In April and May of 1963, Birmingham, Alabama was a focal point for the civil rights movement.  Birmingham was home to one of the most violent cells of the KKK and violence against black people was so commonplace (especially in the form of explosives) that it was referred to as “Bombingham.”  It was these conditions that lead Martin Luther King to arrive and organize a series of non-violent protests in the city.  These protests were relatively low key and weren’t very well attended.  This was due to the fact that political rivalries between King’s organization, the SCLC, and other civil right’s organizations like CORE and the NAACP.  However, the Birmingham protests soon became headlines due to the response of the city’s police commissioner, Eugene “Bull” Conner, to the protests.  Seeing any kind of black protest as a threat to his rule, Conner sent out police and firemen to subdue the non-violent protests.  Soon enough scenes such as German Shepherds attacking black men and firemen hosing down protesters with high-pressure hoses became emblazoned across the country’s newspapers.  Martin Luther King had also been arrested for his role in the protests (his 13^th time) and while in jail, wrote his well know “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” in response to another letter published by eight white Alabama clergymen (An Appeal for Law and Order and Common Sense).  This letter written by King went on to be published in national newspapers and circulated through various churches in pamphlet form.

Another important event that happened in September of 1963 was the bombing of the 16^th street Baptist Church.  In the explosion, four little girls were killed. (Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Rosamond Robertson and Addie Mae Collins)  Four men had committed the bombing in an attempt to slow down the civil rights movement in Birmingham.  These four men were Robert Chamblis, Thomas Blanton Jr., Bobby Frank Cherry, and Herman Frank Cash.  However, even though there was evidence pointing to these four men as the perpetrator, the FBI, led by J. Edgar Hoover at the time, dragged its feet in the investigation and held evidence back.  This was due to the fact that Hoover wasn’t fond of Martin Luther King and some circles say that he personally believed the bombing to have been committed by people interested in gaining sympathy for the civil rights cause.  Whatever the case may be, it wasn’t until 1977 that a conviction could be obtained for just one of the men accused of the bombing.  The bombing itself had the effect of uniting all of the civil rights organizations in the South and also giving a face, four faces to be precise, to the rest of the nation as a kind of message about the evils of racism.

The two articles to be analyzed for discrepancies is an article from the United Press and Birmingham World.  Both cover the Church Bombing on September 15, 1963 and the events immediately after.  The first major difference in the two articles is that the United Press article was written the day after the incident and the Birmingham World article was written three days after the event.  This influences the focus of each article.  Being closer to the actual event the United Press article tends to be more close to the facts of what actually occurred.  Whereas the Birmingham World article was a commentary on a bit of what happened at the event but more of a national response and the neglect the nation had on this event.  The United Press article literally outlined exactly who died and when, illustrating the police response and the certain crowds that developed.  It is very clear what happened after reading this article.  There is a discrepancy with the Birmingham World newspaper; the author tends to down play the Negro response to the Church Bombing.  The author justifies their demonstration of retaliation by their anger and “shocked” by the lack of solution.  As a commentary this article provides only the author’s opinion of what took place and the reasons for it.  But, the United Press article attempts to give an unbiased view of the events by listing each event in a chronological order.  So if one were to do research on this topic the better option would be to use the United Press article because it reports more of the facts.  But if the person were looking for an opinion of the reaction of the nation following the event, the commentary would be a better solution.

We also found three books that relate to Birmingham, Alabama and all of the events its people suffered through.  There is: The Watsons Go to Birmingham, written in 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis, Reporting Civil Rights: American Journalism 1941-1963, written by Clayborne Carson, and finally the book that we did a summary and found a review of, Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution, written by Diane McWhorter in 2001.

Summary:

            This story is mainly a narrative about the author's life during the 1950’ s-1960. The author was born into a white family, living in Birmingham. During the 1960's many African Americans fought against segregation by protesting and boycotting. Many violent, racist acts occurred in this time period. Police dogs in many cases attacked demonstrators. Also, another memorable scene was when police and firemen actually used a high-pressure hose on the demonstrators. The author recalls all of these events and more. For example, in the book, she mentions the burning of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church and the killing of four young black girls. That seemed to be the most terrifying and memorable event to the author. Since the author was a journalist, she compiled police and FBI documents together and interviews with both black civil rights activists and members of the KKK.

Review:

            Simon & Schuster Books reviews this book and says that the author "brilliantly captures the opposing sides in this struggle for racial justice". The reviewer appreciates the fact that the author is white and is not giving just a one-sided account about the events of the 1960's in Birmingham, Alabama. They also notice the importance of the civil rights movement in the book. They go on to say that the movement was a "waning force in desperate need of a victory".  This shows the necessity of the protests and the standing up for equality. The issue of segregation during that time was a hot topic, and if one were to discuss such an issue, especially in Birmingham, they would be skating on thin ice, so to speak. The reviewer commends McWhorter's book by describing it as the "first major movement history to uncover the segregationist resistance". There were not many books during the author's time that brings the issue of segregation to light, and the review sees this book as a pioneer of books for the civil rights movement. Overall, the reviewer is very pleased with the book and even calls it a "classic work” because of its description of how America transformed during the 1960's

Methodology:

            Paula and Raheem both started by using the Undergrad libraries website.  Paula had more luck in that she found many articles on J-STOR that could be used for crucial facts about 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama.  Raheem didn’t have as good of luck with the Undergrad website, and eventually he used Google to find the articles he wrote about.  Emmanuel used the Internet from the start, and worked solely off of what he found there. 

Works Cited

Carson, Clayborne.  Reporting Civil Rights: American Journalism 1941-1963.

Colaico, James A.  "The American Dream Unfulfilled: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the    "Letter from Birmingham Jail.”  Phylon (1960-), Vol. 45, No.1 (1^st Qtr., 1984),           pp. 1-18.

Curtis, Christopher Paul.  The Watsons go to Birmingham-1963.

McWhorter, Diane.  Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the                      Civil Rights Revolution.  Simon and Schuster Books.  March 2001.

“Killers of the Innocents”-Commentary.  Birmingham World.  September 18, 1963.            http://www.useekufind.com/peace/a_1963_church_bombing.htm#KILLERS.

“Six Dead After Church Bombing.”  Washington Post.  September 16, 1963.                            http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/churches/photo3.htm.

This picture accompanied the article in the Birmingham World.  It shows the aftermath of the bombing attack on the 16^th Street Baptist Church.  I think that a photograph like this really doesn’t do much for the impression the article would give because it is zoomed away from the details of the bombing.  All one can see is just some rubble lying on the ground, cordoned off by wires.  There is a group of people there, but without there faces being seen, a reader couldn’t be affected by this photo.

This photo accompanied the Washington Post article and does a little better job of swaying the reader, in my opinion.  It shows rubble strewn all over the sidewalk, but more importantly, it is closer to the action and you can really  see the some detail about what the bombing did to the church.