Why Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Decided to Launch “project C” in Birmingha

Jefferson BINDA NGIMBI

HISTORY 135

Assessment Week 12

12 – The Civil Rights Movement

1. Explain why Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference decided to launch “Project C” in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963. To receive credit for your answer, be sure to note the appropriate page number(s) from Why We Can't Wait.

Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference decided to launch “Project C” in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963, because Birmingham, Alabama was the city that segregation was so enforced, in May 1962 board meeting of S.C.L.C. decided to give serious consideration in joining Shuttleworth an A.C.H.R. so they can attacked segregation in Birmingham, Alabama, when the rumors spread in Birmingham that the S.C.L.C. was going to take long campaign and for the first time Businessmen of that city started thinking how to find a way to open doors of integration to the Negros community of that city;  as it is said: “Several weeks before our convention was scheduled, the business community began negotiating with A.C.H.R…”(King, 51).  And in the other hand Bull Connor was prepared to defeat those coming meetings by intimidating the press announcing press cards of outside reporters would be taken away as he was afraid of national exposure of the situation of that city, after the meeting took place Jim crow sign reappeared in the stores, as the author states: “The rumor was that Bull Connor had threatened some of the merchants with loss of their licenses if they did not restore the signs” (King, 53). This pushed the SCLC to a conclusion that they must go through with combined action. And they were decided to launch a top secret project which was project C as the author states it: “We began to prepare a top-secret file which we called “Project C”- the “C” for Birmingham’s Confrontation with the fight for justice and morality in races relations” (King, 54).

1. Explain the specific goals of Project C. To receive credit for your answer, be sure to note the appropriate page number(s) from Why We Can't Wait. The major purposes of Project C was to restore justice and morality in race relations as the authors says: : “We began to prepare a top-secret file which we called “Project C”- the “C” for Birmingham’s Confrontation with the fight for justice and morality in races relations” (King, 54). And there was a lot of strategies to set up that would make this project reach its goals, among the goals as I think the first one was assemble as many as possible Negroes in the South to become united as one man united and focus in freedom combat by becoming united as a non violence army, the goals were   the desegregation of Birmingham's downtown stores, fair hiring practices in shops and city employment, the reopening of public parks, and the creation of a bi-racial committee to oversee the desegregation of Birmingham's public schools as he says: “ We had been so involved in attacking segregation in general that we failed to direct our protest effectively to any one major facet. We concluded that in hard-core communities a more effective battle could be waged if it was concentrated against one of the aspect of the evil and intricate system of segregation” (King, 54).

1. Explain why Martin Luther King advocated for nonviolent direct action during Project C. To receive credit for your answer, be sure to note the appropriate page number(s) from Why We Can't Wait.

King’s direct action was to create a tension as King said but a constructive tension which will help, the authors explains that even Socrates was creating tension in the mind of people so that they may to come to know the truth, he was looking for to create that tension that will bring local administration of Birmingham to negotiate, by filling all the city’s jails, the authors states: “The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open door to negotiation” (King , 90). This was the only way to attract the attention of the nation to see what was going really in Birmingham.