Born Jan. 15, 1929 Assassinated Apr. 4. 1968 "...yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice; say that I was a drum major for peace..." His dream liberated Birmingham from itself and began a . . . — — Map (db m73007) HM
Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth invited Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to Birmingham in 1962. Shuttlesworth saw potential in the young minister, and their combined efforts were instrumental in Birmingham's desegregation. The campaign catapulted King into the . . . — — Map (db m73031) HM
Dedicated to
Dr. Ruth J. Jackson
1898-1982
This woman of strength and vision graduated from the Poro School of Cosmetology, the first black registered school in the State of Alabama. At the vanguard of the Civil Rights Movement, she was . . . — — Map (db m27090) HM
Marker Front:
Founded in 1886 on 600 acres of land, East Birmingham was the agricultural area consisting primarily of dairy farms extending to the present Birmingham airport. The East Birmingham Land Company that developed the area was . . . — — Map (db m83827) HM
Black leaders debated how best to educate their children to live in a racially segregated society. Former slave Booker T. Washington, founder
of Tuskegee Institute, was America's leading Black spokesman at the
turn of the 20th century and promoted . . . — — Map (db m187636) HM
Emory Overton Jackson was born on September 8, 1908 in Buena Vista, Georgia to Will Burt and Lovie Jones Jackson. E. O. Jackson and his seven siblings were raised in the middle-class Birmingham enclave of Enon Ridge, located on the west side of town . . . — — Map (db m64736) HM
Constant mistreatment by a brutal police force, a racist state government
and a White community that was either hostile or unconcerned pushed
many Blacks in Birmingham to the breaking point. Many were stuck in
low-paying, low-level jobs. Most . . . — — Map (db m187785) HM
September 1963
The increasing number of new African American
families moving onto Dynamite Hill required the
building of a new school. The city's segregation
laws prevented their children from attending
all-White Graymont Elementary, even . . . — — Map (db m189184) HM
This sculpture is dedicated to the Foot Soldiers of the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement.
With gallantry, courage and great bravery they faced the violence of attack dogs, high powered water hoses, and bombings. They were the fodder in the . . . — — Map (db m27394) HM
Built 1939, 1901 3rd Ave. N.
The F. W. Woolworth department store was one of the first sites
targeted for the ACMHR and SCLC's economic boycotts and lunch
counter sit-ins of “Project C” during the April - May 1963 mass
demonstrations in . . . — — Map (db m188183) HM
Prior to 1900 a "black business district" did not exist in Birmingham. In a pattern characteristic of Southern cities found during Reconstruction, black businesses developed alongside those of whites in many sections of the downtown area. . . . — — Map (db m174706) HM
As both a lawyer and Smithfield real estate developer,
Arthur Davis Shores' story is also the story of Dynamite
Hill. He played a central role in African Americans' legal
fight to build and buy houses where they wished,
including the “White . . . — — Map (db m189185) HM
On September 4, 1963, Graymont Elementary
School was the first public school in Birmingham
to be racially integrated. Two brothers, nine and
eleven years old, accompanied by their father,
James Armstrong, along with Reverend Fred . . . — — Map (db m153229) HM
Built 1950 (Remodeled in the 1970s), 618 19th St. N.
The Greyhound bus station was a stop of the 1961 Freedom Riders, a
group of Blacks and Whites who rode buses together across state
lines to disobey segregation laws in the Deep South. A . . . — — Map (db m187718) HM
You are standing at Ground Zero of the 1963 civil rights struggle in Birmingham. When African-American leaders and citizens resolved to fight the oppression of a strictly segregated society, they were met with vitriol and violence despite their own . . . — — Map (db m73015) HM
Unfair laws forced Birmingham Blacks to create their own distinctive
world of economic and social self-reliance. The historic Black business
district extended several blocks around Kelly Ingram Park and contained
a concentration of Black-owned . . . — — Map (db m187760) HM
[Note: a portion of the wording on the first panel of the marker has been torn away.(See photo #1)]Paired marker
September 9, 1957
In 1957, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and his followers in
the Alabama Christian Movement for . . . — — Map (db m187702) HM
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) used its Legal Defense and Educational Fund and its team of
skilled lawyers to attack the "separate but equal” education laws. Beginning in the 1930s, the NAACP filed lawsuits . . . — — Map (db m187658) HM
As Birmingham's civil rights leaders pushed to desegregate city schools, radical opponents in Birmingham pushed back, sometimes violently. Responses against school integration included death threats by telephone to parents who dared send their . . . — — Map (db m187686) HM
After White business leaders failed to remove segregation signs and
hire African Americans, by 1963 Birmingham Blacks felt betrayed by
broken promises. Many Whites wanted the change that Blacks
demanded to be gradual. Some Whites reasoned that . . . — — Map (db m187824) HM
Birmingham's rise to national prominence in the modern American
Civil Rights Movement began several years after Rev. Fred L.
Shuttlesworth arrived in March 1953 to pastor Bethel Baptist Church,
founded in 1904. The church's prior pastors were . . . — — Map (db m188962) HM
The first march to City Hall was organized in 1955 by Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth when he petitioned the city to hire Negro policemen. By 1963, thousands of Blacks marched on City Hall to protest Jim Crow laws that were a constant reminder of Blacks' . . . — — Map (db m73036) HM
People across the country took notice of the Birmingham demonstrations.
Donations began pouring in to help post bail for hundreds of marchers,
mostly children. Local leaders estimated the amount for bail at well over
$200,000. As anger grew in . . . — — Map (db m187835) HM
Built 1871 (renovated from 1979 to mid-1990s),
1601 & 1630 6th Ave. N.
Kelly Ingram Park was the main battleground in the 1963
Birmingham Campaign, dubbed “Project C" (with “C”
meaning "Confrontation"). The campaign was the . . . — — Map (db m187845) HM
Responsible for much planning and leadership, the clergy played a central role in the Birmingham Campaign--like the famous Palm Sunday incident in 1963 (see nearby plaque). Local clergy like Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth worked with out-of-town ministers, . . . — — Map (db m73080) HM
A key reason for Rev. Shuttlesworth's success was that he led the ACMHR
by example. He was the first to put himself, even his family, in harm's
way for the sake of the Movement. He did not ask ACMHR members to
do anything he was not willing to do . . . — — Map (db m189112) HM
Another goal of the ACMHR was school desegregation. ACMHR members
like barber James Armstrong filed lawsuits to put their children in
better-funded all-White schools after the U.S. Supreme Court's
landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of . . . — — Map (db m189114) HM
1962
Segregation was still a way of life despite the ACMHR's heroic and
dangerous direct action campaigns and its multiple lawsuits.
Rev. Shuttlesworth knew he needed to put more pressure on the
city. He and other ACMHR leaders spent . . . — — Map (db m189137) HM
The non-violent marches for freedom in Birmingham inspired sympathy
demonstrations in Alabama, across the United States and around the
world. Average Americans began to insist that the federal government
step in to guarantee Blacks their rights . . . — — Map (db m187821) HM
Built 1926-27, 701 Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd. N.
The Birmingham Public Library was the city's main branch for
57 years. It was one of several protest target sites during the
1963 Birmingham Campaign. Like the city parks, Birmingham's
most . . . — — Map (db m187712) HM
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. replaced his initial reluctance to using
"children as foot soldiers' with approval. Thousands of newly recruited
child foot soldiers successfully marched toward the retail district, with
hundreds arrested for the . . . — — Map (db m187773) HM
Immediately after the Civil War, Northern church groups funded by
sympathetic Whites rushed to the South to start elementary schools
and colleges to educate freed slaves. Soon afterward, Blacks took the
lead in educating their own children. . . . — — Map (db m187635) HM
Rev. Bevel and his SCLC team targeted high school students such as
cheerleaders, football players and other student leaders as foot soldiers
in the Movement. These popular teens could influence their peers to join
the sit-ins, pickets and . . . — — Map (db m188922) HM
Built 1934-35 (remodeled into science center 1997), 216 19th St. N.
The Loveman's Department Store (originally Loveman, Joseph, &
Loeb), was a high-and retail store targeted for economic boycotts, pickets. "Project C" coordinators . . . — — Map (db m188173) HM
National Register of Historic Places
In many ways, the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision fueled the modern Civil Rights Movement. The NAACP's legal team strategically chipped away at the “separate but equal" doctrine to end . . . — — Map (db m188205) HM
On nightly news programs and in newspapers, the images of Birmingham
children under police attack shocked and sickened the nation. It was the
reaction that “Project C” organizers had hoped for. The "Children's Crusade” revived the Birmingham . . . — — Map (db m187837) HM
Built 1955, 1530 4th Ave. N.
Metropolitan AME Zion Church was one of the Movement
churches, hosting ACMHR mass meetings in 1962 and serving as
one of the starting points of the massive demonstrations of
April - May 1963. “Project C" . . . — — Map (db m188033) HM
Music was as much a tool in the Birmingham Movement as the marches
themselves. The Movement Choir organized by the ACMHR performed
regularly during the Monday night mass church meetings. The choir
sang songs such as "God Will Make a Way Some How" . . . — — Map (db m187820) HM
Built 1916, Remodeled as an IMAX Theater in 1997, 200 19th St. N.
The former Newberry's Department Store was also one of the
first major retail stores where "Project C" demonstrators staged
economic boycotts and lunch counter sit-ins to . . . — — Map (db m188072) HM
The central principle of the American Civil Rights Movement was non-violence, based on the strategies of Mahatma Gandhi, who led India's independence struggle against the British Empire. Being non-violent did not mean being passive. Using "direct . . . — — Map (db m83833) HM
Rev. Shuttlesworth was not completely satisfied with the settlement Dr. King
worked out with Birmingham's White power structure to end “Project C”
while he lay injured at the hospital. Even so, Birmingham's African Americans
finally won their . . . — — Map (db m187593) HM
Built 1923, 2316 7th Ave N.
Phillips High School was the flagship school in the center of Birmingham. It was named for John Herbert Phillips, the city's highly-esteemed first school superintendent, who served from 1883 until his death in . . . — — Map (db m187704) HM
Rev. Shuttlesworth recruited Dr. King and the SCLC to build publicity for
the Birmingham Movement, King invited popular jazz singer Al Hibbler,
one of the first celebrities to take part in the “Project C" marches. King
hoped Hibbler's arrest . . . — — Map (db m187782) HM
Birmingham Blacks had no love for police, who often harassed and brutalized them rather than protect them from bombings and violence.
Some policemen were suspected Ku Klux Klan members or sympathizers.
Public Safety Commissioner Eugene “Bull” . . . — — Map (db m73032) HM
Built 1952, 1501 7th Ave. N.
Poole Funeral Chapel served as a “safe haven” for demonstrators during “Project C's” mass civil rights demonstrations in
April - May 1963. In 1957, its owners, brothers John and Ernest
Poole, came to the rescue . . . — — Map (db m187905) HM
Some of the marchers in the Movement also went to the main Birmingham Public Library, where Blacks were not allowed to go. As always,
separate did not mean equal in Birmingham. Its Black citizens had a
small library located in rented space at the . . . — — Map (db m187830) HM
Racial Terrorism and Convict Leasing. Thousands of black people were the victims of lynching and racial violence in the United States between 1877 and 1950 Lynching was
a form of racial terrorism that went beyond only hanging, . . . — — Map (db m173372) HM
April 1916
On April 10, 1916, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a
case from Louisville, Kentucky, where it was illegal
to sell homes to Blacks in areas where Whites lived.
The high court's 1917 decision in Buchanan v. Warley
said Louisville's . . . — — Map (db m189158) HM
Throughout May 1963, the pressure continued to build. The downtown business district was closed, a prominent black-owned motel was bombed, and 3,000 federal troops were dispatched to restore order before Birmingham was officially desegregated. This . . . — — Map (db m73021) HM
1960
This Center Street Historic District was carved from the
plantation of Joseph Riley Smith, who subdivided 600
acres that became Smithfield in 1886. In 1898, the
Smithfield community was home to many Whites,
including Italian and . . . — — Map (db m189177) HM
No one did more to bring about positive change in Birmingham than the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth. In his struggle for equal rights, he survived a series of assaults, including the bombing of his home and a brutal armed beating by the Ku Klux Klan. . . . — — Map (db m73025) HM
Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth's tenure as pastor of Bethel Baptist Church (1953-1961) was marked by demonstrations, bombings and passionate sermons critical of segregation laws. His activism earned him a house bombing, frequent beatings, arrests, and . . . — — Map (db m83836) HM
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘Letter From Birmingham Jail’
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter From Birmingham Jail"
is the most important written document of the Civil Rights Era. His
eloquent justification of the movement and . . . — — Map (db m173404) HM
The explosions in August and the deaths of the girls
and two boys in acts of violence on September 15,
all attached to school integration in 1963, deeply
shook Birmingham. The violence stoked deep
resentment and anger in the Black . . . — — Map (db m189191) HM
Built 1937, 301 19th St. N.
The S. H. Kress store was another site of economic boycotts
and lunch counter sit-ins during the student-led protests of
Miles College students and their leader Frank Dukes in 1962 and
“Project C” in 1963. Retail . . . — — Map (db m188176) HM
Birmingham had the well-earned reputation of being America's deadliest
defender of segregation in the 1950s and 1960s. Civil rights leaders Rev.
Fred Shuttlesworth, head of the local Alabama Christian Movement for
Human Rights (ACMHR) and Dr. . . . — — Map (db m187681) HM
1953
During the early 1950s, moderate White business
leaders pressured city officials to find and prosecute
the Dynamite Hill bombers and explore racial
reforms. In April 1951, some worked with moderate
Blacks to form the Interracial . . . — — Map (db m189176) HM
White businessmen failed to integrate their stores and remove "Colored”
signs from water fountains and dressing rooms as promised in 1962. As
a result, Miles College students led by Frank Dukes organized a boycott
against the stores. They . . . — — Map (db m187758) HM
Many social scientists of the early 20th century promoted the false
belief that Blacks were intellectually and socially inferior to Whites and
fit only for service jobs. Blacks, therefore, did not deserve to be educated on the same level as . . . — — Map (db m187633) HM
Built 1924 (remodeled for offices in 1995), 413 16th St. N.
Judge Helen Shores Lee bought this one-story building, a
garage from the U.S. Post Office, in 1995 and turned into a law
center to honor her father, pioneer civil rights lawyer . . . — — Map (db m188192) HM
The mass demonstrations of “Project C” forced White Birmingham's
elite business leaders and downtown merchants back to the bargaining
table in May 1963. Once again, leaders of Black Birmingham's power
structure presented a list of demands in . . . — — Map (db m187828) HM
Although Rev. Shuttlesworth resigned from his positions within
the ACMHR and the SCLC in 1969, his dedication to the cause of
equality for African Americans continued for decades after the
height of the American Civil Rights Movement. A split . . . — — Map (db m187576) HM
"Project C” and the bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church were
powerful motivators to end racial discrimination in America, but they
were not enough a year later. Even after the assassination of President
Kennedy on November 22, 1963, . . . — — Map (db m187591) HM
1955
After arriving in Birmingham, Rev. Shuttlesworth
became active with the local NAACP and became its
membership chair. He organized 76 Birmingham
ministers to petition Birmingham's commissioners to
hire Black police officers. The petition . . . — — Map (db m187625) HM
One of the last major battles in the struggle for African American civil
rights came in Selma, Alabama. Despite the new Civil Rights Act of
1964, African Americans still faced difficulty voting. Although they
had the right to vote under the . . . — — Map (db m187587) HM
Birmingham's new leaders were much kinder to Rev. Shuttlesworth than their
predecessors. In 1978, officials renamed one of the city's main roads in his
honor. The city's first African-American mayor, Richard Arrington, Jr.,
requested his return . . . — — Map (db m187573) HM
In 1961, Rev. Shuttlesworth finally gave in to his wife Ruby's wishes to leave
Birmingham to become pastor of Revelation Baptist Church in Cincinnati.
But he returned to Birmingham often to organize the Monday night mass
meetings and lead the . . . — — Map (db m187597) HM
By mid-1956, the Montgomery Bus Boycott was crippling that city's economic
base. To stop its success, pro-segregationists searched for a legal loophole to block the NAACP, one of the boycott organizers. That loophole was that it had failed to . . . — — Map (db m187605) HM
The newly formed ACMHR continued Rev. Shuttlesworth's battle to hire Black
Birmingham police officers, mainly as a way to stop White officers from
harassing, beating and, in some cases, even killing Black citizens. When the
city rejected the . . . — — Map (db m187602) HM
On February 1, 1960, four Black college students in Greensboro, North
Carolina, sat down at Woolworth's "Whites Only" lunch counter. This
started a national movement where Blacks used sit-ins as a direct,
non-violent action to combat segregation . . . — — Map (db m187827) HM
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church
has been designated a
National
Historic Landmark
This property possesses National Significance in commemorating the history of the United States. In 1963 it was the staging ground for the . . . — — Map (db m63733) HM
Built 1911, 1530 6th Ave. N.
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was designed by Wallace
Rayfield, a renowned Black architect. It was among
Birmingham's most prominent African-American churches.
By the time of the 1963 Birmingham Movement, it . . . — — Map (db m187523) HM
Built 1959, 1410 & 1414 6th Ave. N.
Sixth Avenue Zion Hill Baptist Church hosted strategy and mass meetings during the Birmingham Movement. It also served as the departure points for the April 12, 1963, Good Friday march to City Hall, led . . . — — Map (db m244958) HM
The Birmingham Movement was a defining moment for African
Americans determined to win equal citizenship in their own country.
Pictures and stories from the Birmingham struggle touched the hearts of
the nation and the world. Often injured by . . . — — Map (db m188908) HM
In Alabama, White parents used the 1956 Alabama Pupil Placement Act that
let them “choose” which public schools their children would attend. When
Black parents in Birmingham tried to use the same law to send their children
to White schools, . . . — — Map (db m187685) HM
Built 1973, 708 15th St. N.
St. John AME Church and Day Care Center are on the site of
the former church that hosted Monday night mass meetings
during the early 1960s. It was also a center where “Project
C" leaders came to strategize about . . . — — Map (db m187892) HM
Built 1904; Renovations 1948-51, 1500 6th Ave. N.
St. Paul United Methodist Church was the site of the first
mass meeting held on Dec. 26, 1956, following the ACMHR's
(Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights) first
major direct action . . . — — Map (db m187868) HM
Built 1949, 1622 4th Ave. N.
This small, one-story, brick commercial taxi stand building was
constructed after the passage of a 1930 City of Birmingham
ordinance that required separate taxi services for Blacks
and Whites. Rev. George . . . — — Map (db m188185) HM
1946
This two-story Queen-Anne-style house at the
corner of Center Street and 11th Court North was built
around 1900 for the Hayes family. White neighbors
objected when they learned the Hayes family sold
their house to a Black couple, . . . — — Map (db m189180) HM
A key player in the Birmingham civil rights drama was Public Safety
Commissioner Theophilus Eugene Connor. He earned the nickname
"Bull” because of his booming voice as a radio sports announcer. White
voters who supported his politics of racial . . . — — Map (db m187780) HM
On May 2, 1963, more than 1,000 students skipped school and marched on downtown, gathering at the 16th Street Baptist Church. Bull Connor responded by jailing more than 600 children that day. So the next day, another 1,000 students filled the park . . . — — Map (db m73017) HM
After nearly a month, “Project C” seemed on the verge of collapse. The
presence of Dr. King and the SCLC did not rally Black Birmingham behind
the Movement as leaders hoped. The media began to lose interest and
the White community basically . . . — — Map (db m187840) HM
Rev. Bevel and his team worked with popular disc jockeys "Tall Paul”
Dudley White and Shelley “The Playboy" Stewart, whose jive talk on the
radio was actually a secret code that told young foot soldiers when it
was time to "move out.” Despite . . . — — Map (db m187770) HM
In November 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregated buses
in Montgomery, handing the bus boycott and the growing Civil Rights
Movement a major victory. As a result, Rev. Shuttlesworth led the
ACMHR to target Birmingham's segregated . . . — — Map (db m189098) HM
When notoriously racist police commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor sicced dogs on the "Foot Soldiers" of the movement, civil rights leaders hoped it would shine a national spotlight on their plight, but the country at large remained woefully ignorant. . . . — — Map (db m73398) HM
Built 1925, 1616-1622 4th Ave. N.
Located in the Historic Fourth Avenue Business District next to
the taxi stand and Colored Masonic Temple, this building
housed one of Birmingham's few hotels for Black travelers. It
also housed restaurants . . . — — Map (db m188186) HM
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., hoped to gain more national attention for the
Birmingham campaign by planning marches during Holy Week - on Palm
Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. But "Bull” Connor created serious problems for King. Connor got a . . . — — Map (db m187834) HM
Thirteen years after the American Civil War, the U.S. Supreme Court
began to uphold Jim Crow segregation laws that kept African Ameri-
cans from enjoying their 14th Amendment rights. Its famous Plessy v.
Ferguson decision in 1896 supported a . . . — — Map (db m187632) HM
The Christmas night bombing by White terrorists was intended to kill
Rev. Shuttlesworth, or at the very least, to scare him into leaving town
and his new organization. A police officer who came to the bornbed
house and church told Rev. . . . — — Map (db m189105) HM
In late 1958 and the summer of 1959, a series of articles in Time
magazine and the New York Times addressed the dangers Black
church leaders and others involved in the Movement faced as angry
pro-segregation Whites took more and more violent . . . — — Map (db m189131) HM
The New Pilgrim Baptist Church
Civil Rights Gathering Place.
This church served as a gathering place and strategic hub for Birmingham's Civil Rights Movement in 1956 under the leadership of Rev. Nelson H. Smith, Jr., . . . — — Map (db m188891) HM
By the end of April 1963, the national media and local Whites were
losing interest in “Project C.” Fewer Blacks volunteered to be arrested at
downtown stores and lunch counters. So, Rev. James Bevel, a field
Secretary with the SCLC, turned to a . . . — — Map (db m187765) HM
Ministers in 60 Black churches across the city played key roles in the
Birmingham Movement. In the mass meetings, ministers fired up their
working-class members and encouraged commitment to the struggle
against segregation with revival-style . . . — — Map (db m187529) HM
August 1963
The Shores daughters said their father handled civil
rights cases across Alabama and across the South. As he
advanced the African American struggle against unfair
segregation through the courts, angry White militants
turned . . . — — Map (db m189189) HM
1937
Starting in the 1920s, demand for all housing in
Birmingham increased year after year as the
population grew. Residential areas zoned for
"Negroes,” however, remained the same. By the
1940s, surging Black demand and a postwar . . . — — Map (db m189168) HM
Another strategy of “Project C” was voter registration for Birmingham
Blacks. At the time, only 12,000 of 150,000 voting-age African-Americans
in Jefferson County could vote. White state and local officials used such
methods as reading tests and . . . — — Map (db m187708) HM
Southern governors, mayors and elected officials employed every means to
resist public school integration, even famously using armed state guards to
block Black students from entering. For example, Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus
called the Arkansas . . . — — Map (db m187680) HM
June 1958
Rev. Shuttlesworth called 1958 “a year of harassment” as terrorist
violence against the ACMHR's movement grew worse. Bethel
Baptist Deacon James Revis offered his home near the new
parsonage as a guardhouse. Other men from the . . . — — Map (db m189119) HM
"Bull” Connor's police force still tried in vain to stop the marches to
City-Hall. The number of well-organized protestors overwhelmed
the police. Some marchers actually made it to Woodrow Wilson
Park (now Linn Park) that connects City Hall and . . . — — Map (db m187706) HM
The "sudden" emergence of the ACMHR ministers left White leaders
"dumbfounded” and deeply concerned about how they could be
controlled. At first, they called Rev. Shuttlesworth and his fellow
ministers “radicals” and “Communists," "outsiders” who . . . — — Map (db m189084) HM
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