EPISODE 4: BIRMINGHAM ## CHAPTER 1: THE MOST SEGREGATED CITY Birmingham, Alabama was known as "Bombingham." Fifty unsolved bombings of Black homes and churches in fifteen years. A police commissioner—Eugene "Bull" Connor—whose name had become synonymous with brutal enforcement of segregation. A white power structure so rigid, so resistant to change, that civil rights leaders considered it the most segregated city in America. This was exactly why Martin chose it. "If we can crack Birmingham," he told the SCLC leadership in early 1963, "we can crack any city in the South. Birmingham is the symbol of hardcore resistance. If we win here, we prove that nonviolent resistance can succeed anywhere." The campaign was code-named "Project C"—C for confrontation. The strategy was deliberate: they would target Birmingham's downtown businesses during the Easter shopping season, the most important commercial period of the year. Sit-ins, boycotts, marches—a sustained campaign of nonviolent direct action that would force the business community to choose between integration and economic disaster. "We are going to provoke a crisis," Martin acknowledged. "But the crisis already exists. We are simply making it visible." --- ## CHAPTER 2: THE RESISTANCE The campaign launched on April 3, 1963. Small groups of activists entered segregated lunch counters and requested service. They were arrested—as expected. More came the next day. More arrests. The...