Chapter 19: Freedom Now!, Chapter 20: March on Washington Summary and Analysis

King is released from jail after eight days. The protests continue. Whites from the North are coming down to aid them and the young people of the city help them too. Everyone continues to practice nonviolence. The movement has the sense that it is going to win. Eventually, business leaders want to negotiate, but some hold out. Violence flares. President Kennedy addresses Birmingham in a press conference. The negotiations are successful in achieving large swaths of desegregation, nondiscrimination, release of prisoners of the movement and the publication of the agreement.

However, many racist forces in Birmingham resist and react with rage. King's brother's home is bombed, as is King's hotel room. The bombers want to provoke black people into a riot, and Governor Wallace's police are brought in; they...