The Reverend James Bevel often gave inspiring speeches in support of civil rights. he speaks at a rally in Birmingham on May 9, 1963.
Kids, there’s gonna be a party at the park. Bring your toothbrushes because lunch will be served.1
—Shelly “the Playboy” Stewart, a Birmingham, Alabama, disc jockey, using a code phrase to announce the start of the marches on May 2, 1963
On the night of April 12, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, arrest, Birmingham got its first taste of James Bevel. Bevel stood at the pulpit of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church looking out at the crowd of three hundred. He expressed disappointment at the size of the gathering and quickly pronounced Birmingham as sick. Whites were sick because of their “blind hatred,” and blacks were sick because they accepted their situation. After quoting Jesus’s remark to a lame man, “rise, take up thy bed and walk,” he proclaimed, “The Negro has been sitting here dead for three hundred years. It’s time he got up and walked.”2 Police who were monitoring the meetings for Bull Connor claimed that Bevel “worked himself and the congregation into such a frenzie [sic] that we were unable to understand what he was saying.”3 That vehemence probably grew from Bevel’s initial observation that the Birmingham movement was sputtering and perhaps dying. He took it as his duty to see that the campaign remained alive. Who was this man that seemed to appear on the scene from nowhere?
Even at first glance, it was clear that James Bevel was a bit unusual. For instance, he usually wore bib overalls, which made him stand out. And a yarmulke sat on his shaved head. This head covering, worn by observant Jews, seemed to be a strange article of clothing for a Christian minister. He wore it because he felt that Judaism and Christianity were intimately intertwined. The yarmulke also allowed him to feel connected with the ancient Hebrew prophets.
Wyatt Tee Walker called Bevel “one of the best tactical minds in our movement.”4 Others viewed him as simply eccentric. Clearly, he thought for himself and was unwilling to back down after making a decision.
From an early age, Bevel was a reader and an intellectual. He studied to become a minister at the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville. There he participated in sit-ins at segregated lunch counters. That experience transformed him. He became deeply involved in the blossoming civil rights movement, joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and headed for Mississippi to help African Americans fight for the right to vote. That is where Bevel was when he received King’s request for help. He jumped into his 1959 Rambler and drove to Birmingham.
The Reverend James Bevel often gave inspiring speeches in support of civil rights. he speaks at a rally in Birmingham on May 9, 1963.
He makes his case on August 14, 1962, at a church in Albany, Georgia.
On April 13, the day after his talk at the mass rally, Bevel began work that would transform the tone of the marches. He concluded that the best way to energize the movement was to recruit young people. As Bevel explained, here is how the SCLC mustered their young volunteers:
In addition, Bevel involved young adults such as Andrew Maririssett and James Orange to work with the kids. The student leaders listened to Bevel and others, returned to school, and spoke to fellow students.
Bevel found that the first to enlist were the young women. There are certainly many possible reasons for this, but Bevel felt that the philosophy of nonviolence was more “logical”6 to young women than young men. Whatever the reason, women from the community came to play a central role in the marches.
Bevel’s unusual approach took him first to two local disc jockeys, Shelly “the Playboy” Stewart and “Tall Paul” White. These men had what Bevel needed: a direct line to the young people in Birmingham’s African-American community. They had a personal relationship with many of their fans, so when Stewart and White announced over the radio that a “hot luncheon” would be served at the Gaston Motel, listeners knew that this was a code to fool Bull Connor. The “hot luncheon” was really a planning meeting. Thirty student leaders from local high schools showed up for this strategy session with Bevel.
The message about education that Bevel delivered at the meeting probably went against everything these young people had heard throughout their lives. Parents told their kids, “Get an education and advance in life.” Bevel told them:
As suggested by these words, James Bevel possessed a charisma that engaged the young people.
As a result of the recruitment effort, young people flocked to the workshops on nonviolence being held in the church basements. According to Andrew Young, one of the workshop organizers, the workshops provided “a quick, basic introduction to the philosophy and techniques of nonviolent protest. …”8 Participants viewed films on nonviolent Indian leader Mohatma Ghandi, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the student sit-ins in Nashville. This gave the kids clear images of nonviolent protests. And James Bevel presented his lecture entitled “The Water Tower of Segregation.” In it, he argued that “segregation could not last without psychological assistance from blacks themselves and a lack of faith in our own heritage and potential.”9 Bevel encouraged the young students to have pride in themselves and in their African-American roots.
Bevel was quite effective in attracting and energizing the young people. One story has it that he took some teens to a graveyard, pointed to gravestones and said, “In forty years you are going to be here. Now, what are you going to do while you’re alive?”10 Soon student attendance at the evening mass rallies created overflow crowds. The movement that had been fizzling only days before was coming to life.
As forcefully as Bevel went about his work, other adults in the movement criticized the idea of involving children in the marches. The more conservative leaders of the black community, such as millionaire A. G. Gaston, were shocked at the thought of including young people. Gaston stated, “As a responsible citizen of Birmingham, I deplore the invasion of our schools to enlist students for demonstrations during school hours.”11
“School children participating in street demonstrations is a dangerous business.”
—Attorney General Robert Kennedy
Also, from Washington, D.C., Robert Kennedy voiced a deeper concern: “School children participating in street demonstrations is a dangerous business. An injured, maimed or dead child is a price none of us can afford to pay.”12 The same fear must have been on the minds of every African-American parent in Birmingham.
Upon his release from jail, the Reverend King felt caught in the middle of the argument over whether or not to let young people march. While Gaston and others discouraged the inclusion of young people, Bevel, Andrew Young, and Fred Shuttlesworth pushed to involve the children. As Shuttlesworth said, “We got to use what we got.”13
King faced the fact that during the early weeks of the movement not many adults had gone to jail. Even with the inspiration of his arrest, few had followed his lead. By the time of King’s imprisonment, only three hundred Birmingham activists had gone to prison. On April 17, Andrew Young addressed a mass rally and called for volunteers. Only seven agreed to be arrested. King knew that for a nonviolent mass movement to succeed, the jails had to overflow. Many feared that the protests in Birmingham would die with no gains as the protests in Albany, Georgia, had failed the previous year. King listened carefully to both sides and, although the risks were great, he hesitantly agreed to let the children march.
Bevel’s young supporters leafleted the city’s black high schools on Monday, April 29. The fliers they distributed called for walkouts at noon that Thursday. Bull Connor, hearing of the proposed action from the FBI, told the superintendent of schools to suspend any students who marched. If he kept young people out of the protests, he thought, the entire movement would just fall flat on its face. In one of his morning strategy meetings at a local bar, Connor asserted his hope that King would “run out of niggers.”14 When city hall turned down the Reverend Shuttlesworth’s request for a parade permit, no one was surprised.
Eight hundred students throughout the city missed school that day.
Young people woke up on the hot Thursday morning of May 2 and turned on their radios. They heard Shelly the Playboy announce, “Kids, there’s gonna be a party at the park. Bring your toothbrushes because lunch will be served.”15 Everyone went to school as usual, but at noon many left their classes and headed for the door. R. C. Johnson, principal of Parker High School, locked the front gates. This did not stop the students. They scaled the fences and headed to town. Eight hundred students throughout the city missed school that day.
The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church filled with young people ranging from the ages of six to eighteen. Each new contingent of students who arrived announced the name of their school as if they were at a pep rally. Cheers from other students met each announcement. Across the street, others from the community crammed into Kelly Ingram Park to witness the day’s events. Birmingham police placed roadblocks on all the streets leading from the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church toward downtown.
At around one o’clock the first group of kids burst out of the church. They sang songs and carried signs as they headed for city hall. Many clapped their hands to provide a cadence for their marching step. When authorities approached that first group, the young people got down on their knees and prayed. The police quickly arrested them. The officers relaxed, thinking the demonstrations were over for the day. Bevel then sent the second group out. He kept the police off guard by releasing students in waves of ten to fifty. Though most marchers advanced only a few blocks, one ambitious group of twenty did make it to city hall.
As young people emerged from the church, one policeman asked Shuttlesworth, “How many more have you got?” He replied, “At least 1,000 more.”16
Many of those who marched were even younger than the high school students. Audrey Faye Hendricks was nine at the time of the marches and described her involvement:
Audrey stayed in jail for seven days, sleeping with eleven other girls in a small room.
Police arrested group after group of the demonstrators. Early in the day, police vans were brought out to cart the children away. The vans were soon not enough. As the day progressed, school buses hauled the protesters off to jail. Birmingham police arrested five hundred young people that day.18 That was more than the combination of all previous arrests since the start of the protest.
The overall mood of the day was upbeat. A New York Times reporter described the demonstration in this way: “There was no resistance to arrest by the laughing, singing, groups of youngsters … Most of the marchers fell to their knees and prayed as the police stopped them.”19 Spectators cheered on the young people. One older lady shouted out, “Sing, children, sing,” as they marched down the street.20
Despite the positive spirit, one ominous sign appeared. As the students moved through town, they could not help but notice the firetrucks poised on the streets. With no fire in sight, they must have wondered what the powerful hoses were going to be used for. The sight of the trucks certainly created curiosity and concern in their thoughts. The upbeat atmosphere would not remain the next day.
A six-year-old black girl waits for a policeman to take her name before she is led away to a police truck in Birmingham on May 2, 1963. Over 450 children were arrested for protesting that day.
As the Birmingham jails filled with child and teen protesters, police had to find other places to house them. Here, African-American teenage girls sit in a room in the city hall on May 5, 1963.
Still at the mass meeting that night King proclaimed, “I have been inspired and moved today. I have never seen anything like it.”21
Shuttlesworth announced, “The whole world is watching Birmingham tonight.”22
James Bevel also stood at the pulpit and asked those inspired by what happened that day to raise their hands. “Now I want everybody that held up their hands to go to jail between now and Sunday because I want to be back in Mississippi … Tuesday.”23 Clearly, the children would continue to march.