Bending Toward Justice: February 1963
The Birmingham City Commission, composed of Commissioners Eugene "Bull" Connor and J.T. Waggoner and Mayor Art Hanes, was targeted for replacement in the 1963 city election. (Bhamwiki)
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.
FEBRUARY 1963
Thursday, Feb. 14
“Private citizens” file a petition in Jefferson County Circuit Court and the Alabama Supreme Court against the Birmingham Election Commission, seeking an injunction to stop the upcoming March 5 city elections.
Friday, Feb. 15
The state Supreme Court turns down the citizens’ request for an injunction to halt the election.
Wednesday, Feb. 20
The state Supreme Court denies Birmingham Mayor Arthur J. Hanes’ petition to stop the March 5 mayor-council city election. The four-man mayor’s race features former Alabama Lt. Gov. Albert Boutwell, Birmingham Commissioner of Public Safety Theophilus Eugene “Bull” Connor, attorney Tom King and Birmingham City Commissioner J.T. Waggoner.
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.
