The Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth was upset when he heard that the demonstrations had been called off.
The city of Birmingham has reached an accord with its conscience.1
—Statement from African-American leadership after settlement
With the threat of more demonstrations and increasing violence, Sidney Smyer observed the stalled negotiations between black and white partners. He sought a way to move the process forward. Smyer knew he needed the business community behind him for any agreement to hold. To garner that support, Smyer called upon the Senior Citizens Committee, seventy-seven of the most powerful white business leaders from Birmingham.2 The committee was known less formally as the Big Mules. In the midst of the chaos, Smyer convened a meeting of the Mules in the chamber of commerce building downtown.
Burke Marshall was present with the business leaders on Tuesday, May 7, 1963. He must have been disappointed during the early parts of the meeting. Marshall heard one speaker call for a harsh form of martial law to stop the African-American protesters and another blame the Kennedy administration for the demonstrations and for the violence.
With his words, County Sheriff Mel Bailey created an ugly portrait of the treasured stadium surrounded by a barbed wire fence.
The tone of the meeting began to change when County Sheriff Mel Bailey spoke. He described how the Birmingham jails were filled to capacity and that more arrests would mean using the Legion Field. With his words, Bailey created an ugly portrait of the treasured arena surrounded by a barbed wire fence. This concentration-camp image of Legion Field, Birmingham’s famous football stadium, did not sit well with the group.
And as the businessmen heard police sirens out the window brought on by the downtown demonstrations, they envisioned Birmingham under a martial law imposed by George Wallace. This impression did not seem like the view of Birmingham they wanted the world to see. The committee started to realize they needed to settle with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). They moved closer to acceptable terms and set up a subcommittee to negotiate that evening with members of the African-American community. Right after the discussions, Marshall called President Kennedy. Catching Kennedy at dinner with his brother, Marshall told him, “The meeting worked … Now if [it] holds … we’re over the hump.”3 This was good news to the president, who had earlier told the nation through his assistant press secretary that he was watching the events closely and “continues to hope the situation can be resolved by the people of Birmingham themselves.”4 With Marshall’s help, the president’s “hope” was being realized.
Negotiations Make Progress and Shuttlesworth Gets Enraged
Black and white teams talked throughout that Tuesday evening and into the morning hours. Early Wednesday, May 8, Lucius Pitts brought the fruits of the negotiating sessions to the Gaston Motel. Essentially, Pitts asked the Gaston group to accept the somewhat vague promise of future changes and the certainty of future negotiations in exchange for halting the demonstrations. After much discussion and some dissent, the group agreed.
And though over one thousand people had gathered in front of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church and in Kelly Ingram Park, demonstrations were called off for Wednesday. Temperatures rose to 88 degrees. As Young told the press, “It’s too hot. We couldn’t have controlled this crowd.”5
In the meantime, Shuttlesworth lay in the hospital, heavily sedated. He wondered why no movement leaders had come to visit, and he worried about what was happening outside. When his doctor realized how stressed the reverend was by being removed from the action, he suggested that Shuttlesworth return to his room in the Gaston Motel. The reverend agreed, went to the motel, and got into bed. He did not stay in bed long.
The Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth was upset when he heard that the demonstrations had been called off.
Andrew Young arrived and asked that Shuttlesworth come to a meeting with King and others at John Drew’s house. Shuttlesworth arrived, still wearing his hospital tags, and wondering aloud why he was called from his sickbed. King hesitantly told him that the African-American negotiating group had decided to call off demonstrations.
Shuttlesworth could not believe what he heard. He sputtered, “Say that again. … Did I hear you right? … Well Martin, who decided? … You’re in a hell of a fix, young man.”6
Shuttlesworth let King know that the group could call off the march, but that he would lead the children into the streets once again. As the reverend described this encounter years later, “‘Now, that’s it. That’s it.’ I said, ‘And if you call it off or Mr. Kennedy calls it off, with the last little ounce of strength I got, I’m gonna get back out and lead.’ We had the kids … ‘bout three thousand of ‘em in church. ‘I’m gon’ lead the last demonstration with what last little ounce I have.’”7
Shuttlesworth worried that the negotiators had accepted too little from the white businessmen. With so many people in jail and more ready to march, he felt that more could be gained. As the reverend put it, “Ain’t no use scalding the hog on one side! While the water is hot, scald him on both sides and get him clean. If the water gets cold, you ain’t never gonna clean off that hog.”8 Shuttlesworth stormed out of the Drew house.
Then matters went from bad to worse. Only three hours after King announced that demonstrations would stop in order to permit negotiations to continue, King and Abernathy were rearrested for the charges stemming from their Good Friday protest. Shuttlesworth, sensing an act of bad faith, again grew incensed and was again ready to resume marches. Ultimately, calm and reason prevailed. Robert Kennedy spoke directly with Shuttlesworth and the reverend cooled down. A. G. Gaston posted bail money and got the two ministers out of jail. King and Shuttlesworth talked and agreed to a joint press conference where they announced that the moratorium on demonstrations would continue but that marches would resume the next day if talks failed. And discussions continued that night and resumed on Thursday.
The African-American community acted and, as a result, they got through to the president of the United States. President Kennedy started to realize that he had a moral obligation to make civil rights a concern for his presidency and a concern for the American people. At a press conference on Wednesday, May 8, President Kennedy highlighted the events in Birmingham. The president first commended black and white negotiators. He then warned that there would be other threatening situations if the rights of African Americans were ignored as they had been in Birmingham.
Governor George Wallace disagreed and challenged President Kennedy with an angry rebuttal he released the same day. Wallace praised the “restraint” of the white community, denied Kennedy’s accusation that they had mistreated members of the black community, and condemned King for the violence.
The distance between comments made by President Kennedy and Governor Wallace show that there was a major rift between Americans over the question of civil rights in 1963 and that much conflict lay ahead.
Negotiations continued through Thursday, May 9, and achieved enough success for King to inform reporters at an afternoon press conference, which had been postponed three times throughout the day, that headway made in talks allowed the moratorium on demonstrations to continue. Abernathy warned that if progress did not continue they would all return on Friday “with their marching shoes on.”11 Late Thursday night negotiators reached a final agreement and wording for that agreement. One stumbling block remained. Who from the white community would make the announcement the next day? Given the history of violence against those who called for racial equality, the names of the Senior Citizens Committee remained a secret. The white negotiators had genuine fears.
Civil rights leaders Martin Luther King, Jr. (left), Fred Shuttlesworth (center), and Ralph Abernathy hold a news conference on May 8, 1963, to suspend demonstrations in Birmingham.
The most conservative and racist elements in the white Birmingham community spoke up. Defeated Mayor Art Hanes told reporters, “if they would stand firm, we would run King and that bunch of race agitators out of town.” Concerning the white Senior Citizens Committee he stated, “… why are they ashamed to release the names of those on the negotiating committee? Is it because they’re ashamed of the fact that they are selling the white folks down the river?” Hanes continued, “They call themselves negotiators. I call them a bunch of quisling, gutless traitors.”12 And no one knew for certain how the twelve hundred police who were now in Birmingham would react to events.
“The Climax of a Long Struggle”
The press conference was called for noon on Friday, May 10, but did not begin until 2:30 P.M. The reporters had been waiting hours. Finally, sitting behind a patio table at the Gaston Motel between King and Abernathy, Shuttlesworth spoke: “The city of Birmingham has reached an accord with its conscience. … Birmingham may well offer for Twentieth Century America an example of progressive racial relations; and for all mankind a dawn of a new day, a promise for all men, a day of opportunity, and a new sense of freedom for all America. Thusly, Birmingham may again become a Magic City.”13 Then he laid out the agreement. It included:
King (left) and Abernathy attend another news conference on May 9, 1963.
The New York Times acknowledged, “The settlement terms fell far short of those sought originally by Dr. King and other Negro leaders. They had demanded immediate steps toward desegregation rather than promises.”15
After the Reverend Shuttlesworth announced the agreement terms, King spoke:
King remembered the marching children of Birmingham and their parents when he said, “And without a doubt, the world will never forget the thousands of children and adults who gave up their own physical safety and freedom and went to jail to secure the safety and freedom of all men.”17
In the middle of the press conference, Shuttlesworth got up and said, “Gentlemen, I hope you will excuse me. I have to go back to the hospital.”18 He then collapsed. His doctor at the segregated hospital where he was taken said that Shuttlesworth was experiencing severe exhaustion, both physical and mental.
“We call upon all citizens, white and colored, to continue their calm attitude, to stop rumors and to thank God for a chance to reestablish racial peace.”
—Sidney Smyer, a white Birmingham business leader involved in settlement negotiations
It fell to Sidney Smyer to explain the final agreement to the white community. He hoped to convince everyone that the agreement served to avert further violence and was not too radical. Smyer urged calm. As Smyer stated to the public, “It is important that the public understand the steps we have taken were necessary to avoid a dangerous and imminent explosion. … We call upon all citizens, white and colored, to continue their calm attitude, to stop rumors and to thank God for a chance to reestablish racial peace.”19 He said the committee promised nothing to the black community that was “inconsistent with plans which already were in the making before these disturbances.”20 After the announcement, Smyer received a phone call from President Kennedy congratulating him.
Of course, Smyer did not receive praise or support from all corners. Referring to the merchants who had just participated in the negotiations, Bull Connor argued: “The white people and other people of this city should not go in these stores. That’s the best way I know to beat down integration in Birmingham.”21 There were other ominous notes. A May 11 New York Times article ended its discussion of the day’s events with this sentence: “A massive rally of Ku Klux Klansmen from both Alabama and Georgia has been scheduled for tomorrow night just outside the city limits near suburban Bessemer.”22 At the same time, Governor Wallace recalled the state police who had been sent to keep the peace. After speaking at a mass rally on Friday, May 10, Dr. King left the next morning for Atlanta, promising to return on Monday, May 13. At the time, he did not know how much he would be needed.