Carolyn Godfrey
English 102
Julie Lane
April 29, 2013
Martin Luther King Jr.’s Impact on the Civil Rights Movement
In 1963 Birmingham, Alabama was noted for racial unrest and civil rights demonstrations. Nationwide outrage was sparked by media coverage of police actions in Birmingham, Alabama. Birmingham’s differences grew and opened the eyes of separation between blacks and whites. In 1963 police officers were ordered under the leadership of Eugene “Bull” Connors to release dogs and spray high-powered firehouse hoses to break up the unity of the demonstrators (Connor). The protest demonstrations led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) at Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963 , because of their actions led directly to the introduction by President John F. Kennedy of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was enacted in the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson, violence and disorders in Birmingham, in the mind of President Kennedy, threatened the stability of the political system and undermined the position of the United States in the cold war (Smith). Why was the civil rights movement so important in Birmingham, Alabama? Because the racial tension in Alabama was so intense. The black people in Alabama were oppressed by the authorities in Alabama for they were in favor of White supremacy. Martin Luther King was a leader, the leader of the civil rights movement. This was the beginning of the movement acknowledging the racism, segregation, discrimination, and injustice shown nationwide. The events occurring in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 opened the eyes of America to segregation among Negroes and whites, and created sympathy towards discrimination in America, and positively impacted the Civil Right Movement.
Despite energetic organization on the local level, Birmingham, Alabama remained a largely segregated city in the spring of 1963 when Martin Luther King Jr. and his colleagues at the Southern Christian Leadership...