Civil Rights' most harrowing year
In 1963, racial tensions came to a head in Birmingham. The results changed the course of history.

(Image credit: The Associated Press)

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(Image credit: College student Dorothy Bell, 19, of Birmingham, Alabama, waits in a downtown lunch counter for service that never came. She was later arrested with 20 other demonstrators.)

(Image credit: Al Hibbler, right, leads a line of sign-carrying demonstrators downtown.)

(Image credit: A police officer frisks a demonstrator following his arrest for an attempted sit-in at a downtown lunch counter.)

(Image credit: A 6-year-old girl waits for a policeman to take her name before she is led away to a police truck. More than 450 school children were arrested for protesting against racial discrimination.)

(Image credit: Young demonstrators sit on the sidewalk with hands behind their heads as high-pressure hoses are turned on their backs during a demonstration.)

(Image credit: Police lead a group of young students to jail after they are arrested for protesting against racial discrimination near city hall.)

(Image credit: A 17-year-old civil rights demonstrator is attacked by a police dog.)

(Image credit: Teenage girls sit around in clusters in a building at the city fairgrounds where they are being held as wards of the juvenile court.)

(Image credit: A young woman is sprayed by a fireman's hose as an anti-segregation march is broken up by police.)

(Image credit: A stream of water from a high-pressure hose hits demonstrators as they protested segregation measures in the city.)

(Image credit: The blast from the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing damaged cars parked in the street and blew out the windows from the stores.)

(Image credit: The family of Carol Robertson, a 14-year-old girl killed in the church bombing, attend graveside services for her in Birmingham.)
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Lauren Hansen produces The Week’s podcasts and videos and edits the photo blog, Captured. She also manages the production of the magazine's iPad app. A graduate of Kenyon College and Northwestern University, she previously worked at the BBC and Frontline. She knows a thing or two about pretty pictures and cute puppies, both of which she tweets about @mylaurenhansen.