Birmingham riot of 1963

It was also a rare instance of domestic military deployment independent of enforcing a court injunction, an action which was considered controversial by Governor George Wallace and other Alabama whites.

The African-American response was a pivotal event that contributed to President Kennedy's decision to propose a major civil rights bill.

The agreement included city and business commitments for partial desegregation (of fitting rooms, water fountains, and lunch counters in retail stores), promises of economic advancement for African-American workers, release of persons who had been arrested in demonstrations, and the formation of a Committee on Racial Problems and Employment.

[1] However, some white leaders, including the city's powerful Commissioner of Public Safety Bull Connor, who had used dogs and fire hoses against demonstrators, denounced the agreement and suggested that they might not enforce its provisions.

Investigator Ben Allen had been alerted about a potential bombing of the Gaston Motel by a source within the Klan and recommended that these troops stay for a few more days.

Klan Imperial Wizard Robert Shelton addressed the white crowd, urging rejection of "any concessions or demands from any of the atheist so-called ministers of the nigger race or any other group here in Birmingham.

Attorney and activist Orzell Billingsley had intended to sleep in Room 30 because he was exhausted from days of negotiation and his wife was throwing a party at the couple's house.

Rowe told McFall, his FBI handler, that Black Muslims had perpetrated a false flag bombing in order to blame the Klan.

[13] However, in submitting his final report to J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI, McFall did not identify the Klan as potentially responsible for the bombing, nor did he question the credibility of Rowe as an informant.

[14] Contemporary historians widely believe that the bombing was carried out by four Klan members, including Gary Rowe and known bomber Bill Holt.

[15] Rowe was already suspected by the Klan to be a government informant, and other members may have compelled him to assist with the bombing in order to test his fidelity to the white supremacy cause.

As traffic started to move, Birmingham Police drove their six-wheeled armored vehicle down the street, spraying tear gas.

At the same time, he did not want to set a precedent that might compel routine military interventions, and he feared a backlash among southern white Democrats who opposed a federal "invasion".

[26] Over TV and radio, Kennedy announced that the "government will do whatever must be done to preserve order, to protect the lives of its citizens ... [and to] uphold the law of the land."

[28] At the operation's peak (on May 18), about 18,000 soldiers were placed on one-, two-, or four-hour alert status, prepared to respond to a crisis in the city.

The Court responded that Kennedy was exercising his authority within U.S. Code Title X, Section 333, stating: "Such purely preparatory measures and their alleged adverse general effects upon the plaintiffs afford no basis for the granting of any relief.

[34] Birmingham activist Abraham Woods considered the disorder to be a "forerunner" to the 1967 wave of riots that followed passage of civil rights legislation and expressed protest at the slow rate of change.

[35] Operation Oak Tree was the first time in modern United States history that the federal government deployed military power in response to civil unrest without a specific legal injunction to enforce.

[30] New York City Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. warned that if Kennedy did not move quickly on civil rights in Birmingham, as well as nationally, then riots would spread throughout the country, including to the capital in Washington, DC.

[37] Malcolm cited the federal response to the Birmingham crisis as evidence of skewed priorities:[38] President Kennedy did not send troops to Alabama when dogs were biting black babies.

"[39] Bryant concludes: It was the black-on-white violence of May 11 - not the publication of the startling photograph a week earlier – that represented the real watershed in Kennedy's thinking, and the turning point in administration policy.

[40]Timothy Tyson affirms this position, writing that "The violence threatened to mar SCLC's victory but also helped cement White House support for civil rights.

He says it's completely out of hand ... you could trigger off a good deal of violence around the country now, with Negroes saying they've been abused for all these years and they're going to follow the ideas of the Black Muslims now ...