Black Muslims: A refer-
ence to members of the
Nation of Islam.
Malcolm X(1925–65):
Fiery Nation of Islam min-
ister who mocked the civil
rights movement before
being murdered.
costly quagmire, King declared the agreement a victory and left segregation
intact.
Even in defeat, the Albany campaign profoundly affected the civil rights
movement because new techniques were developed to sustain mass mili-
tancy. Albany was unusual in its broad membership, its comprehensive
attack on Jim Crow, its plan to fill the jails, its use of energizing music, and
its alliance of local and outside leaders. The campaign against segregation
showed that nonviolence by itself could not exert enough pressure on politi-
cians as opposed to more vulnerable businessmen. An outside power – the
federal government – had to take the side of blacks. Because King was humil-
iated in Albany, he vowed not to dive into future crises. ‘I don’t want to be a
fireman anymore,’ he said wearily. He had not won a major civil rights vic-
tory in the seven years since Montgomery, and SCLC was flat broke.
Moreover, the civil rights movement was losing ground to restless young
blacks, such as heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, who found
black nationalism irresistible. The leading black nationalist organization was
Elijah Muhammad’s Lost-Found Nation of Islam, a secretive group com-
monly called the Black Muslims. With thousands of members, largely from
the ghetto, the Nation believed that the only antidotes to racism and violence
were self-control, self-reliance, self-defense, and complete separation of the
races. Malcolm X, a gangly street hustler turned spellbinding Muslim min-
ister, picked up where Marcus Garvey left off. Declaring integration unwork-
able, Malcolm accused King’s middle-class movement of deceiving the black
masses into thinking that Christian nonviolent protest would improve their
lives. King’s plan to love the white man into submission, Malcolm thought,
was delusional and dangerous. Malcolm did not want ‘to integrate into this
corrupt society, but to separate from it, to a land of our own, where we can
reform ourselves, lift up our moral standards, and try to be godly.’ In the
meantime, he urged blacks to protect themselves from white devils ‘by any
means necessary,’ suggesting that ‘killing is a two-way street.’
The civil rights movement was clearly at a crossroads. Aware of the stakes,
King devised a carefully laid, narrowly focused plan called Project Con-
frontationto desegregate Birmingham. The South’s largest industrial city had
a history of racial discord because of rising black unemployment, meager
public assistance, substandard housing, and police brutality. For years, five
klan groups tormented Birmingham’s black section with a steady diet of cross
burnings, mutilations, and bombings. Fearful blacks christened their com-
munity ‘Dynamite Hill’ and their city ‘Bombingham.’ Because of its violent
past, King believed that Birmingham could greatly help the civil rights move-
ment. He counted on public safety commissioner Bull Connor, patron saint
of the local klan, ‘to commit his brutality openly – in the light of day – with
the rest of the world looking on.’ Such mindless villainy, King thought,80 THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Project Confrontation:
The code name for the
1963 civil rights demon-
strations in Birmingham.