Birmingham campaign

===Campaign goals===
King of the SCLC had recently been involved in a campaign to desegregate the city of [[Albany, Georgia]], but did not see the results they had anticipated.  Described by historian Henry Hampton as a "morass", the [[Albany Movement]] lost momentum and stalled.<ref>Hampton, p.&nbsp;112.</ref> King's reputation had been hurt by the Albany campaign, and he was eager to improve it.<ref name="Hampton"/><ref name="Bass">Bass, p.&nbsp;96.</ref> Determined not to make the same mistakes in Birmingham, King and the SCLC changed several of their strategies. In Albany, they concentrated on the desegregation of the city as a whole. In Birmingham, their campaign tactics focused on more narrowly defined goals for the downtown shopping and government district. These goals included the desegregation of Birmingham's downtown stores, fair hiring practices in shops and city employment, the reopening of public parks, and the creation of a bi-racial committee to oversee the desegregation of Birmingham's public schools.<ref name="morris">
{{cite journal
|last=Morris
|first=Aldon
|date=October 1993
|title=Birmingham Confrontation and the Power of Social Protest: An Analysis of the Dynamics and Tactics of Mobilization
|publisher=[[American Sociological Association]]
|journal=[[American Sociological Review]]
|volume=58
|issue=5
|doi=10.2307/2096278
|pages=621–636
|jstor=2096278}}</ref><ref>Maurice Isserman & Michael Kazin, 'America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s', (Oxford, 2008), p. 90.</ref> King summarized the philosophy of the Birmingham campaign when he said: "The purpose of&nbsp;... direct action is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation".<ref>Garrow, (1986) p.&nbsp;246.</ref>