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Martin Luther King, Jr.

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@ National Portrait Gallery

Description

Press conference in Birmingham, Alabama, April 11, 1963After the frustrating stalemate in Albany, Georgia, Martin Luther King and members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference were determined to see their next effort succeed. On April 3, 1963, following months of careful planning, King initiated a massive desegregation campaign aimed at "the breaking of racial barriers in Birmingham [Alabama], the most thoroughly segregated big city" in America. When marchers took to that city’s streets in peaceful protest, they were brutally attacked by police acting on orders from Public Safety Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor. At a press conference, King declared a state injunction prohibiting further protests to be "raw tyranny under the guise of law and order" and announced his willingness to defy it. Arrested on Good Friday, King remained in jail for nine days, during which time he wrote his "Letter from Birmingham Jail"—an eloquent and brilliantly argued response to those who maintained that racial issues should be left to the courts.
Type:
Image
Format:
Gelatin Silver Print
Rights:
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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National Portrait Gallery

Record Harvested From

Smithsonian Institution