See Foot Soldiers Statue at Kelly Ingram Park, Birmingham, Alabama

Add to My List Check Off

In early May, 1963 Kelly Ingram Park (West Park) became the epicenter of the civil rights movement. It was the local rallying point for civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham. Just a couple of weeks earlier Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been arrested for marching without a parade permit. It was during his incarceration, after his methods had been openly criticized by eight local clergyman he had penned and subsequently published one of the most eloquent apologies for the civil rights movement (which are to be known as the Letter from the Birmingham Jail) with its cornerstone principle of Non-violent civil disobedience to produce pressure upon the unjust systems supporting racial inequality and oppression. While producing this masterpiece, the actual demonstrations he came to support had not very successful because many African Americans in Birmingham had feared the repercussions that participating in open protest would likely bring upon them (including loss of job,etc.). But the momentum abruptly changed when SCLC leader James Bevel organized a highly controversial children's crusade in which school children would march in protest of racial discrimination in the place of the adults who feared participation. The numerical response of the children was overwhelming as thousands of school children left school and descended upon Kelly Ingram Park and the 16th Street Baptist Church (which sits on a corner adjacent to the park) and began "marching for freedom" ... and not just emotionally overwhelming. Public Safety Commissioner, Bull Connor ordered the arrests of 1000s of children who peacefully went off to jail and make shift holding facilities to the point there was no more room for them and they kept coming. There was no place left to put the--the jails were filled far beyond capacity--and they kept coming. Connor then made a move that literally changed everything. In order to disperse the crowds and discourage further protests, he ordered the use of police attack dogs, billy clubs and high pressured fire hoses against the crowds of children and other bystanders. These events were graphically caught and then immediately conveyed to the nation by the news media. The images, full of pathos and raw brutality, shocked the nation. More than anything else, this tactical move by Connor, was the beginning of his end and the beginning of a shift of sentiment in Birmingham (unfortunately an imperfect and incomplete shift that we still wrestle with today). The park has been converted into an outdoor memorial of the civil rights movement and is filled with sculpture based on the images of that day. It sits in what has become the center of Birmimham's civil rights district. Sharing one of the corners with the park, stands the historic 16th Street Baptist Church, the church that was used to organize rallies and, in consequence of that, was bombed in September 1963 on a Sunday morning resulting in the death of 4 innocent young girls who were in the house of the Lord to worship the eternal God who created all people and knows no difference between them, who Himself in the body of His son broke down the dividing wall of hostility.

Write a Review

No Ratings Yet

Flag as inappropriate ›