Timeline of the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham

This is a Timeline of the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham, covering related events throughout the Birmingham District during the main thrust of the Civil Rights Movement from 1952 to 1965:

1954

• May 17: The United States Supreme Court issued its ruling prohibiting segregated public schools in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas

1955

• June 29: The NAACP won a court order preventing the University of Alabama from barring the enrollment of Autherine Lucy and any other African-American applicants.
• October 10: The United States Supreme Court upheld the lower court's order in Lucy v. Adams

1956

• February 3: Autherine Lucy successfully enrolled as a graduate library science student at the University of Alabama
• February 6: Lucy was suspended from classes due to the University's inability to provide a safe learning environment.
• April 10: Kenneth Adams, E. L. Vinson & Willis Vinson assaulted singer Nat King Cole on stage during a performance at Municipal Auditorium. They were each sentenced to 180 days in jail.
• March 12: 101 Southern congressmen entered the Southern Manifesto into the Congressional Record, objecting to the implications of Brown v. Board of Education.
• May 26: A Montgomery judge banned the NAACP from operating in Alabama.
• June 5: The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) was created at a mass meeting at Sardis Baptist Church. Mass meetings were held each Monday at various movement churches throughout the movement.
• August 7: ACMHR's incorporation papers were filed at the Jefferson County Court of Probate.
• November 13: The United States Supreme Court issued its ruling in Browder v. Gayle, prohibiting segregation of Montgomery city busses.
• December 22: Carl and Alexenia Baldwin were arrested for occupying the white waiting room at Birmingham Terminal Station.
• December 25: Fred Shuttlesworth's home was bombed. He emerged from the basement unscathed.
• December 26: Fred Shuttlesworth led hundreds of Blacks onto Birmingham busses in defiance of local law. 22 are arrested and Shuttlesworth files a federal lawsuit against the police.
• The FBI's COINTELPRO program began efforts to disrupt the Communist Party in the United States, eventually spreading to investigate and harass labor and civil rights organizations.

1957

• January 12: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference was founded with the ACMHR as a charter member organization and Fred Shuttlesworth as secretary.
• March 6: Fred and Ruby Shuttlesworth again challenged the segregated waiting rooms at Birmingham Terminal Station. Lamar Weaver was assaulted outside after he greeted the couple.
• April 10: Two days after George Dickerson, pastor of 1st Baptist Church Kingston, bought the house at 1143 12th Place North it was extensively damaged by a dynamite blast.
• April 28: The Allen Temple AME Church at 9th Avenue and 22nd Street in Bessemer was bombed during a service, showering the choir with plaster debris.
• May 17: Shuttlesworth spoke on "The New Negro Church" at a "Prayer Pilgrimage" of black leaders in Washington D. C.
• September 9: Shuttlesworth was beaten while attempting to register two of his daughters for classes at Phillips High School.

1958

• Birmingham Police arrested ministers who were organizing a bus boycott, leading to an FBI inquiry of allegations of misconduct.
• Fred Shuttlesworth began writing a weekly column for The Pittsburgh Courier, a national black newspaper.
• April 28: 54 sticks of dynamite were left outside Temple Beth-El, but were doused by rain, preventing an explosion.
• June 29: Bethel Baptist Church was bombed by members of the Ku Klux Klan.

1960

• March 31: Fred Shuttlesworth was arrested for vagrancy and aiding and abetting violation of city ordinance.
• April 2: Shuttlesworth was again arrested for vagrancy and aiding and abetting violation of city ordinance.
• April 12: The article "Fear and Hatred Grip Birmingham" by Harrison Salisbury was printed in the New York Times.
• July: W. E. Shortridge and Georgia Price organized a Movement Choir to lead singing at mass meetings.

1961

• January: Birmingham Police detectives began recording movement mass meetings.
• February 6: Fred Shuttlesworth's car was impounded as part of the judgment against him in the case later overturned as New York Times Co. v. Sullivan.
• May 14: A Freedom Riders' bus pulled into the Birmingham Trailways Station and was met by a violent mob and no police protection.
• May 17: Fred Shuttlesworth was arrested for failure to obey a Birmingham Police officer.
• September 23: The Interstate Commerce Commission issued rules prohibiting segregation of interstate passengers, effective November 1.

1962

• January 16: Three churches were damaged by dynamite explosions.
• December 14: Bethel Baptist Church was bombed a third time, the explosion occurred across the street, but still shattered windows at the church and parsonage.

1963

• January 18: Governor George Wallace made his first inauguration speech, calling for "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever".
• April 3-May 10: Birmingham Campaign
• April 3: The "Birmingham Manifesto" was issued and the first organized sit-ins took place at downtown lunch counters.
• April 7 (Palm Sunday): Ministers John Thomas Porter, Nelson H. Smith and A. D. King led a group of 2,000 marchers to protest the jailing of Civil Rights Movement leaders.
• April 11: The Birmingham Public Library board voted to desegregate the city's public libraries.
• April 12 (Good Friday): Martin Luther King, Jr was arrested for parading without a permit.
• April 16: Martin Luther King, Jr completed his "Letter from Birmingham Jail"
• May 2-4: Children's Crusade, marked by the use of police dogs and firehoses.
• May 10: A truce was announced, ending the Birmingham Campaign.
• May 11: A. D. King's residence and the A. G. Gaston Motel were hit by devastating bombs.
• June 11: Governor Wallace made his "Stand in the schoolhouse door" before Vivian Malone and James Hood successfully enrolled at the University of Alabama.
• August 10: St James United Methodist Church in Warrior was destroyed by arsonists.
• August 28: Martin Luther King, Jr delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
• September 10: Birmingham City Schools were integrated by National Guardsmen under orders from President Kennedy.
• September 12: A. G. Gaston's residence in Robinwood was bombed.
• September 15: 16th Street Baptist Church was bombed, killing four children.
• September 25: Two bombs exploded in Center Street South in Titusville, apparently intended to draw a crowd and then spray them with shrapnel. No one was hurt, but a deep crater was left in the street and shrapnel was sprayed into nearby walls.

1964

• July 2: President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
• December 10: Martin Luther King was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.

1965

• March 7: The Selma to Montgomery March was stopped violently by police.
• March 21: Our Lady Queen of the Universe Catholic Church and A. D. King's residence were targeted by bombs, neither of which exploded.
• August 6: President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.