Dynamite Hill

Birmingham, Alabama’s Center Street, located in the Smithfield neighborhood, became known as ‘Dynamite Hill’ during the Civil Rights Movement due to the frequent bombings targeting African American families who moved into the area against segregationist opposition.

This neighborhood became a symbol of resistance and determination as black professionals, including notable civil rights attorney Arthur Shores, faced violence in their fight against segregation. The relentless courage of Dynamite Hill residents became a lightning rod for the broader struggle for civil rights in the United States​.

The violence flared after Shores, the only black lawyer in Alabama at the time, won a lawsuit against Birmingham’s segregated zoning ordinance in 1947. Shores represented a black client who built a home on the ‘white side’ of Center Street, but was denied a certificate of occupancy. A federal judge ruled that racial zoning was unconstitutional and ordered that the certificate be granted. The Ku Klux Klan dynamited the new home days later. In 1956, Shores represented Autherine Lucy in a successful U.S. Supreme Court case to prevent The University of Alabama from denying Lucy admission based on her race. The 1963 campaign to integrate the Birmingham public school system led to more violence aimed at Shores, his family, and the Dynamite Hill neighborhood.

The Shores’ home was bombed on August 20, 1963 and again two weeks later in retaliation for black parents registering their children at white schools. The bombings—and white supremecist demonstrations outside Birmingham schools—were used by Gov. George Wallace as a pretext to close schools in defiance of the federal court desegregation order and to deploy state troopers in the city.

Eleven days later a bomb killed four girls at the 16th Street Baptist Church.

Center Street was an inflection point in the Civil Rights movement in the United States - both for the violence it witnessed, and the catalyst for progress that it became as a rallying point for Civil Rights leaders.