Secret Multiracial Meetings

During the early 1950s, moderate White business leaders in Birmingham pressed city officials to find and prosecute the Dynamite Hill bombers and to explore racial reforms. In April 1951, some of them joined moderate Blacks to form the Interracial Committee, made up of 25 Whites, including prominent businessmen, and 25 Black leaders such as Attorney Shores and businessman A. G. Gaston. The group created several subcommittees to address community issues that could begin racial reform, but because Birmingham's segregation laws banned interracial meetings, its members met secretly in places including First Congregational Church on Center Street. Among the committee's successful reforms were the desegregation of elevators in city center office buildings and the admission of Black doctors to the Alabama and Jefferson County Medical Associations. Soon, a 56-bed hospital, a day care facility, a golf course, 13 parks and playgrounds, five community centers, and two swimming pools were built, all for Negroes. Some Blacks believed these reforms did not go far enough, while many Whites believed they went too far, and pressure from both sides led the Interracial Committee to disband in 1956, leaving Blacks and Whites with no formal way to communicate with each other.

Birmingham, Alabama · United States