ACMHR & the Second Revolution

Rev. Shuttlesworth frequently returned to Birmingham to lead the ACMHR in a strategic alliance with the SCLC that brought national attention to Birmingham and the need to end racial discrimination in America. ACMHR staff worked with the SCLC's Executive Director Rev. Wyatt T. Walker to plan and organize direct action strategies including sit-ins at segregated lunch counters, kneel-ins at White churches, mass demonstrations, jailings, and boycotts. Their goal was to disrupt Birmingham's economy so its White leaders would negotiate in good faith to meet Blacks' demands for equality in hiring, removal of racial signs at department stores, hiring Black clerks, and an end to other forms of discrimination. The Birmingham Campaign lasted from April 3 to May 10, 1963, and became one of the most important campaigns in the modern American Civil Rights Movement. Called Project C, for Confrontation, it exposed deep racial hatred, embarrassed President John F. Kennedy as leader of American democracy in the free world, helped set in motion plans for the country's most important civil rights laws, sparked protests across the country, inspired people worldwide in their own struggles for civil and human rights, and grew from seven years of ACMHR work in Birmingham that changed the course of American and world history.

Birmingham, Alabama · United States