Sixty Years Later: Birmingham and the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
The following is a speech I delivered at the closing reception for an exhibition of photographer Bud Lee’s work at the Mason-Scharfenstein Museum.
You can listen to this piece on the Lillian E. Smith Center’s podcast Dope with Lime.
We’ve all seen images of Walter Gadsen, a Parker High School student in Birmingham, getting attacked by dogs as Birmingham police officers hold the leashes. We’ve all seen images of students in Birmingham bracing themselves against walls as Birmingham emergency personnel blast them with high-pressure fire hoses. Those images are from the Birmingham Campaign, which took place sixty years ago in April and May of 1963. The campaign originated in 1962 when students at area colleges proposed staggered boycotts of businesses, similar to the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1956. On April 3, individuals participated in nonviolent protests such as sit-ins at segregated public buildings, restaurants, churches, and more. Seven days later, Bull Connor, Birmingham’s public safety commissioner, issued an injunction…
