In 1963, on the heels of a failed desegregation campaign in Albany, Georgia, Martin Luther King., Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference decided to take a stand for Civil Rights in “the Most Segregated City in America,” Birmingham, Alabama. In Project Confrontation, the plan was to escalate, and escalate, and escalate. And escalate they did, until even President John F. Kennedy couldn’t look away.

Joining me to help us learn more about the Birmingham campaign is journalist Paul Kix, author of You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live: Ten Weeks in Birmingham That Changed America.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “An Inspired Morning” by PianoAmor via Pixabay. The episode image is “Civil rights leaders left to right Fred Shuttlesworth and Martin Luther King, Jr., at a press conference during the Birmingham Campaign,” in Birmingham, Alabama, on May 16, 1963, by photographer M.S. Trikosko, and available via the Library of Congress.

 

Additional Sources and References:

• “Albany Movement,” King Encyclopedia, The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University.
• “The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC),” National Archives.
• “The Birmingham Campaign,” PBS.
• “Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth (1922-2011),” National Park Service.
• “Opinion: Harry Belafonte and the Birmingham protests that changed America,” by Paul Kix, Los Angeles Times, April 27, 2023.
• "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," by Martin Luther King, Jr., April 16, 1963, Posted on the University of Pennsylvania African Studies Center website.
• “The Children’s Crusade: When the Youth of Birmingham Marched for Justice,” by Alexis Clark, History.com, October 14, 2020.
• “Televised Address to the Nation on Civil Rights by President John F. Kennedy [video],” John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
• Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution by Diane McWhorter, Simon & Schuster, 2013.
• Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63 by Taylor Branch, Simon & Schuster, 1989.
• Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65 by Taylor Branch, Simon & Schuster, 1999. 
• At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68 by Taylor Branch, Simon & Schuster, 2007.
• Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference by David Garrow, William Morrow & Company, 2004.

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