The Gaston Bombing in Birmingham (1963) w/ Paul Kix

This Day in Esoteric Political History

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 11 May 2023

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s May 11th. This day in 1963, a series of bombs explode in Birmingham, Alabama — one at the hotel in which Martin Luther King, Jr. was staying, and one at his brother’s house.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by journalist Paul Kix to discuss the bombings, and how they fit in to a momentous stretch of time for the Civil Rights movement, centered in Birmingham.

Paul’s new book is You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live: Ten Weeks in Birmingham That Changed America — it’s available everywhere now!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.
0:07.6	My name is Jody Avergan.
0:09.1	This day, May 11th, 1963, bombs damaged two key sites in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham, Alabama.
0:19.0	One was at the A.G. Gaston Motel, which many. M. M. M. M. A. M. A. M. A. D. King. K.
0:24.0	So, let's include Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. who was in town. And the other bomb exploded at the house of
0:31.0	MLK's younger brother, Reverend A.D. King. So let's talk about these Birmingham
0:35.8	bombings, what we know about them, and the larger context of this moment in Birmingham,
0:40.4	spring 1963.
0:42.8	Here, as always, Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt
0:45.2	and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wesley.
0:47.0	Hello there.
0:48.0	Hey there.
0:49.3	Hello Jody.
0:50.1	And our special guest for this episode
0:51.6	is the writer Paul Kicks.
0:52.8	He is written for basically everywhere.
0:54.7	I got to know him a little bit when we were at ESPN together
0:57.7	and his latest book just out now is called,
1:00.5	You have to be prepared to die before you can begin to live 10 weeks in Birmingham that changed America
1:07.6	Paul welcome to the show. Congrats on the new book and it's nice to see you. Thanks for doing this.
1:16.4	Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. I love the title of your book. It's so good. Yeah. Well, what's that quote from? You have to be prepared to die before you can begin to live?
1:24.3	It's actually a quote from Fred Shuttlesworth.
	...

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