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The year is 1963, the town Birmingham, Alabama and the spotlight is on Martin Luther King Jr. He had recently moved his base camp from Atlanta to Gaston Motel in Birmingham, Alabama in hopes of addressing civil rights issues first hand.

Birmingham in 1963 was the hotbed for civil rights and although the Kennedy boys (John + Robert) had pushed hard to initiate laws erasing segregation, in Birmingham, the leadership refused to change. A new law would be instituted, Birmingham would follow suit for a few weeks or up to a month, then quickly change back to their old Jim Crowe ways.

Martin anchored down in Birmingham for the sake of justice. He met with every leader, preacher, young person and business brain to gain momentum for a larger strategic push. He was not only motivating these young and old African Americans, he was also teaching them. They needed to understand the four basic steps in a non-violent campaign:

• Collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist
• Negotiation
• Self Purification
• Direct Action

Martin and his team decided to initiate their direct action campaign during the Easter season. They strategically selected the Easter season as it was the second busiest shopping season of the year. They were obviously looking to alter sales and ultimately the economy with their direct action campaign.

Hang tight with me, we are almost to the punch.

April 11, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. sat in room 30 of the Gaston Motel in Birmingham, Alabama just finding out their major contributor of bail bonds’ account had been frozen. They had planned tirelessly for months for the following day to launch their direct action campaign and now, the night before, Martin discovers if he decides to get thrown into jail tomorrow there is a strong possibility he will not have funds for bail.

The weight of hundreds of people who he had taught, motivated and mobilized for the civil rights movement was on his shoulders. His mind ping pong’d as to who would head the movement if he was in jail indefinitely. What does a leader do?

One of the interesting attributes about opportunity is it causes you to go against the flow. Opportunity looked at Martin face to face in Birmingham. It was a long stare down and one he will never forget in room 30 of the Gaston Motel. He took a good hard look at opportunity and finally turned to his long time friend Ralph Abernathy and said, “I know you want to be in your pulpit on Easter Sunday Ralph, but I am asking you to go with me”.

• What kind of friends do you have around you?
• Are you prepared to go against the flow?

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