Bending Toward Justice: January 1963
Alabama Gov. George Wallace celebrates with his family at his 1963 inauguration. (Paul Robertson / Alabama Department of Archives and History)
Sixty years ago, Birmingham became ground zero in the struggle for human rights. Many events in Birmingham and Alabama made 1963 a transformative year that would change the city, and the world, forever. Throughout 2023 in “Bending Toward Justice,” Alabama News Center is featuring stories about the events of 1963 and their impact, including a month-by-month timeline listing many of the year’s milestones.
JANUARY 1963
Thursday, January 10
Southern Christian Leadership Conference leaders, including the Revs. Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy, and Andrew Young and Dorothy Cotton, as well as the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth of Birmingham, head of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, meet for two days in Dorchester, Georgia. They commit to a campaign – Project C, for confrontation – to desegregate Birmingham.
Friday, January 11
Construction of the multimillion-dollar Red Mountain Expressway to begin after contracts are signed. The project’s first phase will take 15 to 18 months to finish.
Monday, January 14
George C. Wallace becomes governor of Alabama. During his inaugural address,he pledges to “draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny … and I say … segregation now … segregation tomorrow … segregation forever.”
Thursday, January 17
Eleven white clergy members, in reaction to Wallace’s address, issue an “Appeal for Law and Order and Common Sense” in The Birmingham News. The statement condemns civil unrest, advocates peace and encourages segregationists to follow the law.
Sources: “1963, How the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement Changed America and the World,” by Barnett Wright; Pennsylvania State University, “The Rhetoric of the Civil Rights Movement” Birmingham Timeline; BHAMWIKI 1963; “Parting the Waters, America in the King Years 1954-63,” by Taylor Branch; Alabama Department of Archives & History.
