Birmingham, Alabama, was the city where racial segregation made less sense than anywhere else in the South. Not founded till after the Civil War (1871), it was Reconstruction's industrial center, built where north-south and east-west rail lines crossed. It grew so fast that by 1900 residents had nicknamed it "The Magic City." But like most of the South, Birmingham laid that heritage aside when Jim Crow and the Klan came back in style. Segregationist faith entrenched itself so strongly there that the black citizens' struggle for equal rights, in the early 1960s, became one of the longest and hardest battles of its kind ever fought. The violent response that the largely peaceful protest marches provoked dominated world TV screens for months, making police chief "Bull" Connor a target of international execration and ultimately giving the city a new, bitter... More >>>