Birmingham Segregation
Fifty years ago, segregation was the rule of law in almost all public facilities in the City of Birmingham. Since the mid-1950s, Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, pastor of the Bethel Baptist Church, had been waging a war against segregation. Due to his efforts, he may hold the distinction of being a named petitioner in more Supreme Court cases than any other person.
On April 2, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., arrived in Birmingham to join Shuttlesworth in a direct action campaign to end segregation. Non-violent marches were one of the key tactics that the organizers of the Birmingham campaign sought to employ. A city ordinance, however, required a permit for parades or public demonstrations.
On April 3, Shuttlesworth sent Lola Hendricks, …show more content…
Dr. King had planned a Good Friday march; however, he had never violated a court injunction. Believing that a decision not to march would end the campaign, Dr. King, Reverend Shuttlesworth, and fifty other people marched on Good Friday and were arrested. During the week that he spent in jail, Dr. King expressed the principle of non-violent direct action to counter pervasive injustice in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”
Rev. Wyatt T. Walker, Dr. King, Rev. Shuttlesworth, and other leaders were convicted of violating the court injunction. Shuttlesworth was also convicted of violating the Birmingham parade ordinance. After slowly proceeding through the Alabama state courts, the appeals made their way to the United States Supreme …show more content…
City of Birmingham, decided in 1967, the Supreme Court, in a five-to-four decision, upheld the convictions of eight ministers for violating the injunction, finding that they should have applied to the Alabama courts to have the injunction modified or dissolved, rather than willfully violate it. Chief Justice Earl Warren filed a dissent, writing that “there is only one apparent reason why the city sought this injunction and why the court issued it; to make it possible to punish petitioners for contempt rather than for violating the ordinance, and thus to immunize the unconstitutional statute and its unconstitutional application from any attack. I regret that this strategy has been so successful.” Rev. Walker, Dr. King, Rev. Shuttlesworth, and five other ministers returned to Birmingham to serve their sentences for violating the
On April 2, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., arrived in Birmingham to join Shuttlesworth in a direct action campaign to end segregation. Non-violent marches were one of the key tactics that the organizers of the Birmingham campaign sought to employ. A city ordinance, however, required a permit for parades or public demonstrations.
On April 3, Shuttlesworth sent Lola Hendricks, …show more content…
Dr. King had planned a Good Friday march; however, he had never violated a court injunction. Believing that a decision not to march would end the campaign, Dr. King, Reverend Shuttlesworth, and fifty other people marched on Good Friday and were arrested. During the week that he spent in jail, Dr. King expressed the principle of non-violent direct action to counter pervasive injustice in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”
Rev. Wyatt T. Walker, Dr. King, Rev. Shuttlesworth, and other leaders were convicted of violating the court injunction. Shuttlesworth was also convicted of violating the Birmingham parade ordinance. After slowly proceeding through the Alabama state courts, the appeals made their way to the United States Supreme …show more content…
City of Birmingham, decided in 1967, the Supreme Court, in a five-to-four decision, upheld the convictions of eight ministers for violating the injunction, finding that they should have applied to the Alabama courts to have the injunction modified or dissolved, rather than willfully violate it. Chief Justice Earl Warren filed a dissent, writing that “there is only one apparent reason why the city sought this injunction and why the court issued it; to make it possible to punish petitioners for contempt rather than for violating the ordinance, and thus to immunize the unconstitutional statute and its unconstitutional application from any attack. I regret that this strategy has been so successful.” Rev. Walker, Dr. King, Rev. Shuttlesworth, and five other ministers returned to Birmingham to serve their sentences for violating the