African American History 6

Albany Campaign (1961–1962)

📍Albany, Georgia (Pop. ~56,000; 36% Black)
🗓 Launched December 1961
📌 Local activist William Anderson invited Dr. King and SCLC to join protests against segregation in schools, parks, and other public facilities.
❌ Problem: No clear or focused plan; attempted to desegregate everything at once.
🧠 Lesson learned: Overly broad goals diluted impact.

Police Chief Laurie Pritchett

📌 Albany’s police chief who outmaneuvered protestors.
📏 Strategy: avoid violent confrontation and refrain from using excessive force.
🎯 He arrested protestors peacefully and filled jails gradually.
📣 Quote from activist: “We ran out of people before Pritchett ran out of jail.”

Dr. King in Albany

🗓 Arrested but quickly released multiple times
👥 Branded as an “outside agitator”
📆 Left Albany in August 1962, after nearly a year of effort with little tangible success.

Birmingham Campaign (1963)

📍Birmingham, Alabama – most segregated city in America.
🗓 Spring 1963
📊 Pop. ~340,000 (40% Black)
📌 Nicknamed “Bombingham” – 18 unsolved bombings by 1963.
👥 Led by Dr. King, Fred Shuttlesworth, Ralph Abernathy, Wyatt Walker of SCLC.
🎯 Launched Project “C” (Confrontation): Sit-ins, boycotts, and mass marches.

Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth

📌 Co-founder of SCLC; invited Dr. King to Birmingham.
💥 His home had been bombed in 1956.
⚔ Long-time local leader with credibility among Black Birmingham residents.

Eugene “Bull” Connor

📌 Birmingham’s Police Commissioner
🚫 Hardline segregationist; known for brutal crackdowns.
🦴 Used fire hoses, police dogs, and mass arrests against protesters (especially children).

Project “C” (1963)

🧠 Developed at a January 1963 meeting in Dorchester, Georgia.
📣 “C” for Confrontation – the idea was to provoke a crisis using nonviolent protest.
📌 Sit-ins, boycotts, and marches would overwhelm the system.
💸 Dr. King toured 16 cities to raise funds; organizers trained youth and clergy.
📚 Source: Blueprint for nonviolent direct action campaigns

“Letter from Birmingham Jail” (April 16, 1963)

📝 Written by Dr. King during an 8-day jail stay after violating an injunction against protests.
📌 Responded to white clergy who criticized “outside agitation.”
📣 Famous quotes:

• “Justice too long delayed is justice denied.”

• “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

Judge W. A. Jenkins Jr.

🗓 April 10, 1963
📌 Issued an injunction banning 133 leaders from protest activity in Birmingham.
⚖ King defied this, leading to his Good Friday arrest (April 12).

James Bevel

📌 SCLC strategist who devised the Children’s Crusade.
🧠 Believed the movement needed fresh, fearless bodies—school children.

Children’s Crusade (May 2–7, 1963)

👧🏾🧒🏽 Thousands of school children, ages 6–18, joined protests.
📆 May 2: 959 kids arrested
📆 May 3: Over 1,000 marched again, met with fire hoses and police dogs.
📆 By May 6: Over 2,000 jailed.
📣 Result: Public horror forced federal action.

Bombings – May 1963

💣 May 11: Bombings struck the A.G. Gaston Motel (where King stayed) and Rev. A.D. King’s home.
😡 Sparked mass riots in Black neighborhoods.
📆 May 10: A negotiated settlement had just been reached; violence undermined it.

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing (Sept. 15, 1963)

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing (Sept. 15, 1963)
🕍 Site of the Children’s Crusade and rally base.
💣 Bomb planted by KKK exploded during Sunday School.
👧🏽 Killed four Black girls:

• Addie Mae Collins (14)

• Denise McNair (11)

• Carole Robertson (14)

• Cynthia Wesley (14)