The birmingham campaign and the washington march

The Birmingham campaign

• king amd the SCLC initially struggled to organise demonstrations

• Connors police and police dogs stared attacking protestors and led to kings arrest

  • bailed by Kennedy

• kings provocation of white violence was the best option available

• king encouraged black school children to also protest

• Connor used high water pressure hoses which tore off their clothes

• police tactics horrified most Americans and the federal government made both side

The significance of birmingham

• kings campaign did little to improve the situation on birmingham itself

• in septemver 1963 , a bomb killed 4 young girls attending sunday school as hey ‘asked king to stay away’

• the publicity generated in birmngham exposed southern bigotry at its worst

• 1964 civil rights act which ended de jure segregation i nthe south

The washington marhc

• led by blakc american trade union leader Phillip Randold

• organisations such as the NAACP , SNCC and SCLC hoped a well attended march would gain puiblicity and encourage congrress to pass civil rights vill

• 250k people attended

The impact of the march

MLK gained internation prominence thought his ‘i have a dream’ speech

beleived his speech contrbuted to the passage of 1954 civil rights act

made american civil rights and international issue

kennedy promised a civil rights acts but assasination before being passd