"Letter From a Birmingham Jail" Glossary
Birmingham?was the largest city in Alabama with a population of approximately 225,000. During the 1950s and 1960s, Birmingham was one of the most segregated cities in the South with strict city ordinances that made it unlawful for different races to mix and mingle in almost all social settings. Outsiders Coming In Because the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was a national organization that worked to support local, grassroots campaigns for civil rights, they wee often accused of being outside agitators. When King worked with local groups such as the ACHMR, he often became the focus of media attention, resulting in local segregationists viewing him and SCLC as outsiders who were disrupting their community. Southern Christian Leadership Conference