Project "C"
At a January 1963 meeting, King, his deputies
Ralph Abernathy and Wyatt Walker, and Birmingham
civil rights leader
Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth mapped out what was known as Project "C." (The
"C" stood for Confrontation.) Project "C" was planning boycotts, sit-ins,
marches and other demonstrations against stores that not only supported but
implemented the idea of segregation and discriminated against blacks. On
Wednesday, April 3, 1963, King and Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC) leaders from various organizations arrived in Birmingham and presented
officials with a list of demands, most of which requested the desegregation of
stores and restrooms. Because their petition was denied, Project "C" took
its course.
Beginning
that day, sit-ins at different segregated locations occurred for three days.
Although this was a peaceful demonstration, police used their brutal force
hoping to stop Project "C" from continuing. Protesters were beat with
nightsticks, attacked by vicious dogs, and sprayed by high-pressure hoses.
Martin Luther King Jr.,
among others, were thrown in jail. King was pressured by white ministers
in Birmingham to stop the demonstrations from occurring. However, King
refused to give up his dream. This was King's response to their requests:
http://almaz.com/nobel/peace/MLK-jail.html
March on Washington
On
Wednesday, August 28, 1963, 250,000 people, (including 60,000 white Americans),
marched upon Washington hoping to equalize and
implement equal civil rights. The leaders of the NAACP felt that this
march would be the most effective strategy concerning legislation. At the
Lincoln Memorial, gospel and folk singers celebrated the notion of a "free and
equal nation." After each song, speeches were given from several civil
rights leaders. This was by far the most peaceful and largest
demonstration of that era and also, to date.
Bombing in Birmingham
On
Sunday, September 15, just eighteen days after the Marsh on Washington, the
nation suffered another devastating tragedy; the seventh bombing in Birmingham.
That morning, four young girls attending Sunday school were killed in Birmingham
when a stick of dynamite was hurled through the window and exploded.
Denise McNair, (age eleven), Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae
Collins (all age fourtee
n),
members of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church were all murdered. Another
young girl was critically injured while twenty-one other members were wounded.
There were also two other victims that day. One was a thirteen year old
boy who was shot by two white boys who were trying out their new pistol.
The sixth victim of the day 
was a
black man who was shot by police while he was fleeing the riot.
Four members of the Ku Klux Klan were suspected, but it was almost 40 years later until the prosecutions began. Robert "Dynamite Bob" Chambliss was convicted of murder in 1977, and although Herman Cash had charges brought against him, he died before the trials could begin. Thomas Blanton (62 years old at the time of the trial) was convicted by a Birmingham jury on May 1, 2001. Finally, on May 22, 2002, Bobby Frank Cherry (nearly 71 years old) was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
Robert Chambliss Thomas Blanton Bobby Frank Cherry
