Birmingham Protests

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Pages: 4

The Conflicts of 1960’s
“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.” Civil Rights Movement leader Martin Luther King Jr recited this quote during his acceptance speech. Martin Luther King Jr. recited his acceptance speech after he proudly obtained his Nobel Peace Prize on December 10, 1964. In his speech, Martin Luther King Jr. explains how he believed the projects he led were successful and how those projects led to something amazing. In the 1960’s many conflicts followed like the Birmingham Protests, Letter from a Birmingham
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The Birmingham Protests were outcries that included sit-ins and embargos. One of the most famous boycotts of the Birmingham Protests was the bus boycott. The bus boycott was a strike against buses in Birmingham, where African Americans like Rosa Parks would be defiant towards police forces and against bus drivers. If you were African American you had to move to the back of the bus if a white man or woman came onto the bus. This outlaw showed that anyone was able to sit where they pleased. The boycott also left buses bankrupt because all protesters refused to use buses, leaving bus drivers no choice but to let anyone including African Americans, sit where they wanted. Furthermore, while these protests continued, Martin Luther King went to jail for being defiant towards police officers. While King was in jail, he wrote a very important letter known as the Letter from a Birmingham Jail. King wrote this letter for many reasons. One being he felt that if he was going to continue these protests, he wanted to stop violence between all protesters and people against the protesters. In 1963, another remarkable event occurred. This event was the March on Washington. The March on Washington was a march that occurred at the Washington Monument. This march included more than 200,000 people, including white people, who marched almost 150 miles. This march took place to show that there was equality between whites and African Americans. During this march, King recited his famous speech called “I Have a Dream”. This speech was a call for racial justice and