Birmingham campaign

====Methods====
The campaign used a variety of nonviolent methods of confrontation, including [[sit-in]]s at libraries and lunch counters, kneel-ins by black visitors at white churches, and a march to the county building to mark the beginning of a voter-registration drive. Most businesses responded by refusing to serve demonstrators.  Some white spectators at a sit-in at a [[F. W. Woolworth Company|Woolworth's]] lunch counter spat upon the participants.<ref>Eskew, p.&nbsp;218.</ref> A few hundred protesters, including jazz musician [[Al Hibbler]], were arrested, although Hibbler was immediately released by Connor.<ref name="newsweek4-22">{{cite journal|title=Integration: Connor and King|journal=[[Newsweek]]|date=1963-04-22|pages=28,&nbsp;33}}</ref>

The SCLC's goals were to fill the jails with protesters to force the city government to negotiate as demonstrations continued. However, not enough people were arrested to affect the functioning of the city and the wisdom of the plans were being questioned in the black community. The editor of ''The Birmingham World'', the city's black newspaper, called the direct actions by the demonstrators "wasteful and worthless", and urged black citizens to use the courts to change the city's racist policies.<ref>Bass, p.&nbsp;105.</ref> Most white residents of Birmingham expressed shock at the demonstrations. White religious leaders denounced King and the other organizers, saying that "a cause should be pressed in the courts and the negotiations among local leaders, and not in the streets".<ref>Wilson, p.&nbsp;94.</ref> Some white Birmingham residents were supportive as the boycott continued. When one black woman entered [[Loveman's of Alabama|Loveman's department store]] to buy her children Easter shoes, a white saleswoman said to her, "Negro, ain't you ashamed of yourself, your people out there on the street getting put in jail and you in here spending money and I'm not going to sell you any, you'll have to go some other place."<ref>Eskew, p.&nbsp;237.</ref> King promised a protest every day until "peaceful equality had been assured" and expressed doubt that the new mayor would ever voluntarily desegregate the city.<ref>Bass, p.&nbsp;16.</ref>