The Fight Against Segregation in Birmingham

On July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981, mandating the desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces and ending 170 years of officially sanctioned racial discrimination in the military. Although African Americans had served since the Revolutionary War, they were typically segregated from white troops and often assigned to menial roles. A landmark achievement of both the postwar civil rights movement and Truman’s presidency, the order marked one of the first times a U.S. president used executive authority to advance civil rights. It also helped pave the way for broader desegregation efforts across American society.

In the 1950s, over 40,000 citizens of Montgomery, Alabama, boycotted the city's segregated bus service for 381 days—a massive undertaking that was funded and fed by a clandestine group of women.

Historian Yohuru Williams sums up the tumultuous political and cultural movements of the 1960s.

Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth was one of the South's most prominent Civil Rights leaders. He worked closely with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., co-founded the SCLC and refused to waver even after he was brutally attacked.