Bending Toward Justice: June 1963
Events that shaped Birmingham in a year that altered the city forever.
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.
Tuesday, June 11
Gov. George Wallace enacts his “stand in the schoolhouse door” to deny entrance to two Blacks, James Hood of Gadsden and Vivian Malone of Mobile, to the University of Alabama. Wallace refuses to step aside from the entrance of Foster Auditorium when asked by federal officials, doing so only after President John Kennedy federalizes 500 Alabama National Guard members.
Wednesday, June 19
In Gadsden, local police and helmeted state troopers use nightsticks and electric cattle prods to disperse more than 300 Black protestors from the courthouse lawn.
Wednesday, June 19
The Birmingham Parks and Recreation Board votes to reopen Roebuck, Highland and Cooper Green municipal golf courses by June 29, ending 17 months of closed courses.
Saturday, June 29
Birmingham Police Chief Jamie Moore seeks a $540,000 increase in the police budget and 94 more officers for fiscal 1963-1964. He emphasizes the heavy burden the ongoing racial demonstrations have placed on the department.
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.