Salute to Freedom '63
Salute to Freedom '63 was a concert held at Miles College on Tuesday August 5, 1963 to raise funds for the planned "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom" being organized by a coalition of national civil rights organizations.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference president Martin Luther King Jr was in attendance for the first major racially-integrated event to be planned in the wake of the "Birmingham Truce" which ended the campaign of public demonstrations that spring. It was also a test of the newly sworn-in Birmingham City Council, which had just repealed the city's longstanding segregation ordinances on July 23.
The show was conceived of, organized and financed by Joey Adams, a comedian who was then serving as president of the New York-based American Guild of Variety Artists, a performers' union affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. Reverend A. D. King and the SCLC helped with local preparations. A team of more than 500 volunteers handled publicity and ticket sales in the face of a virtual blackout by city officials and the local press. Word circulated instead on black radio stations and by word of mouth, resulting in the sale of thousands of $5 tickets. Word of mouth also brought the event to the attention of segregationists, who made threats of violence to the organizers and their local collaborators.
Adams brought most of the performers, along with members of the press, aboard a chartered flight from New York, dubbed the "Spirit of 76" for the number of people aboard. Radio City Music Hall, nightclub owner Maurice Uchital, and a number of union officials and private citizens underwrote the charter. Max Asnas of the Stage Deli donated food and beverages for the flight. Ray Charles and his orchestra and crew chartered a separate flight for themselves.
When cab drivers and hotelkeeper refused service to the visitors, SCLC volunteers stepped in as drivers. Nearly the entire group was accommodated at the A. G. Gaston Motel and rehearsals were held at Parker High School's auditorium.
The event had originally scheduled at Municipal Auditorium, but a conflict with an unannounced "repainting" led the venue to cancel the program. With the loss of the theater box office, sales were handled at the Temple Pharmacy and the Gaston Motel. Paul Greenberg, a seasoned political organizer who had joined the SCLC as King's assistant, handled mail-order tickets from the motel.
With Adams' promise of additional funding, Miles College president Lucius Pitts contracted for a stage to be constructed and lights rigged up at the college's football stadium. Students and workers spent the next day, in 98 degree heat, putting together a stage and erecting a tent. The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights arranged for armed civil defense guards to provide security when the Birmingham Police Department declined to serve.
With an entire football field and no seats, ticket sales were opened and word was sent out for attendees to ""Bring A Chair For Freedom". Somewhere around 20,000 tickets were sold for an event that was originally to have been capped at 5,000. Approximately 16,000 attendees began arriving at noon for the 9:00 PM event, with a line of chair-toting fans stretching a half mile or more. Flood lights were set up along the route for fear of attacks by protesters. Toilet facilities were not provided. WNEW-FM deejay William B. Williams emceed the show.
Performers
- Johnny Mathis
- Nina Simone
- Al Bernie
- James Baldwin
- Harry Golden
- Paul Duke
- Ella Fitzgerald (appeared on the bill, but unclear if she
- Joe Louis
- Conrad Buckner
- The Gamm Sisters
- Ray Charles and the Raelettes
- Clyde McPhatter
- The Shirelles
- Dick Gregory
- Magid Triplets
- Alabama Christian Movement Choir, Carlton Reese, director
- Harlem Apollo Theatre orchestra, Reuben Phillips, conductor
The performance
Author James Baldwin proclaimed from the stage, "This is a living, visible view of the breakdown of a hundred years of slavery. It means that white man and black can work and live together. History is forcing people of Birmingham to stop victimizing each other."
At around 1:00 AM, as Johnny Mathis began with "I Got a Lot of Livin’ to Do," a large number of audience members climbed up onto the stage, part of which soon collapsed, interrupting the stage lights. A few people who were injured were driven to hospitals for treatment as workers hurried to restore the lights so that the show could continue. During the outage Reese's choir led the audience in a rousing refrain of "We Shall Overcome".
Afterward
The performers were scheduled to return to New York early on Wednesday August 6. A bomb threat led airport officials to question all passengers before boarding. The delay postponed take-off until nearly 5:00 AM.
Though several magazines had sent photographers and correspondents to Birmingham, very little coverage appeared in the national press. The New York Times, for example, printed only a four sentence United Press International story, focusing on the stage collapse.
Senator Jacob Javits telegrammed Abrams to say, "Congratulations to all those participating in this significant variety show, my warmest praise goes out to you for this inspiring show which deserves the support of all America interested in freedom and human dignity. Birmingham is an appropriate site for this event. I think this will become the symbol of the breakthru so long awaited and tell the people present I will work to overcome the Senate filibuster to bring civil rights this year."
By a vote of students the previous Spring, Ray Charles had been invited by the Cotillion Club to perform at the University of Alabama in the Fall of 1963. Segregationists who had been outmaneuvered by the organizers of the Birmingham event issued a torrent of threats against the University. University president Frank Rose pressured the student organization to cancel the performance. Threats against an on-campus performance by the bi-racial Dave Brubeck Quartet were not successful in 1964.
References
- "Mixed Show Set in Birmingham." (July 12, 1963) Associated Press
- "Ray Charles to Head 1st Birmingham Show." (August 3, 1963) The Afro-American (Baltimore, Maryland)
- "Rally at Birmingham." (August 7, 1963) UPI/The New York Times
- Shull, Leo (August 10, 1963) "Neither Heat, Bombs, Nor Birmingham Cops Shall Stop the Show—It Must Go On". Show Business. Vol. 23, No. 32, pp. 1, 10
- Rolontz, Bob (August 17, 1963) "March on Washington Stirs Record People: Birmingham Breaks Line." Billboard
- Ronk, Liz (August 27, 2013) "March on Washington: Rare Photos From a Star-Studded Fundraiser, 1963" LIFE.
- Adams, Cindy (January 18, 2016) "Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King Jr." Page Six. The New York Post
- Mathews, Burgin (January 21, 2019) "Salute to Freedom ’63" burginmathews.com