Establishment of the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument

Proclamation 9565 of January 12, 2017

Establishment of the Birmingham Civil Rights
National Monument

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

The A.G. Gaston Motel (Gaston Motel), located in
Birmingham, Alabama, within walking distance of the
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Kelly Ingram Park, and
other landmarks of the American civil rights movement
(movement), served as the headquarters for a civil
rights campaign in the spring of 1963. The direct
action campaign--known as ``Project C'' for
confrontation--challenged unfair laws designed to limit
the freedoms of African Americans and ensure racial
inequality. Throughout the campaign, Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., and Reverend Ralph David Abernathy of the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC),
Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth of the Alabama Christian
Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR), and other movement
leaders rented rooms at the Gaston Motel and held
regular strategy sessions there. They also staged
marches and held press conferences on the premises.
Project C succeeded in focusing the world's attention
on racial injustice in America and creating momentum
for Federal civil rights legislation that would be
enacted in 1964.

The Gaston Motel, the highest quality accommodation in
Birmingham in 1963 that accepted African Americans, was
itself the product of segregation. Arthur George (A.G.)
Gaston, a successful African American businessman whose
enterprises addressed the needs of his segregated
community, opened the motel in 1954 to provide
``something fine that . . . will be appreciated by our
people.'' In the era of segregation, African Americans
faced inconveniences, indignities, and personal risk in
their travels. The conveniences and comforts of the
Gaston Motel were a rarity for them. The motel hosted
many travelers over the years, including business and
professional people; celebrities performing in the
city; participants in religious, social, and political
conferences; and in April-May 1963, the movement
leaders, the press, and others who would bring Project
C to the world stage. During Project C, King and
Abernathy occupied the motel's main suite, Room 30,
located on the second floor above the office and lobby,
and they and their colleagues held most of their
strategy sessions in the suite's sitting room.

The events at the Gaston Motel drew attention to State
and local laws and customs that--a century after the
Civil War--promoted racial inequality. In January 1963,
incoming Alabama Governor George Wallace declared,
``Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation
forever!'' Birmingham, Alabama's largest city, was a
bastion of segregation, enforced by law, custom, and
violence. The city required the separation of races at
parks, pools, playgrounds, hotels, restaurants,
theaters, on buses, in taxicabs, and elsewhere. Zoning
ordinances determined where African Americans could
purchase property, and a line of demarcation created a
virtual wall around the Fourth Avenue business district
that served the African American community. Racial
discrimination pervaded housing and employment.
Violence was frequently used to intimidate those who
dared to challenge segregation. From 1945 to 1963,
Birmingham witnessed 60 bombings of African American
homes, businesses, and churches, earning the city the
nickname ``Bombingham.''

By early 1963, civil rights activism was also well
established in Birmingham. Civil rights leaders had
been spurred into action in 1956 when the State of
Alabama effectively outlawed the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). A
sheriff served Shuttlesworth, Membership Chairman of
the NAACP's Alabama chapter, with an injunction at the
organization's regional headquarters in Birmingham's
Masonic Temple, where many African American
professionals and organizations had their offices. In
swift response, Shuttlesworth formed the ACMHR in June
1956, and established its headquarters at his church,
Bethel Baptist. Shuttlesworth and the ACMHR spearheaded
a church-led civil rights movement in Birmingham: they
held mass meetings every Monday night, pursued
litigation, and initiated direct action campaigns. The
ACMHR and Shuttlesworth established ties with other
civil rights organizations, and developed reputations
as serious forces in the civil rights movement. As the
primary Birmingham contact during the 1961 Freedom
Rides, Shuttlesworth and his deacons rescued multiple
Freedom Riders, sheltering them at Bethel Baptist
Church and its parsonage. Shuttlesworth also worked to
cultivate other local protest efforts. In 1962, he
supported students from Miles College as they launched
a boycott of downtown stores that treated African
Americans as second class citizens. A year later some
of the same students would participate in Project C.

Shuttlesworth encouraged the SCLC to come to
Birmingham. By early 1963, King and his colleagues
decided that the intransigence of Birmingham's
segregationist power structure, and the strength of its
indigenous civil rights movement, created the necessary
tension for a campaign that could capture the
Nation's--and the Kennedy Administration's--attention,
and pressure city leaders to desegregate. In the words
of King, ``As Birmingham goes, so goes the South.''

The plan of the Birmingham campaign was to attack
Birmingham's segregated business practices during the
busy and lucrative Easter shopping season through
nonviolent direct action, including boycotts, marches,
and sit-ins. On April 3, 1963, Shuttlesworth
distributed a pamphlet entitled ``Birmingham
Manifesto'' to announce the campaign to the press and
encourage others to join the cause. Sit-ins at downtown
stores began on April 3, as did nightly mass meetings.
The first march of the campaign was on April 6, 1963.
Participants gathered in the courtyard of the Gaston
Motel and started to march toward City Hall, but the
police department under the command of Commissioner of
Public Safety T. Eugene ``Bull'' Connor stopped them
within three blocks, arrested them, and sent them to
jail. The next day, Birmingham police, assisted by
their canine corps, again quickly stopped the march
from St. Paul United Methodist Church toward City Hall,
containing the protesters in Kelly Ingram Park.

Over the next few days, as the possibility of violence
increased, some local African American leaders,
including A.G. Gaston, questioned Project C. In
response, King created a 25-person advisory committee
to allow discussion of the leaders' different
viewpoints. The advisory committee met daily at the
Gaston Motel and reviewed each day's plan.

On April 10, the city obtained an injunction against
the marches and other demonstrations from a State
court, and served it on King, Abernathy, and
Shuttlesworth in the Gaston Motel restaurant at 1:00
a.m. on April 11. During the Good Friday march on April
12, King, Abernathy, and others were arrested. King was
placed in solitary confinement, drawing the attention
of the Kennedy Administration, which began to monitor
developments in Birmingham. While jailed, King wrote
his famous ``Letter from a Birmingham Jail.'' His
letter was a response to a statement published in the
local newspaper by eight moderate white clergymen who
supported integration but opposed the direct action
campaign as ``unwise and untimely.'' They believed that
negotiations and legal processes were the appropriate
means to end segregation, and without directly naming
him, portrayed King as an outsider

trying to stir up civil unrest. In response, King
wrote, ``I am in Birmingham because injustice is
here.''

While King was in jail, the campaign lost momentum.
Upon King's release, James Bevel, a young SCLC staffer,
proposed what would become known as the ``Children's
Crusade,'' a highly controversial strategy aimed at
capturing the Nation's attention. On May 2--dubbed D-
Day--hundreds of African American teenagers prepared to
march from the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church to City
Hall. With a crowd of bystanders present, police began
arresting young protesters in Kelly Ingram Park.
Overwhelmed by the number of protesters, estimated at
1,000, Commissioner Connor called for school buses to
transport those arrested to jail. On May 3--Double-D
Day--Connor readied his forces for another mass march
by stationing police, canine units, and firemen at
Kelly Ingram Park. As the young protesters entered the
park, authorities ordered them to evacuate the area;
when they did not leave, firemen trained their water
cannons on them. The high-pressure jets of water
knocked them to the ground and tore at their clothing.
Connor next deployed the canine corps to disperse the
crowd. Police directed six German shepherds towards the
crowd and commanded them to attack. Reporters
documented the violence, and the next day the country
was confronted with dramatic scenes of brutal police
aggression against civil rights protesters. These vivid
examples of segregation and racial injustice shocked
the conscience of the Nation and the world.

The marches and demonstrations continued. Fearing civil
unrest and irreparable damage to the city's reputation,
on May 8 the Birmingham business community and local
leaders agreed to release the peaceful protesters,
integrate lunch counters, and begin to hire African
Americans. On May 10, 1963, the Gaston Motel served as
the site to announce this compromise between local
white leaders and civil rights advocates. The motel was
bombed around midnight. The bomb blasted a door-sized
hole into the reception area below King's second story
suite and damaged the water main and electrical lines.
King was not in Birmingham at the time. His brother,
A.D. King, whose own home in Birmingham had been bombed
earlier in the day, worked to calm outraged African
Americans and avoid an escalation of violence.

Despite the negotiated peace, African Americans in
Birmingham continued to face hostile resistance to
integration. That fall, Governor Wallace, in violation
of a Federal court order, directed State troopers to
prevent desegregation of Alabama public schools. When a
Federal court issued injunctions against the troopers,
the Governor called out the National Guard. To counter
that action, President John F. Kennedy federalized and
withdrew the National Guard, thereby allowing
desegregation. In response, on September 15, 1963,
white supremacists planted a bomb at the Sixteenth
Street Baptist Church. Addie Mae Collins, Carole
Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley, all of whom were 14, and
Denise McNair, 11, were killed. The explosion injured
22 others and left significant damage to the church.
King traveled to Birmingham to deliver the eulogy for
the little girls. This act of domestic terrorism again
shocked the conscience of the Nation and the world.

Public outrage over the events in Birmingham produced
political pressure that helped to ensure passage of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964, which President Lyndon
Johnson signed into law on July 2, 1964. Later that
year, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the
constitutionality of the public accommodation
provisions (Title II) of the Act. Several Southern
politicians announced that laws must be respected, and
across the South outward signs of segregation began to
disappear.

Partially as a result of the Federal legislation
outlawing discrimination in public accommodations,
business at the Gaston Motel suffered. African
Americans had more choices in motels and dining. When
King returned to Birmingham for an SCLC conference in
1964, he and three dozen colleagues checked into the
Parliament House, then considered Birmingham's finest
hotel. A.G. Gaston modernized and expanded his motel in
1968, adding

a large supper club and other amenities, but business
continued to fall through the 1970s. In 1982, Gaston
announced that the motel would be converted into
housing for the elderly and handicapped. The use of the
property for this purpose ceased in 1996, and the
former Gaston Motel has sat vacant ever since.

Although some people continued to resist integration
following the events of the early 1960s, the passage of
the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and its enforcement by
the Department of Justice, had the effect of
eliminating official segregation of public
accommodations. Today, the Gaston Motel, the Birmingham
Civil Rights Historic District in which the motel is
located, the Bethel Baptist Church, and other
associated resources all stand as a testament to the
heroism of those who worked so hard to advance the
cause of freedom.

Thus, the sites of these events contain objects of
historic interest from a critical period in American
history.

WHEREAS, section 320301 of title 54, United States Code
(known as the ``Antiquities Act''), authorizes the
President, in his discretion, to declare by public
proclamation historic landmarks, historic and
prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic
or scientific interest that are situated upon the lands
owned or controlled by the Federal Government to be
national monuments, and to reserve as a part thereof
parcels of land, the limits of which shall be confined
to the smallest area compatible with the proper care
and management of the objects to be protected;

WHEREAS, the Birmingham Civil Rights Historic District
(Historic District) was listed in the National Register
of Historic Places (NRHP) in 2006, as a nationally
significant property associated with the climax of the
civil rights struggle during the 1956-63 period; and
the Historic District contains three key areas and the
streets that connect them, covering 36 acres throughout
the city; and the Gaston Motel, located in the African
American commercial and cultural area known as
Northside, is deemed a ``major significant resource''
in the Historic District;

WHEREAS, many other Birmingham places have been listed
and recognized for their historic roles in the
Birmingham civil rights story, including by designation
as National Historic Landmarks;

WHEREAS, the City of Birmingham has donated to the
National Trust for Historic Preservation fee and
easement interests in the Gaston Motel, totaling
approximately 0.23 acres in fee and 0.65 acres in a
historic preservation easement;

WHEREAS, the National Trust for Historic Preservation
has relinquished and conveyed all of these lands and
interests in lands associated with the Gaston Motel to
the Federal Government for the purpose of establishing
a unit of the National Park System;

WHEREAS, the designation of a national monument to be
administered by the National Park Service would
recognize the historic significance of the Gaston Motel
in the Birmingham civil rights story and provide a
national platform for telling that story;

WHEREAS, the City of Birmingham and the National Park
Service intend to cooperate in the preservation,
operation, and maintenance of the Gaston Motel, and
interpretation and education related to the civil
rights struggle in Birmingham;

WHEREAS, it is in the public interest to preserve and
protect the Gaston Motel in Birmingham, Alabama and the
historic objects associated with it within a portion of
the Historic District;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the
United States of America, by the authority vested in me
by section 320301 of title 54, United States Code,
hereby proclaim the objects identified above that are
situated upon lands and interests in lands owned or
controlled by the

Federal Government to be the Birmingham Civil Rights
National Monument (monument) and, for the purpose of
protecting those objects, reserve as a part thereof all
lands and interests in lands owned or controlled by the
Federal Government within the boundaries described on
the accompanying map, which is attached to and forms a
part of this proclamation. The reserved Federal lands
and interests in lands encompass approximately 0.88
acres. The boundaries described on the accompanying map
are confined to the smallest area compatible with the
proper care and management of the objects to be
protected.

All Federal lands and interests in lands within the
boundaries described on the accompanying map are hereby
appropriated and withdrawn from all forms of entry,
location, selection, sale, or other disposition under
the public land laws, from location, entry, and patent
under the mining laws, and from disposition under all
laws relating to mineral and geothermal leasing.

The establishment of the monument is subject to valid
existing rights. If the Federal Government acquires any
lands or interests in lands not owned or controlled by
the Federal Government within the boundaries described
on the accompanying map, such lands and interests in
lands shall be reserved as a part of the monument, and
objects identified above that are situated upon those
lands and interests in lands shall be part of the
monument, upon acquisition of ownership or control by
the Federal Government.

The Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) shall manage
the monument through the National Park Service,
pursuant to applicable legal authorities, consistent
with the purposes and provisions of this proclamation.
The Secretary shall prepare a management plan, with
full public involvement and in coordination with the
City of Birmingham, within 3 years of the date of this
proclamation. The management plan shall ensure that the
monument fulfills the following purposes for the
benefit of present and future generations: (1) to
preserve and protect the objects of historic interest
associated with the monument, and (2) to interpret the
objects, resources, and values related to the civil
rights movement. The management plan shall, among other
things, set forth the desired relationship of the
monument to other related resources, programs, and
organizations, both within and outside the National
Park System.

The National Park Service is directed to use applicable
authorities to seek to enter into agreements with
others, including the City of Birmingham, the
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the Sixteenth Street
Baptist Church, and the Bethel Baptist Church, to
address common interests and promote management
efficiencies, including provision of visitor services,
interpretation and education, establishment and care of
museum collections, and preservation of historic
objects.

Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to revoke
any existing withdrawal, reservation, or appropriation;
however, the monument shall be the dominant
reservation.

Warning is hereby given to all unauthorized persons not
to appropriate, injure, destroy, or remove any feature
of this monument and not to locate or settle upon any
of the lands thereof.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twelfth day of January, in the year of our Lord two
thousand seventeen, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
first.

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