Children's+Campaign+in+Birmingham

by Sydney, Joharah, Lashe, Moussa, Gregory, Kaiya, LeAnn & Emmett. Grade 4

In the 1960’s, Birmingham, Alabama was the most segregated city in the United States. There was so much violence there that people called it “Bombingham”. The commissioner of police, Bull Connor, was a racist, and was voted in seven times. Black people were sick of segregation, so they organized to have marches for freedom. Thousands of children from Birmingham participated in the marches.

Fred Shuttlesworth was a leader of the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham. Shuttlesworth called Dr. King to come to Birmingham to organize marches with him. When Dr. King came to Birmingham, he got arrested because he wanted people to follow his lead and fill the jails. He went to jail on Good Friday. Dr. King was put into solitary confinement. While he was there he read an ad in the newspaper by white pastors calling him a communist and a troublemaker. On Easter, he wrote a letter answering what the pastors said. The letter said that it was time for direct action, because Blacks were tired of getting beaten down, and having the whites get away with it. The letter was published as “Letter From a Birmingham Jail”.

After Dr. King got out of jail, he went to the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church to ask for participation in marches for freedom, and for people to go to jail. He wanted the jails to get filled, so the city of Birmingham would deal with segregation. When he asked for people to stand up to volunteer to go to jail, only the children stood up, because the adults would lose their jobs if they went. At first Dr. King didn’t want the children to get arrested. But Fred Shuttlesworth, James Bevel and Shelley “the Playboy” Stuart helped organize the Children’s Crusade. After Dr. King saw that the children wanted to fight for their freedom he agreed for them to be ready to go to jail.

Shelley “the Playboy” Stuart was a dj in Birmingham. He said on the radio there was going to be a party. He said “Bring your toothbrush” so the children knew they were going to jail. Some children held up a sign that said “It’s time” and children left school in the middle of the day to meet James Bevel at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. They marched from the church to Kelly Ingram Park. The next day, while the demonstrators were having a march, Bull Connor commanded policemen and firemen to shoot water from hoses connected to fire-hydrants. The water pressure was so strong it could knock the bark off a tree. The police also hit the demonstrators with their clubs, and they let the police dogs attack them. The news of police behavior spread all around the world by news reports on television. People were shocked to see police brutally attack children.

“D Day” was May 2, 1963. It was the first day the children went to jail. The children of Birmingham were locked up because they wanted freedom. They were not sad because they went to jail for a good reason. They sang freedom songs all through the day, and all through the night. All the jail cells were getting filled with kids, so the people whom they didn’t have space for got sent to the fairgrounds. On the first day 973 kids were arrested. On day two 1,922 were arrested. Altogether there were 4,163 kids arrested. 800 kids got sent to the fairgrounds. When they were released, some kids went back to jail because they still didn’t get their freedom, and they wanted it.

The Children’s Campaign in Birmingham was a success. A result of the marches was that President John F. Kennedy made a speech on television saying that there should be no more segregation. He also worked on a law called the Civil Rights Act. Another result was that Bull Connor was fired from being the commissioner of police. Also, white businessmen made a deal saying they had to hire more Black people. Since then, Birmingham, which had been a violent and segregated city, has changed. Today the Birmingham International Airport has been re-named after Fred Shuttlesworth. The children of Birmingham made history, and changed the city.