03 |page=1}}</ref> Although Bevel informed Connor that the march was to take place, Connor and the police were dumbfounded by the numbers and behavior of the children.<ref>Eskew, pp. 264–265.</ref><ref>Nunnelley, p. 147.</ref> They assembled [[paddy wagon]]s and school buses to take the children to jail. When no squad cars were left to block the city streets, Connor, whose authority extended to the fire department, used fire trucks. The day's arrests brought the total number of jailed protesters to 1,200 in the 900-capacity Birmingham jail. Some considered the use of children controversial, including incoming Birmingham mayor Albert Boutwell and Attorney General [[Robert F. Kennedy]], who condemned the decision to use children in the protests.<ref>Branch, pp. 761–762.</ref> Kennedy was reported in ''[[The New York Times]]'' as saying, "an injured, maimed, or dead child is a price that none of us can afford to pay", although adding, "I believe that everyone understands their just grievances must be resolved."<ref> {{cite news |title=Robert Kennedy Warns of 'Increasing Turmoil': Deplores Denials of Negroes' Rights but Questions Timing of Protests in Birmingham |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=1963-05-04 |page=1}}</ref> [[Malcolm X]] criticized the decision, saying, "Real men don't put their children on the firing line."<ref>Manis, p. 370.</ref> King, who had been silent and then out of town while Bevel was organizing the children, was impressed by the success of the children's protests. That evening he declared at a mass meeting, "I have been inspired and moved by today. I have never seen anything like it."<ref>McWhorter, p. 368.</ref> Although Wyatt Tee Walker was initially against the use of children in the demonstrations, he responded to criticism by saying, "Negro children will get a better education in five days in jail than in five months in a segregated school."<ref name="newsweek5-13"/> The D Day campaign received front page coverage by ''[[The Washington Post]]'' and ''The New York Times''.<ref name="post5-3-63"/><ref name="nyt5-2-63"/> ===Fire hoses and police dogs=== When Connor realized that the Birmingham jail was full, on May 3 he changed police tactics to keep protesters out of the downtown business area. Another thousand students gathered at the church and left to walk across [[Kelly Ingram Park]] while chanting, "We're going to walk, walk, walk. Freedom ... freedom ... freedom."<ref name="washpost5-4"> {{cite news |title=Fire Hoses and Police Dogs Quell Birmingham Segregation Protest |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=1963-05-04 |page=1}}</ref> As the demonstrators left the church, police warned them to stop and turn back, "or you'll get wet".<ref name="newsweek5-13"/> When they continued, Connor ordered the city's fire hoses, set at a level that would peel bark off a tree or separate bricks from mortar, to be turned on the children. Boys' shirts were ripped off, and girls were pushed over the tops of cars by the force of the water. When the students crouched or fell, the blasts of water rolled them down the asphalt streets and concrete sidewalks.<ref>McWhorter, pp. 370–371.</ref> Connor allowed white spectators to push forward, shouting, "Let those people come forward, sergeant. I want 'em to see the dogs work."<ref name="time63"/>{{efn|name=fn1|''Time'' magazine originally reported that Connor said, "Look at those niggers run!" However, when the ''Time'' reporter was questioned, he admitted he did not hear the statement, which was published in any case by ''Newsweek'' magazine and several newspapers and became one of Connor's "most memorable lines".<ref>McWhorter, p. 393.</ref>}} A.G. Gaston, who was appalled at the idea of using children, was on the phone with white attorney [[David Vann (mayor)|David Vann]] trying to negotiate a resolution to the crisis. When Gaston looked out the window and saw the children being hit with high-pressure water, he said, "Lawyer Vann, I can't talk to you now or ever. My people are out there fighting for their lives and my freedom. I have to go help them", and hung up the phone.<ref>McWhorter, p. 371.</ref> Black parents and adults who were observing cheered on the marching students, but when the hoses were turned on, bystanders began to throw rocks and bottles at the police. To disperse them, Connor ordered police to use [[German Shepherd]] dogs to keep them in line. James Bevel wove in and out of the crowds warning them, "If any cops get hurt, we're going to lose this fight."<ref name="newsweek5-13"/> At 3 pm, the protest was over. During a kind of [[truce]], protesters went home. Police removed the barricades and re-opened the streets to traffic.<ref name="nyt5-3-63"> {{cite news |last=Hailey |first=Foster |title=Dogs and Hoses Repulse Negroes at Birmingham |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=1963-05-04 |page=1}}</ref> That evening King told worried parents in a crowd of a thousand, "Don't worry about your children who are in jail. The eyes of the world are on Birmingham. We're going on in spite of dogs and fire hoses. We've gone too far to turn back now."<ref name="time63"> {{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,830260,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080308041904/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,830260,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 8, 2008 |title=Dogs, Kids and Clubs |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=1963-05-10 |access-date=2008-01-29}}</ref> ====Images of the day==== [[File:Birmingham campaign dogs.jpg|thumb|300px|alt=A black and white photograph of a black male teenager being held by his sweater by a Birmingham policeman and being charged by the officer's leashed German Shepherd while another police officer with a dog and a crowd of black bystanders in the background look on|[[Bill Hudson (photographer)|Bill Hudson]]'s image of Parker High School student Walter Gadsden being attacked by dogs was published in ''The New York Times'' on May 4, 1963.]] The images had a profound effect in Birmingham. Despite decades of disagreements, when the photos were released, "the black community was instantaneously consolidated behind King", according to David Vann, who would later serve as mayor of Birmingham.<ref name="nyt5-3-63"/><ref>Hampton, p. 133.</ref> Horrified at what the Birmingham police were doing to protect segregation, New York Senator [[Jacob K. Javits]] declared, "the country won't tolerate it", and pressed Congress to pass a civil rights bill.<ref> {{cite news |title=Javits Denounces Birmingham Police |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=1963-05-05 |page=82}}</ref> Similar reactions were reported by Kentucky Senator [[John Sherman Cooper|Sherman Cooper]], and Oregon Senator [[Wayne Morse]], who compared Birmingham to [[South Africa under apartheid]].<ref> {{cite news |title=Birmingham's use of dogs assailed |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=1963-05-07 |page=32}}</ref> A ''New York Times'' editorial called the behavior of the Birmingham police "a national disgrace."<ref> {{cite news |title=Outrage in Alabama |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=1963-05-05 |page=200}}</ref> The ''Washington Post'' editorialized, "The spectacle in Birmingham ... must excite the sympathy of the rest of the country for the decent, just, and reasonable citizens of the community, who have so recently demonstrated at the polls their lack of support for the very policies that have produced the Birmingham riots. The authorities who tried, by these brutal means, to stop the freedom marchers do not speak or act in the name of the enlightened people of the city."<ref> {{cite news |title=Violence in Birmingham |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=1963-05-05 |page=E5}}</ref> President Kennedy sent Assistant Attorney General [[Burke Marshall]] to Birmingham to help negotiate a truce. Marshall faced a [[stalemate]] when merchants and protest organizers refused to budge.<ref>Eskew, p. 270.</ref> ===Standoff=== Black onlookers in the area of Kelly Ingram Park abandoned [[nonviolence]] on May 5. Spectators taunted police, and SCLC leaders begged them to be peaceful or go home. James Bevel borrowed a [[bullhorn]] from the police and shouted, "Everybody get off this corner. If you're not going to demonstrate in a nonviolent way, then leave!"<ref> {{cite news |last=Hailey |first=Foster |title=U.S. Seeking a Truce in Birmingham; Hoses Again Drive Off Demonstrators; Two Aides Meeting With Leaders—Negroes Halt Protests Temporarily |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=1963-05-05 |page=1}}</ref> Commissioner Connor was overheard saying, "If you'd ask half of them what freedom means, they couldn't tell you."<ref>Nunnelley, p. 152.</ref> To prevent further marches, Connor ordered the doors to the churches blocked to prevent students from leaving. By May 6, the jails were so full that Connor transformed the stockade at the state fairgrounds into a makeshift jail to hold protesters. Black protestors arrived at white churches to integrate services. They were accepted in [[Roman Catholic]], [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopal]], and [[Presbyterian]] churches but turned away at others, where they knelt and prayed until they were arrested.<ref name="nyt5-6-63"> {{cite news |last=Hailey |first=Foster |title=Birmingham Talks Pushed; Negroes March Peacefully |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=1963-05-06 |page=1}}</ref> Well-known national figures arrived to show support. Singer [[Joan Baez]] arrived to perform for free at Miles College and stayed at the black-owned and integrated Gaston Motel.<ref name="nyt5-6-63"/> Comedian [[Dick Gregory]] and [[Barbara Deming]], a writer for ''[[The Nation]]'', were both arrested. The young [[Dan Rather]] reported for [[CBS News]].<ref>Nunnelley, p. 153.</ref> The car of [[Fannie Flagg]], a local television personality and recent [[Miss Alabama]] finalist, was surrounded by teenagers who recognized her. Flagg worked at Channel 6 on the morning show, and after asking her producers why the show was not covering the demonstrations, she received orders never to mention them on air. She rolled down the window and shouted to the children, "I'm with you all the way!"<ref>McWhorter, p. 402.</ref> Birmingham's fire department refused orders from Connor to turn the hoses on demonstrators again,<ref>McWhorter, p. 387.</ref> and waded through the basement of the 16th Street Baptist Church to clean up water from earlier fire-hose flooding.<ref>McWhorter, p. 406.</ref> White business leaders met with protest organizers to try and arrange an economic solution but said they had no control over politics. Protest organizers disagreed, saying that business leaders were positioned to pressure political leaders.<ref>McWhorter, pp. 388–390.</ref> ===City paralysis=== The situation reached a crisis on May 7, 1963. Breakfast in the jail took four hours to distribute to all the prisoners.<ref> {{cite news|title=Birmingham Jail Is So Crowded Breakfast Takes Four Hours |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=1963-05-08 |page=29}}</ref> Seventy members of the Birmingham [[Chamber of Commerce]] pleaded with the protest organizers to stop the actions. The NAACP asked for sympathizers to picket in unity in 100 American cities. Twenty rabbis flew to Birmingham to support the cause, equating silence about segregation to the atrocities of [[the Holocaust]].<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=May 9, 1963 |title=Twenty Conservative Rabbis Fly to Birmingham to Back Negro Demands |url=https://www.jta.org/1963/05/09/archive/twenty-conservative-rabbis-fly-to-birmingham-to-back-negro-demands |agency=[[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]] |access-date=April 11, 2019}}</ref> Local rabbis disagreed and asked them to go home.<ref>Eskew, p. 283.</ref> The editor of ''[[The Birmingham News]]'' wired President Kennedy and pleaded with him to end the protests. Fire hoses were used once again, injuring police and Fred Shuttlesworth, as well as other demonstrators. Commissioner Connor expressed regret at missing seeing Shuttlesworth get hit and said he "wished they'd carried him away in a hearse".<ref> {{cite news |last=Sitton |first=Claude |title=Rioting Negroes routed by police at Birmingham; 3,000 Demonstrators Crash Lines |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=1963-05-08 |page=1}}</ref> Another 1,000 people were arrested, bringing the total to 2,500. News of the mass arrests of children had reached Western Europe and the [[Soviet Union]].<ref name="morris"/> The Soviet Union devoted up to 25 percent of its news broadcast to the demonstrations, sending much of it to Africa, where Soviet and U.S. interests clashed. Soviet news commentary accused the Kennedy administration of neglect and "inactivity".<ref>Cotman, pp. 101–102.</ref> Alabama Governor [[George Wallace]] sent [[state trooper]]s to assist Connor. Attorney General Robert Kennedy prepared to activate the [[Alabama National Guard]] and notified the [[2nd Infantry Division (United States)|Second Infantry Division]] from [[Fort Benning]], Georgia that it might be deployed to Birmingham.<ref>Eskew, p. 282.</ref> No business of any kind was being conducted downtown. Organizers planned to flood the downtown area businesses with black people. Smaller groups of decoys were set out to distract police attention from activities at the 16th Street Baptist Church. Protesters set off false fire alarms to occupy the fire department and its hoses.<ref>Eskew, p. 277.</ref> One group of children approached a police officer and announced, "We want to go to jail!" When the officer pointed the way, the students ran across Kelly Ingram Park shouting, "We're going to jail!"<ref>Eskew, p. 278.</ref> Six hundred picketers reached downtown Birmingham. Large groups of protesters sat in stores and sang freedom songs. Streets, sidewalks, stores, and buildings were overwhelmed with more than 3,000 protesters.<ref>Cotman, p. 45.</ref> The sheriff and chief of police admitted to Burke Marshall that they did not think they could handle the situation for more than a few hours.<ref>Fairclough, p. 128.</ref> ===Resolution=== {{Further|Birmingham riot of 1963}} [[File:Bomb wreckage near Gaston Motel (14 May 1963).JPG|thumb|alt=A black and white photograph of a building in ruins next to an intact wall|Wreckage at the [[A.G. Gaston Motel]] following the [[Birmingham crisis|bomb explosion]] on May 11, 1963]] On May 8 at 4 am, white business leaders agreed to most of the protesters' demands. Political leaders held fast, however. The rift between the businessmen and the politicians became clear when business leaders admitted they could not guarantee the protesters' release from jail. On May 10, Fred Shuttlesworth and Martin Luther King Jr. told reporters that they had an agreement from the City of Birmingham to desegregate lunch counters, restrooms, drinking fountains and fitting rooms within 90 days, and to hire black people in stores as salesmen and clerks. Those in jail would be released on bond or their own recognizance. Urged by Kennedy, the [[United Auto Workers]], [[National Maritime Union]], United Steelworkers Union, and the [[American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations]] (AFL-CIO) raised $237,000 in bail money (${{formatnum:{{inflation|US|237000|1963|r=-4}}}} in {{CURRENTYEAR}}) to free the demonstrators.<ref>Garrow, (1989) p. 182.</ref> Commissioner Connor and the outgoing mayor condemned the resolution.<ref>Nunnelley, p. 157.</ref> On the night of May 11, a bomb heavily damaged the [[A.G. Gaston Motel]] where King had been staying—and had left only hours before—and another damaged the house of [[Alfred Daniel Williams King|A. D. King]], Martin Luther King Jr.'s brother. When police went to inspect the motel, they were met with rocks and bottles from neighborhood black citizens. The arrival of state troopers only further angered the crowd; in the early hours of the morning, thousands of black people rioted, numerous buildings and vehicles were burned, and several people, including a police officer, were stabbed.<ref> [http://cgi.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/analysis/back.time/9605/15/ "Freedom-Now" ''Time'', May 17, 1963] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150309014723/http://cgi.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/analysis/back.time/9605/15/ |date=2015-03-09 }}; Glenn T. Eskew, ''But for Birmingham: The Local and National Struggles in the Civil Rights Movement'' (University of North Carolina Press, 1997), p. 301. </ref> By May 13, three thousand federal troops were deployed to Birmingham to restore order, even though Alabama Governor George Wallace told President Kennedy that state and local forces were sufficient.<ref>Cotman, pp. 89–90.</ref> Martin Luther King Jr. returned to Birmingham to stress nonviolence. Outgoing mayor Art Hanes left office after the Alabama State Supreme Court ruled that Albert Boutwell could take office on May 21, 1963. Upon picking up his last paycheck, Bull Connor remarked tearfully, "This is the worst day of my life."<ref>Nunnelley, p. 162.</ref> In June 1963, the [[Jim Crow laws|Jim Crow]] signs regulating segregated public places in Birmingham were taken down.<ref name="fairclough-aftermath"/> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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