Why did Birmingham's children march, and what did King write from jail?

Birmingham's children marched because the campaign had run short of adults willing to go to jail, and what King wrote from his own cell answered a very particular question: why not wait? In the early 1960s Birmingham was one of the most racially divided cities in the United States, by law and by custom, and King called it the most segregated city in the country. Organizers began what they called Project C, a series of sit-ins and marches intended to provoke mass arrests.

King himself was arrested, and he could have been bailed out at any time. Organizers chose to offer no bail, to focus the attention of the media and national opinion on Birmingham. In jail, using scraps of paper from a janitor and the margins of a newspaper, he wrote a reply to eight moderate white clergymen who said the fight should be conducted in the courts and not in the streets. "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere," he wrote, and he argued that there are just and unjust laws, and that one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust ones.

Meanwhile, James Bevel proposed using students as the main demonstrators. On 2 May 1963 more than 600 students were arrested, the youngest reported to be eight years old. The next day, Commissioner Connor ordered fire hoses, set at a force that would peel bark off a tree, turned on children. Some, including Attorney General Robert Kennedy, condemned the use of children. But the scenes horrified others: Senator Jacob Javits said "the country won't tolerate it" and pressed for a civil rights bill.

On 10 May, King and Fred Shuttlesworth announced an agreement to desegregate lunch counters, restrooms, drinking fountains and fitting rooms within 90 days. Kennedy's administration drew up the Civil Rights Act bill.