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Do not fill this in! ===Birmingham Campaign=== {{Main|Birmingham campaign}} Civil Rights activists and leaders in Birmingham fought against the city's deeply-ingrained and institutionalized racism with tactics that included the targeting of Birmingham's economic and social disparities.<ref name=":3" /> Their demands included that public amenities such as lunch counters and parks be desegregated, the criminal charges against demonstrators and protestors should be removed'','' and an end to overt discrimination with regards to employment opportunities.<ref name=":3" /> The intentional scope of these activities was to see the end of segregation across Birmingham and [[Southern United States|the South]] as a whole.<ref name=":3" /> The work these Civil Rights activists were engaged in within Birmingham was crucial to the movement as the Birmingham campaign was seen as guidance for other cities in the South with regards to rising against segregation and racism.<ref name=":3" /> The three-story 16th Street Baptist Church was a rallying point for civil rights activities through the spring of 1963.<ref name=":0" /> When the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]] (SCLC) and the [[Congress on Racial Equality]] became involved in a campaign to register African Americans to vote in Birmingham, tensions in the city increased. The church was used as a meeting-place for civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., [[Ralph Abernathy]], and [[Fred Shuttlesworth]], for organizing and educating marchers.<ref name=":0" /> It was the location where students were organized and trained by the SCLC Director of Direct Action, [[James Bevel]], to participate in the [[Birmingham campaign|1963 Birmingham campaign's Children's Crusade]] after other marches had taken place.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=16th Street Baptist Church Bombing (1963) (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/16thstreetbaptist.htm |access-date=September 29, 2022 |website=www.nps.gov |language=en}}</ref> On Thursday, May 2, more than 1,000 students, some reportedly as young as eight, opted to leave school and gather at the 16th Street Baptist Church. Demonstrators present were given instructions to march to downtown Birmingham and discuss with the mayor their concerns about racial segregation in the city, and to integrate buildings and businesses currently segregated. Although this march was met with fierce resistance and criticism, and 600 arrests were made on the first day alone, the Birmingham campaign and its Children's Crusade continued until May 5. The intention was to fill the jail with protesters. These demonstrations led to an agreement, on May 8, between the city's business leaders and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, to [[Racial integration|integrate]] public facilities, including schools, in the city within 90 days. (The first three schools in Birmingham to be integrated would do so on September 4.)<ref name="William O. Bryant">{{cite news |title=Six Negro Children Killed in Alabama Sunday |newspaper=[[Times-News (Hendersonville, North Carolina)|Times-News]] |date=September 16, 1963 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=TEMaAAAAIBAJ&pg=7126,662830 |first=William O. |last=Bryant |access-date=November 21, 2010}}</ref> These demonstrations and the concessions from city leaders to the majority of demonstrators' demands were met with fierce resistance by other whites in Birmingham. In the weeks following the September 4 integration of public schools, three additional bombs were detonated in Birmingham.<ref name="Washington Post Sept. 16, 1963">{{cite news |date=September 16, 1963 |title=Six Dead After Church Bombing |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |agency=United Press International |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/churches/archives1.htm |access-date=May 27, 2019}}</ref> Other acts of violence followed the settlement, and several staunch Klansmen were known to have expressed frustration at what they saw as a lack of effective resistance to integration.<ref name="Observer-Reporter Nov. 19, 1977">{{cite news |title=Former Klansman Is Guilty Of Bomb Deaths |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8_ddAAAAIBAJ&pg=2755,3260312 |work=[[Observer–Reporter]] |date=November 19, 1977 |access-date=May 27, 2019 |agency=Associated Press }}</ref> As a known and popular rallying point for [[civil rights]] activists, the 16th Street Baptist Church was an obvious target. 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