The summer of 1963 was an important period of the civil right movement. It was during these months that the Birmingham movement took place. In the book "Why We Can't Wait," Martin Luther King Jr. discusses the Birmingham movement and why he believes it was important. This essay will discuss what King believed had already been achieved with the civil rights movement before 1963 and what he hoped would be the result of the work done in Birmingham, Alabama and other projects in 1963.
             King discussed many different tactics that were used before 1963 to move the civil rights movement forward. One of them was the Montgomery bus boycotts. These boycotts started when a woman, Rosa Parks whom King describes as "a courageous woman" refused to move from her seat on the bus for a white person. Following Parks' arrest, many black men and women refused to ride the bus for over a year in order to desegregate the public bus system. King described a working woman who "as she walked home from her job, on feet weary from a full day's work, she walked proudly, knowing she was with a movement that would bring into being non segregated bus travel." It was King's belief that all of those involved in this boycott were brave and that the outcome would be worthwhile.
             Another worthwhile tactic that was used in order to desegregate public places was sit-ins. Negro men would sit at lunch counters that were designated for whites only and would refuse to move until they were served. Most of these men "were arrested under the local 'trespass after warning ordinance'" before they were served but the point was made that the black community was not going to let their rights be taken from them anymore. King was a supporter of this approach to gaining desegregation. It was his opinion that the men involved in sit-ins "were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and ...