Bending Toward Justice: May 1963
Firemen spray civil rights demonstrators in Birmingham, May 1963. (Alabama Department of Archives and History. Donated by Alabama Media Group. Birmingham News photo.)
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.
MAY 1963
Wednesday, May 1
Judge William Jenkins holds 11 protest leaders in contempt of court and gives them sentences of five days in jail and $50 fines for ignoring his April 11 injunction.
Thursday, May 2
Demonstrations, later named the Children’s Crusade, begin with mostly school-aged children demonstrating en masse against the Birmingham Police Department and Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor. Police arrest nearly 1,000 children, most in groups ranging in size from 30 to 60.
Friday, May 3, and Saturday, May 4
Demonstrations involving children continue and jails are becoming filled to capacity. Connor responds with police dogs and high-powered water hoses, infuriating demonstrators and onlookers. By Saturday, more than 3,000 protestors are in jails in Birmingham and throughout Jefferson County.
Birmingham firemen blast protestors with hoses during the Children’s Crusade, May 1963. (Alabama Department of Archives and History. Donated by Alabama Media Group. Photo by Ed Jones, Birmingham News.)
Sunday, May 5
Blacks hold kneel-ins at 21 white churches, as well as a mass rally at the New Pilgrim Baptist Church (Sixth Avenue and 10th Street South). Rally-goers march to the Southside jail and hold a massive demonstration in Memorial Park across from the jail. That evening, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. tells parents of the child protesters: “Don’t hold them back if they want to go to jail. For they are doing a job for not only themselves, but for all of America and all of mankind.”
Monday, May 6
Demonstrations continue and Connor orders his men to shut down Kelly Ingram Park. Children flow continuously out of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, resulting in more than 800 arrests of people who had marched from the church and the arrests of more than 200 others from the downtown business district.
Tuesday, May 7
Children continue to demonstrate. The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth is hospitalized with injuries inflicted by high-powered water hoses on the steps on the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.
Wednesday, May 8
Demonstrations are suspended. Movement leaders say white business leaders are acting in good faith to settle issues of concern. Federal officials provide behind-the-scenes mediation between the groups.
Young protestors point back at firemen who had sprayed them in Kelly Ingram Park, May 1963. (Alabama Department of Archives and History. Donated by Alabama Media Group. Photo by Norman Dean, Birmingham News.)
Friday, May 10
King, representing leaders of the demonstrations, and Sidney Smyer, representing the white business community, reach an agreement that calls for an end to demonstrations and a cooling-off period. The agreement also provides for desegregating lunch counters, restrooms, fitting rooms and drinking fountains in downtown stores; the hiring of Blacks as clerks and salesmen; and the release on bond or personal recognizance of all who have been arrested during the demonstrations.
Saturday, May 11
The A.G. Gaston Motel and the Birmingham home of the Rev. A.D. King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s brother, are bombed. Three people are injured in the Gaston Motel explosion, while King’s family escapes injury.
Sunday, May 12
President John F. Kennedy sends U.S. troops trained in riot control to military bases near Birmingham. He pledges that the federal government will “do whatever must be done” to preserve peace and orders a proclamation and executive order to federalize the Alabama National Guard, if necessary.
Monday, May 20
The Birmingham Board of Education issues an order to expel more than 1,000 Black students arrested in Birmingham racial demonstrations.
Wednesday, May 22
A federal judge rules that the children were illegally expelled and orders the student demonstrators to return to class.
Thursday, May 23
The Alabama Supreme Court rules in favor of Birmingham voters in their decision to change to a mayor-council form of government. Mayor Albert Boutwell and the newly elected City Council are the city’s legal governing body, the court rules.
Tuesday, May 28
U.S. District Judge Seybourn H. Lynne refuses to order that Birmingham schools desegregate. His refusal sets up a legal showdown about schools in the city.
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 and History.
