Bending Toward Justice: December 1963
Christmas lights in the Five Points West area of Birmingham in the early 1960s. (Alabama Department of Archives and History, Donated by Alabama Media Group, Photo by Ed Jones, Birmingham News)
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 has featured stories about the events of 1963 and their impact, including a month-by-month timeline listing many of the year’s milestones.
DECEMBER 1963
Friday, Dec. 13
State officials announce an agreement to begin immediately building the Red Mountain Expressway bridge over 21st Street. The city of Birmingham offers to pay matching funds to extend the highway two more blocks into the city.
Monday, Dec. 23
A fire raging through a home in Collegeville kills six Black children, ranging in age from 7 months to 6 years. Officials say a pile of clothing near a hot water heater caught fire at the back of the house, blocking the back door, which was the only way to escape.
A December 1962 advertisement for Eastwood Mall. The following Christmas, a terrible accident outside the mall during a deep freeze resulted in the death of a teenager. (Bhamwiki)
Wednesday, Dec. 25
A 14-year-old Woodlawn High School student who had been missing for two days is found frozen to death in an open ditch near Eastwood Mall. The student died from a fall and exposure to the elements, although an autopsy was ordered.
Tuesday, Dec. 31
A surprise snow closes many roads, with accumulation reaching 8 inches in some parts of the city. Bus lines suspend operations and the Municipal Airport around midnight cancels flights into and out of the city, bringing to a close a tumultuous year.
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.
