Birmingham: Testament of Nonviolence; Mother's Day, 1963 [2 of 2]
Description:
A documentary recorded in Birmingham, Alabama, Mothers Day, May 12, 1963. The previous night, the parsonage of A. D. King was bombed, as was the Gaston Motel, where Kings brother, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and a leader of the Birmingham movement, had been staying. Extensive rioting followed. The documentary includes commentary from various unnamed persons in Birmingham, including girls who participated in demonstrations and were arrested, and their mothers. The program also presents sermons by Birmingham clergy, Rev. Denson Franklin, Rev. Lamar Jackson, Rev. W. G. Burkett, Rev. John D. Lukens, and Rev. H. Frank Letford. At a gathering held at the New Pilgrim Baptist Church, Rev. Andrew Young from SCLC introduces a delegation from National Council of Negro Women visiting for Mothers Day. Mrs. A. G. Gaston introduces Dorothy Height of the National Board of the YWCA, who discusses the contributions of women to the movement. Speeches by Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. follow. King emphasizes the importance of nonviolence as a response to the violent actions of the previous day and relates achievements of the nonviolent sit-in movement that had resulted in the desegregation of 210 southern cities. The series was produced by Riverside Radio, WRVR, the FM station of the Riverside Church, New York City, for the Educational Radio Network and the National Association of Educational Broadcasters. It was distributed by the National Association of Radio Broadcasters Network. New York Times critic Jack Gould called the series a first-class journalistic coup [that] constituted a remarkable social document for the ear. For information on the Birmingham movement, see Glenn T. Eskew, But for Birmingham: The Local and National Movements in the Civil Rights Struggle (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997).
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