Rally Outside 16th Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama,

May 1963

By 1963, Birmingham, Alabama, was the epicenter of the civil rights movement. The city had refused to comply with federal orders to desegregate public facilities, the police brutally attacked protesters, and numerous bombings and cross burnings terrorized a single black neighborhood. In response, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a group that planned "Project C"—short for "Confrontation"—a series of boycotts, protests, and marches meant to draw attention to the inhumanity of the city’s policies and police force. As a Southern white man working as a photojournalist on assignment, Moore was able to spend weeks documenting the bravery of the protesters and the brutal police response from up close while avoiding violence and arrest.