Yesterday, I watched a documentary on terrorism, one in which the terrorists bombed innocent civilians, yet escaped justice because they were supported either by the fanatical hatred of much of the local populace, or enabled by many who deplored the violence but were too afraid to speak out against them and the political power they weilded. You see the terrorists controlled every aspect of life. There was no law that would prosecute them, and they were shielded by the very government that was supposed to be fighting to protect the public from their criminal activities.
Based on this description, you might imagine that I watched a documentary about Pakistan, where the terrorists that attacked America on 9/11 lead a protected, sheltered life, essentially free from all control by the central government, and protected by local tribal leaders who agree with the extremist goals and prejudices of Osama Bin Ladin and his Taliban allies. But you would be wrong. The terrorists of whom I speak lived right here in America, and their reign of terror lasted for nearly 20 years. Indeed, some would say it has never really gone away, merely underground.
Who were these terrorist and where did they live? They were members of the Klu Klux Klan, and they controlled the city of Birmingham Alabama through their use of dynamite, and through their ability to infiltrate and corrupt of all levels of official authority, from the police department, the fire department to the local city government. Terrorists who operated without impunity to defy the mandate of the Federal government and Federal court orders to desegregate:
From the period of 1948 up to 1957, there were 48 unsolved racial bombings in Birmingham alone. An old industrial city of 350,000 people, Birmingham was the largest and most volatile city in Alabama. Its black population was severely segregated in every way, economically, socially and especially in the labor market where they were confined to menial, low-paying jobs. Under Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor, an admitted supporter of segregation, the bombings had virtually no chance of being solved. Klansmen sometimes rode along with city police on patrol. Even the police officers who were not members were afraid to react lest they become the next target of the fanatical Klan. [
During only one month in 1957, four black churches were bombed in Birmingham as well as at least seven private residences. Most of these attacks took place in the Fountain Heights section, where black families were moving into a predominately white neighborhood. These bombings were so commonplace that the neighborhood became known as “Dynamite Hill.” Even the city’s newspapers used the term in print. Klan terrorism reached epidemic proportions. Violence seemed to be everywhere. On Labor Day in 1957, four Klansmen abducted and tortured a black handyman. They were arrested and received long prison terms. When George Wallace later became governor, he pardoned all four men without explanation. Such was justice in Alabama.
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Yet despite these ruthless, deadly attacks on the African American community, the federal government did little to oppose the Birmingham power structure which legitimated and enabled Klan activities meant to terrorize African Americans. Neither the Eisenhower administration, nor the Kennedy administration were inclined to spend their political capital taking on the Klan in Alabama. Many black citizens, fearful for their own lives, and fearful of losing their jobs or homes, were too intimidated to protest. In 1963, Martin Luther King brought his campaign for civil rights to Birmingham but found few adults willing to risk their livelihoods to demonstrate in the streets with him. His protests were failing. The national media was not covering the story.
Indeed, it was not until he and his team of activists enlisted the black school children of Birmingham that his campaign began to garner significant national and international attention when the Birmingham police savagely set dogs and fired water cannons at the teenagers, and some younger than teenagers who were leading the fight for social justice in the heart of Alabama’s most heavily populated and racially segregated city. Hundreds were arrested, yet still they came, and it was their courage in the face of unwarranted police brutality and the lawlessness of the local authorities which garnered the headlines that shamed America.
Dr. King realized “If our drive was to be successful, we must involve the students of the community. Even though we realized that involving teenagers and high school students would bring down upon us a heavy fire of criticism, we felt that we needed this dramatic new dimension. Our people were demonstrating daily and going to jail in numbers, but we were still beating our heads against the brick wall of the city officials’ stubborn resolve to maintain the status quo. Our fight, if won, would benefit people of all ages. But most of all we were inspired with the desire to give to our young a true sense of their own stake in freedom and justice. We believed they would have the courage to respond to our call.
Meanwhile the Klan did not stand idly by. The bombings of black neighborhoods continued as did attempts on the lives of Dr. King and his associates.
