SPRING 2013
THE GOLDEN AGE OF HOSTILITY AND HOPE

The year 1963 was a pivotal one in terms of our nation’s struggle with civil rights for all.  Indeed, ’63 was a year that changed America. It was the year when George Wallace issued his famous statement, “segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”  It was the year Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”  It was the year of the April bombing of the 16^th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, which claimed the lives of four little girls.  It was the year of the famous March on Washington, in August, and it was the year of the November assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.  It was a year of numerous acts of protest throughout the South.  Clearly, 1963 was a year of hostility and hatred unmasked, but also a year which gave hope to many.

Photos below courtesy of Nashville Public Library, Special Collections.