Conclusion: The “Long” Movement and the South

Abstract

In the years following the 1963 demonstrations, Birmingham city officials received regular correspondence regarding the city’s racial climate. One such letter arrived in December 1964. The author was a Mrs. Ruth Hawkins, the white owner of the Birmingham Book Exchange. In her letter, Hawkins complained to M. E. Wiggins, president of Birmingham’s city council, that “about 200” black maids were blocking the sidewalks near her store as they waited for the bus each morning. As a result, Hawkins wrote, “white people going to work [could] hardly get thru [sic].” Moreover, Hawkins had nearly been run down by a black woman rushing to make the bus before it pulled away. Adding insult to (almost) injury, the rushing black woman had subjected Hawkins to a barrage of “filthy words” that she did not dare repeat. Hawkins suggested to Wiggins that if the pick-up area were moved in front of City Hall, city officials might wake up to the threat posed by this daily gathering of black domestics. If so, Birmingham might be able to avoid turning into a “jungle”—a fate that Hawkins understood had befallen Atlanta, Birmingham’s rival to the east.¹