MW.WGAJ Chapter 00-prologue:Layout 1 10/26/11 2:12 PM Page i

Cynthia Levinson WWEE’’VEVE GOTGOT AA JOBJOB The 1963 Birmingham Children’s MW.WGAJ Chapter 00-prologue:Layout 1 10/26/11 2:12 PM Page ii

To my thoroughly splendid Published by PEACHTREE PUBLISHERS family—Rachel, Ariel, 1700 Chattahoochee Avenue Atlanta, Georgia 30318-2112 www.peachtree-online.com Sarah, Meira, Marc,

Text © 2012 by Cynthia Y. Levinson Rebecca, Gabriella, All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, and, especially, Sandy, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. my sine qua non.

Book and jacket design by Maureen Withee And to Peace Ponies Text and titles set in Century Schoolbook and SF New Republic SC. everywhere.

Printed in October 2011 by RR Donnelley & Sons in South China —C. Y. L. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 First Edition

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Levinson, Cynthia. We’ve got a job : the 1963 Birmingham Children’s March / written by Cynthia Levinson. p. cm. ISBN 978-1-56145-627-7 / 1-56145-627-6 1. —Civil rights——Birming- ham—History—20th century—Juvenile literature. 2. —Alabama—Birmingham—History— 20th century—Juvenile literature. 3. African American students—Alabama—Birmingham—History—20th cen- tury—Juvenile literature. 4. African American youth— Alabama—Birmingham—History—20th century—Juvenile literature. I. Title.

F334.B69N4476 2012 323.1196'0730761781--dc23

2011031738 MW.WGAJ Chapter 00-prologue:Layout 1 10/26/11 2:12 PM Page iii

Contents

ProLogue “I Want to Go to Jail” ...... 2

ChaPter one Audrey Faye Hendricks...... 5 “There wasn’t a bombing that I wasn’t at.”

ChaPter tWo Washington Booker III ...... 13 “I was too rambunctious to be a little black kid in the South. That put me in a position to be killed.”

ChaPter three James W. Stewart...... 21 “No. I am not going to be confined.”

ChaPter Four Arnetta Streeter ...... 29 “We needed to do something right then.”

ChaPter Five Collision Course...... 37 “We shall march until victory is won.”

ChaPter six Project C...... 47 “Overwhelmed by a feeling of hopelessness”

ChaPter seven The Foot Soldiers...... 61 “We got to use what we got.”

ChaPter eight May 2. D-Day ...... 71 “They’re coming out!” MW.WGAJ Chapter 00-prologue:Layout 1 10/26/11 2:12 PM Page iv

ChaPter nine May 3. Double D-Day...... 81 “You wondered how people could be so cruel.”

ChaPter ten Views from Other Sides ...... 91 What were they thinking?

ChaPter eLeven May 4–6, 1963...... 103 “Deliver us from evil.”

ChaPter tWeLve May 7–10, 1963...... 117 “Nothing was said…about the children.”

ChaPter thirteen May 11–May 23 ...... 129 It was the worst of times. It was the best of times.

ChaPter Fourteen Freedom And Fury ...... 139 The walls fall down.

ChaPter FiFteen Afterworld...... 151

author’s note...... 157 timeLine...... 158–59 maP ...... 160 thank yous ...... 161 notes ...... 162–69 BiBLiograPhy...... 170 Photo Credits...... 171 index...... 172–76 MW.WGAJ Chapter 00-prologue:Layout 1 10/26/11 2:12 PM Page 1

We’ve got a job, We’ve got a job to do. We can’t get freedom ’til we get through.

“We’ve Got a Job” Words and music by Carlton Reese and the Birmingham Movement Choir MW.WGAJ Chapter 00-prologue:Layout 1 10/26/11 2:12 PM Page 2

“I WANT TO GO TO JAIL”

On Thursday morning, May 2, 1963, nine-year-old Audrey Faye Hendricks woke up with freedom on her mind. But, before she could be free, there was something important she had to do. “I want to go to jail,” Audrey had told her mother. Since Mr. and Mrs. Hendricks thought that was a good idea, they helped her get ready. Her father had even bought her a new game she’d been eyeing. Audrey imagined that it would entertain her if she got bored during her week on a cell block. That morning, her mother took her to Center Street Elementary so she could tell her third-grade teacher why she’d be absent. Mrs. Wills cried. Audrey knew she was proud of her. She also hugged all four grandparents goodbye. One of her grandmothers assured her, “You’ll be fine.” Then Audrey’s parents drove her to the church to get arrested. Wait a minute! What kind of nine-year-old volunteers to go to jail? And what kind of parent would make sure she gets Prologue there? And why would she get arrested at church? Is this real? Yes. Audrey Hendricks, her mother, Lola, and her father, Joe, are real. So is this story. Audrey was the youngest of three to four thousand black children who marched, protested, sang, and prayed their way MW.WGAJ Chapter 00-prologue:Layout 1 10/26/11 2:12 PM Page 3

to jail during the first week of May 1963, in A NOTe ON Birmingham, Alabama. Their goal was to NAme-cALLING end segregation in the most racially divided and violent city in America. Many young people suffered attacks by snarling German White people in the South sometimes shepherds and days of being crammed into referred to black children as “pickaninnies.” sweltering jail cells. Some wondered if they This insulting term allowed whites to lump all would survive. And if they did survive, could black children together and ignore them they accept these punishments with dignity, rather than to see each child as an individual. as they had been trained to do? Or, would Whites used even more offensive terms they retaliate against the white policemen for black adults: “boy,” “uncle,” “nigra,” and who were abusing them? “nigger.” In return, blacks were expected to Audrey and three other young people— Washington Booker III, James Stewart, and call all white people, including children, Arnetta Streeter—will be your guides “Miss” or “Mr.” followed by their first name, through these harrowing events. Along the or else “ma’am” or “sir.” way, you’ll hear from others who lived Preferences in how people identify them- through these times as well. selves change. In the early twentieth century, black people referred to themselves as “col- ored” and founded a civil rights organization that they named the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Today, that term is considered demeaning (although “people of color” is still considered a term of respect). Later, “Negro” was preferred, then “African Amer- ican.” This book uses “black” because that’s the term Audrey, Washington, James, and Arnetta use. 3 Chapter One MW.WGAJ Chapter01:Layout110/26/111:52PMPage4 (inset) Audrey Faye Hendricks, age 11 Martin Luther King Jr. MW.WGAJ Chapter 01:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:52 PM Page 5

aUDreY FaYe henDrICKS “THERE WASN’T A BOMBING THAT I WASN’T AT.”

“NO WAY FOR ME NOT TO BE INVOLVED”

Audrey lived with her pArents and her younger sister, Jan, in a tidy brick house that sat on a small plot of trimmed grass in the titusville (pronounced tittis- ville) section of southwest Birmingham. each afternoon, when Audrey came home from Center street elementary school, she did her chores, played with other kids in the neighborhood—all of them black, of course—and sat down to dinner with her family. Audrey’s mother, who had graduated from business college, did clerical work for an insurance company owned by a black man. Audrey’s father went to elemen- tary school, but starting when he was five, he planted and picked crops with his parents in fields owned by white people around his hometown of Boligee, Alabama. later, in Birmingham, he worked as a laborer and secu- rity guard at a dog food company and at a slaughter- house. But the hendrickses’ lives were not as orderly and 5 quiet as this description makes them seem. Audrey was three years old on Christmas night 1956, when the home of a local minister was bombed by a group of MW.WGAJ Chapter 01:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:52 PM Page 6

segregationists led by robert “dynamite a result, Mr. hendricks was arrested and Bob” Chambliss. reverend Fred shuttles - spent six nights in jail. when he was worth was a good friend of the hendricks released, he volunteered to guard the shut- family. six months earlier, he had founded tlesworths’ home. the Alabama Christian Movement for As he drove there one night, more than human rights (ACMhr), an organization a dozen police cars, headlights turned off, that urged blacks to demand their rights. in surrounded him. told to hand over his dri- particular, ACMhr had been pressing the ver’s license, Mr. hendricks accidentally city of Birmingham to hire black policemen pulled his ACMhr membership card from and to allow blacks to sit beside whites in the his wallet instead. he heard a policeman front of the bus, in train-station waiting ask the others, “what we going to do with rooms, and even in schools. the explosion lit- this nigger?” After debating whether or not erally blew shuttlesworth into the air and to kill him, the officers decided to let him go. demolished his bedroom and kitchen. Audrey’s father thanked God for saving him Astoundingly, he walked from the rubble that night. uninjured. his wife and their three children despite such dangers, ACMhr held were also unharmed. mass meetings every Monday night in Audrey knew that this attack against churches around town. And every Monday civil rights activists was far from unique. night from June 1956 to April 1963, Audrey Many black people called their hometown attended with her family and as many as “.” And, said Audrey, “there six hundred other people. Audrey’s father wasn’t a bombing that i wasn’t at.” sang tenor, alongside three of her uncles no one would have blamed Mr. and Mrs. and an aunt, in ACMhr’s Movement Choir. hendricks if they had decided to keep quiet the choir’s director was Carlton reese, a about civil rights following the bombing of teenager who wrote the freedom song their friend’s home. But Audrey’s parents “we’ve Got a Job,” which he practiced on the weren’t intimidated. the very next day, her upright piano in the hendricks’s living father and about fifteen other blacks sat room. it became one of Audrey’s favorites. 6 down in the front section of a bus, where “it was no way for me not to really only whites were permitted. when the be involved,” Audrey said. “My parents driver demanded they move to the back, were involved from the point that i could Audrey’s father politely refused, saying “we remember… My church was involved… [are] comfortable where we are sitting.” As you were there and just a part of it.” MW.WGAJ Chapter 01:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:52 PM Page 7

listening to the grownups talk, she learned SEGREGATION ORDINANCES the painful details of her hometown’s deep- Revised periodically, the Ordinances’ seven chapters seated racism. eventuallly covered every aspect of daily life. Here is a small sample. “NEGROES AND WHITE PERSONS NOT TO PLAY TOGETHER” CHAPTER 14 DRUGS AND FOOD segregation in Birmingham wasn’t just a Sec. 369. Separation of races. way of life. it was the law. the city’s racial segregation Ordinances, adopted in 1951, It shall be unlawful to conduct a restaurant or other demanded almost total separation of blacks place for the serving of food in the city, at which white and whites. and colored people are served in the same room, unless Many southern cities mandated sepa- such white and colored persons are effectively separated by rate drinking fountains, bathrooms, schools, a solid partition extending from the floor upward to a and seats on buses for blacks and whites. distance of seven feet or higher, and unless a separate entrance from the street is provided for each compartment. But Birmingham’s ordinances went even further: city law and local custom also CHAPTER 23 required separate spelling bees, arts festi- GAMBLING vals, parties, ywCAs, meeting places, Sec. 597. Negroes and white persons not to play church services, courtroom Bibles for swear- together. ing in witnesses, seating in restaurants, It shall be unlawful for a negro and a white person to and entrances to movie theaters, where, if play together or in company with each other in any game blacks were allowed to enter at all, they had of cards or dice, dominoes or checkers. [In 1950, the to sit in the upper balcony. City added to the list: baseball, softball, basketball, or Blacks worked in white-owned restau- similar games.] rants, but they had to eat their own meals Any person, who, being the owner, proprietor or in areas that were separated from both keeper or superintendent of any tavern, inn, restaurant or white customers and white employees. the other public house or public place, or the clerk, servant ’s hospital was segre- or employee of such owner, proprietor, keeper or super- 7 gated by floor, and most white doctors didn’t intendent, knowingly permits a negro and a white person bother to learn the names of black patients, to play together or in company with each other at any using made-up names, such as “Bo” for all game with cards, dice, dominoes or checkers, or any sub- the men and “Bessie” for the women. stitute or device for cards, dice, dominoes or checkers, in his house or on his premises shall, on conviction, be punished as provided in section 4. MW.WGAJ Chapter 01:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:52 PM Page 8

during the annual state fair, thursday night was reserved for “niggers and dogs.” Officials even banned a children’s book that Birmingham adopted the racial segregation showed pictures of a white rabbit marrying Ordinances during a time when a system a black rabbit. called “separate but equal” was legal in case blacks somehow forgot who was in America. developed by the louisiana in charge, chimes in the tower of the protec- leg islature in 1890, this policy was upheld tive life Building played “dixie” every by the u.s. supreme Court in 1896, in a case noon. this unofficial anthem of the Confed- called Plessy v. Ferguson. the Court wrote eracy reminded listeners that, almost a cen- that “separate accommodations for the white tury after slavery’s end, blacks were still not and colored races” were allowable, as long as truly free. the accommodations for each group were equal.

Classroom for African American children in a segregated school MW.WGAJ Chapter 01:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:52 PM Page 9

under this doctrine, Art hanes, the quarantined and treated as if they might mayor of Birmingham, could justify segre- contaminate white people with an infectious gated parks. “we have four swimming pools disease. for whites and four for negroes,” he pointed in any case, by 1963, the u.s. supreme out. “Four and four, now how is this discrim- Court, acknowledging these inequities and ination? have a golf course for ’em. Cost the injustices, had effectively overturned Plessy. taxpayers $22,000 a year to subsidize it, for in a series of decisions beginning in 1954, the negroes to play golf. now what is so the Court declared that segregation of pub- wrong to ask them to play golf on their own lic facilities was “inherently unequal” and, golf course…?” therefore, unconstitutional. there were several things wrong—above Birmingham ignored these decisions. all, the concept of “separate but equal” City ordinances continued to mandate seg- itself. separation on the basis of race is sim- regation of private businesses, which was ply unjust. legal, and of public places, which was not. segregation was a poisonous residue left over from slavery, the Civil war, and recon- “I HAD TO LEARN struction, the period when southern whites THE LESSON OF GIVING” felt that northerners imposed integration Blacks debated about which tactics to use on them against their will. in retaliation, to end segregation. Audrey’s parents tried whites established segregation codes and legal measures. in 1959, they sued the city other means to draw strict lines between of Birmingham to integrate its public parks. themselves and blacks. they won that case, but in 1962, the city not only were the lines unjust, but also closed all of its parks, swimming pools, the ways of life on either side of those lines playgrounds, and golf courses—white as were unequal. public facilities, such as well as black—to avoid having to integrate. schools, parks, and libraries assigned to the city even filled the holes on the putting blacks, were always inferior to those for greens with concrete. whites. And, through laws, customs, and Other activists used different strategies. intimidation, whites blocked blacks’ access shuttlesworth led protests. One approach 9 to the better jobs, nicer houses, and greater was to organize a group of black people who political influence that whites enjoyed. would then defy the law by sitting in the Black people throughout the south were front seats of a bus. students at Miles, a school MW.WGAJ Chapter 01:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:52 PM Page 10

ers would give in and agree to integrate. students picketed the stores, carrying signs with messages like, “don’t shop where you Can’t eat” and “wear your Overalls to Church.” they handed black shoppers copies of a poem called “dollars and sense,” written by C. herbert Oliver. One verse went like this: I cannot be happy to trade at a place Where my mother and father have

Reverend speaks to supporters, 1957 suffered disgrace, Where my children can’t work because of their race, Where not one clerk has an ebony face.

local black college, organized bus , the hendricks family abided by the lunch counter and train station sit-ins, and campaign and didn’t buy new clothes or toys prayer vigils. for months. instead, when Audrey’s mother in 1962, with help from ACMhr mem- traveled up north to ask white people who bers, the students organized what they supported civil rights to donate money to called a “selective Buying Campaign.” Birm- ACMhr, she also asked them to send toys ingham’s downtown department stores did and clothes for poor black families in Birm- not allow blacks to try on clothes before they ingham for Christmas. By mid-december bought them, eat at their lunch counters, or that year, games, puzzles, train sets, dolls, use their bathrooms. (some black parents and stuffed animals filled Audrey’s living carried a jar with a tight lid in case their room. children had to go to the bathroom while “there was one particular bear,” Audrey shopping.) the stores’ owners also refused to said. “it was white. i was in love with it.” hire black employees except as janitors. her mother told her, “you aren’t needy. 10 the selective Buying Campaign urged the people who sent these trusted me to black customers not to shop at these stores. give these things to people who are needy.” the students at Miles hoped that if the Audrey was desolate as she watched her businesses lost money as a result, the own- mother wrap the soft, white bear in Christ- MW.WGAJ Chapter 01:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:52 PM Page 11

mas paper and ribbons for another child. “i both the number of demonstrations and the had to give it up. it was tough for me. i had number of demonstrators. while watching to learn the lesson of giving.” one of these events, Audrey saw an incident As the daughter of activists, Audrey that shocked her. “i was standing on the learned and lived many lessons about steps of the sixteenth street [Baptist] racism and witnessed the battles her par- Church, watching an elderly black man ents and their friends fought to overcome it. walking in the park across the street with other people, two-by-two,” she remembered. AUDREY: APRIL 1963 “A policeman allowed a dog to attack that man—[just] because he was walking. it was despite seven years of boycotts, protests, unbelievable.” lawsuits, and sit-ins by ACMhr members, At that moment, nine-year-old Audrey Birmingham’s blacks remained dismally made a decision. she would no longer just segregated from the city’s whites. Finally, in attend meetings. somehow, she would act early 1963, shuttlesworth called on dr. on her own. Martin luther King Jr. and reverend she saw her opportunity before the —civil rights leaders with month was out. the southern Christian leadership Confer- ence (sClC) in Atlanta, Georgia—for help. King and young met with local black lead- ers, including Mrs. hendricks, to plan new strategies for ending segregation in Birm- ingham. sometimes they gathered in Audrey’s house, where she got to know these leaders on a nickname basis. “Mike (that’s what we called Martin), Andy, Fred—they’d stand in the kitchen while my mother made dinner,” she said. “Mike would lift the top off a pot and say, 11 ‘what’s cookin’, lola?’” what they cooked up was a scheme to intensify pressure on the city by increasing

A flyer for the Selective Buying Campaign MW.WGAJ Chapter 02:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:52 PM Page 12 tWO

Shuttlesworth talks with students in a white waiting room in the Birmingham bus station, 1961

Chapter Chapter (inset) Washington Booker III as a young teen MW.WGAJ Chapter 02:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:52 PM Page 13

WaShINGtON BOOKer III

“I WAS TOO RAMBUNCTIOUS TO BE A LITTLE BLACK KID IN THE SOUTH. THAT PUT ME IN A POSITION TO BE KILLED.”

“WE KNEW THAT THERE WAS SOMETHING BETTER”

Wash Booker didn’t take a Bath in a tub with hot and cold running water until he was nine years old. he shared one room in a two-story tenement house with his older sister and his mother. the two women slept together in the bed; Wash slept on a rollaway. other families lived in the other rooms of the house. everyone shared a common kitchen and bathroom. the bathroom, which was at the back of the house, scared Wash. “it was little bigger than a closet,” he said. “it had a commode that sat right in the middle of the floor. and there was no light.” to take a bath, they first had to lug water to their room from the only sink in the house, near the bathroom. “We had a number ten tub,” Wash explained, describing the high-sided tin contraption. “We boiled water, poured [it] into the tub, and then put cold water in the tub. and that’s what we took a bath in, because there was no such 13 thing as hot water in the house.” on cold mornings, “my mom would get up…and make the fire in the coal stove and get back in bed until the room got warm.” MW.WGAJ Chapter 02:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:52 PM Page 14

toys were scarce. one child in the neigh- mother got a job as a dental assistant—and borhood owned a bicycle. Wash and his sis- a raise. at about the same time, Wash got a ter had a wagon. For Christmas one year, job, too. six days a week for eight years, he they each received a pair of iron roller woke up by four o’clock in the morning to skates. When those wore out, Wash said, deliver milk. By the time he got to school “we would take an old broom and turn it each day, he’d already put in almost half a upside down, and that would be our horse. day’s work. and we would get a coat hanger and make With the extra income, the Bookers a cowboy gun.” moved to a housing project. “Loveman’s Vil- occasionally, he would get a special lage was brick,” Wash said, “and it was treat. “if you were really, really good at warm and well lit. there was a bathtub. it church on sunday,” Wash recalled, “and had hot and cold running water. there was Momma had some extra money, and after a gas heater with a thermostat that came you took your church clothes off, and if on whenever it got cold.” everything was just right, we would walk although life was better in the projects down to ragland’s [drug store] sometime than in the tenement house, Wash began to and get a scoop of hand-packed ice cream. glimpse more of the other world and realize that was the high point of my life.” what he was missing. “You’d walk by the as a little boy, Wash spotted flashes of , and the door would open, other worlds—neighborhoods where middle- and you’d feel that cool air.” he also noticed class blacks like audrey lived, and even white people eating at the counter at J. J. fancier ones “over the mountain” in Moun- newberry’s department store. “More than tain Brook, where his mother worked as a anything,” he said, “i wanted a banana split maid for a wealthy white family. “there behind that counter… But you couldn’t go would be times when we would go riding back there.” instead Wash and other blacks with somebody we knew that had a car… We had to eat in the basement standing up. would ride through titusville or over to Wash got kicked out of school for the Mountain Brook… so, we knew that there first time when he was in the fourth grade. 14 was something better than the house that we his teacher threatened to beat him, as lived in.” But anything better than what he teachers commonly did back then, because had seemed unattainable. he was not sitting quietly in his seat. he then, in 1958, when he was nine, his told her, “You’re not whippin’ me.” she took MW.WGAJ Chapter 02:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:52 PM Page 15

him to the principal’s office. “We went round and round,” he said. “i saw an opening, and ”THE ULTIMATE TERROR” i shot out the door.” the principal didn’t allow him to come back to school for a week. theophilus eugene Connor was nicknamed By the time Wash was in seventh grade, “Bull” because he bellowed like one. as com- he’d skip school for weeks at a time. “My missioner of public safety, over- friends and i would go into the woods and saw the police and fire departments, public build a campfire [or] walk down the railroad schools, libraries, and the health depart- tracks,” he said. sometimes he’d go to the ment in Birmingham. during his second colored library, sit in the back room, and term as commissioner, Connor wrote a let- read. “it was all an adventure,” according to ter to President Franklin d. roosevelt that Wash. he liked wearing a davy Crockett revealed his views on race: he warned the coonskin cap on his adventures. liberal-leaning president that in cities Wash didn’t care if he got in trouble. But his mother did, and she was strict. When they shopped downtown, she insisted that he hold her hand and never touch the merchandise. “My mother knew that i was too ram- bunctious to be a little black boy in the south,” he said. “that put me in a position to be killed. sometimes she would beat me. she’d say, ‘i’d rather kill you myself than have a white man do it.’” she was right to worry. there were many white men in Birmingham who might kill him, among them a white policeman named Bull Connor. 15

Bull Connor, 1962 MW.WGAJ Chapter 02:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:52 PM Page 16

where “the doctrine of white supremacy” your head… they’d beat people to death.” fails, “negroes become impudent, unruly, as a result, he said, parents could scare arrogant, law breaking, violent and inso- unruly children into minding them by lent.” several years later, a grand jury threatening, “the police gonna get you.” described Connor as “explosive, vindictive… shuttlesworth estimated that as many dictatorial…autocratic and [someone who] as a third of the force were also members of uses no persuasion, logic, or reason, if any the , a viciously racist organ- he has.” ization. a local patrolman admitted, “every- though Connor was commissioner of one thought we were in the klan,” although public safety, blacks knew that it wasn’t he claimed he didn’t know any klansmen on their health and safety he intended to pro- the force. “We were just doing what we had tect. and he certainly didn’t put out their to do,” he stated. fires. Between the late 1940s and early almost everyone knew that, card- 1960s, more than fifty black homes and carrying members or not, the klan literally churches in Birmingham were bombed. one got away with murder, with the tacit per- neighborhood was hit so often, it was called mission and sometimes encouragement of “dynamite hill.” no one was ever prose- Connor. and there were lots of klansmen in cuted, even when the police could identify town to carry out these despicable crimes: the bombers. most of the 11,000 members of the kkk in Wash remembers the police as “the ulti- alabama lived in the Birmingham area. mate terror… You saw the police, you ran. Connor believed that his responsibility it was automatic.” Why were the police so was to enforce the city’s laws, and he paid frightening? “it was a rare weekend special attention to the segregation ordi- passed,” Wash said, “that one or two folk… nances, which gave him legal muscle to do didn’t get killed by the police… this is what whatever he wanted. since the ordinances they’d do to you: they’d call you and make applied equally to both races—they were you stick your head in the window [of the the only aspect of life in Birmingham that police car]…and then they would roll the did—blacks were not his only victims; so 16 window up…all the while calling you ‘boy’ were whites who pushed for integration. and ‘nigger’… and then they’d hit you on MW.WGAJ Chapter 02:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:52 PM Page 17

The ’ bus on fire in Anniston, 1961

“YOUR FIFTEEN MINUTES IS UP… they set out on May 4, 1961, from Wash- THE POLICE ARE COMING” ington, dC. ten days later, in atlanta, Georgia, they split into two groups; one in 1961, the Congress of racial equality group rode a Greyhound bus and the other (Core), a group of white and black integra- boarded a trailways. When the Greyhound tionists, decided to confront bus companies reached anniston, alabama, on the morn- in the deep south. earlier U.s. supreme ing of May 14, segregationists were waiting Court rulings had banned segregated seat- at the station. First, they set the bus on ing on buses that carried passengers across fire, nearly burning the passengers inside state lines and in the stations’ restaurants alive. then, as the passengers escaped from and waiting rooms, but the bus companies the smoke and flames, the segregationists had ignored the ruling for fifteen years. beat them. Calling themselves “Freedom riders,” some of the injured Freedom riders, Core members announced that they were including several white women, were taken going to ride together “to provoke the south- to the hospital but were left untreated and ern authorities into arresting us and stranded in the hospital basement. audrey’s 17 thereby prod the Justice department into father, along with a few other Movement enforcing the law of the land.” members, drove to anniston—sixty miles MW.WGAJ Chapter 02:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:52 PM Page 18

from Birmingham—to rescue them. sur- Connor knew that the trailways bus rounded by white men pointing guns, they was headed to Birmingham. he told local fetched the Freedom riders from the hospi- klansmen that he would give them fifteen tal. only Mr. hendricks and one other black minutes to confront the Freedom riders man were daring enough to transport the when they reached town. then he would white women back to Birmingham in their send in the police. Birmingham patrolmen cars. there, audrey’s mother gave them were advised, “if a call goes out to go to the food and clean clothes before they returned bus stations, you don’t hear it.” home.

18

The riot inside the Trailways bus station in Birmingham, 1961 MW.WGAJ Chapter 02:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:52 PM Page 19

during the fifteen minutes after the bus arrived, racists assaulted not only the Free- WASH: APRIL 1963 dom riders but also other passengers—both black and white—who happened to be on the Unlike audrey, Wash didn’t know that black same bus, as well as bystanders waiting in kids were about to offer themselves up for the station to welcome their friends and arrest. he passed that spring doing what family to Birmingham. the assailants also he’d done for the past six or seven years— went after local white reporters, destroying hanging out in the woods with friends. he cameras, film, and a microphone. right on wasn’t even going to school very often, much schedule, a detective announced, “Your fif- less to mass meetings. When he found out teen minutes is up… the police are coming.” about the marches, he thought the students the attackers slipped away. When Connor were crazy. was asked why it took so long for his men to “it was hard to come to grips with,” he drive the four blocks from the police station said. “We knew [the police] to be torturers, to the bus station, he explained that they murderers…, and the idea of voluntarily were all at home celebrating Mother’s day. submitting yourself to be taken away with only a few of the white assailants were them was just to us—we couldn’t…” ever prosecuted, and they served only a thirty-day term. the rest of them were never brought to trial or were acquitted. shuttlesworth, who was leading services at his church at the time of these events, was convicted of breach of peace for inspiring the Freedom riders to travel to Birming- ham and, thus, inciting violence. he was fined $1000 and sentenced to three months at hard labor.

19 Chapter three MW.WGAJ Chapter03:Layout110/26/111:51PMPage20 (inset) Chauncey and James Stewart, age 3 Sit-in at the Birmingham Woolworth’s lunch counter MW.WGAJ Chapter 03:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:51 PM Page 21

JaMeS W. SteWart

“NO. I AM NOT GOING TO BE CONFINED.”

“EVERYONE LIVED IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY, IF YOU WERE BLACK”

When James steWart was ten years old, his family’s house caught fire. the house was destroyed and his older brother died. to make sure this tragedy never hap- pened to them again, James’s parents built a new house of solid brick. there was no other house like it in titusville. It was built on two lots rather than one, and had a swimming pool in the backyard. Dr. and mrs. stewart could afford such a fine home because they were well-educated professionals. James’s mother had earned a master’s degree and taught eng- lish at Daniel Payne College, a local black school. his father was an internist as well as the first black board- certified obstetrician in alabama. he delivered most of the black babies in Birmingham and helped found holy Family hospital, the only black hospital, located in nearby ensley. the stewarts’ middle-class status could have set James apart from other kids, but his family 21 made sure that it didn’t. MW.WGAJ Chapter 03:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:51 PM Page 22

since the city had closed all the pools “We went to an assembly,” he said, “and saw and parks, lots of kids came to play at that there were people who were going into James’s house and swim in his pool. “every- the honor society with a 3.89, 3.95 [grade- one lived in the black community, if you point average], and…a couple of other stu- were black,” James said. “We were all in dents and I decided we were going to try to there together…and grew up playing with go the first two years and make straight as.” one another.” James, in turn, often biked to James’s perseverance paid off; by his junior the housing projects at Loveman’s Village year, he was earning a 3.9. “the fellows… where his best friend lived. knew that I could play basketball with Children from the projects were sur- them,” James said, “but I would go home, prised that the stewarts welcomed them. clean up, eat dinner, and I would do my “they expected,” James said, “we would not homework. I didn’t neglect my academics mix with them.” a friend told him, “You and and have Cs and Ds just to be accepted,… your parents [are] really different…because and people seemed to accept that.” you let us, from the projects and everywhere Ullman’s principal, Dr. George Bell, else, come…and have fun, just like anybody became a model for James. “he was a else.” James just thought that’s how people strong man,” James said, “in control of the were supposed to treat each other. school. he wanted us to do something with Like his parents, James was serious our lives.” James admired those traits— about his studies. he skipped a grade at strength, control, and dedication to doing Washington elementary school, which con- something that mattered. tinued through eighth grade, and entered James’s academic success also could Ullman high school when he was only have set him apart from other kids, but he twelve. he faced several challenges there, made a point of being friendly as well as both academic and social. Older, larger guys studious. he became active in a social club demanded that other kids pay them “block called the Cavaliers. fees”—payments for safe passage through James differed from most of his friends the hallways. “I really didn’t know what a and classmates in yet another way: he had 22 block fee was,” James said, “but I learned to lighter skin. his great-grandmother was an pay a few of those in order to survive.” enslaved woman who bore a son fathered by James and several friends decided to her owner. the owner had three white sons meet the academic challenge head-on, too. as well. When he died, he left instructions to MW.WGAJ Chapter 03:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:51 PM Page 23

divide his large plantation equally among James learned that to “call someone his four sons. the three white brothers black was a no-no. those were fighting objected; they didn’t want a slave’s son to get words.” Friends could “make references to any part of their inheritance. their father’s my being nearly white…but if I retorted with attorney, however, insisted on honoring the a comment to someone’s skin being darker will. so James’s family inherited from this than mine, then everything stopped… I had man—James’s white great-grandfather— reached beyond the limit of what was accept- 180 acres of land. along with much effort able.” Being called “high yellow” felt like a and family teamwork over the generations, slap in the face to James, but calling some- this inheritance eventually helped them one “dark” was a downright slur. climb out of poverty and into the middle class. “MIDDLE-CLASS BLACKS In addition to property, many of his WERE…VERY CAUTIOUS” descendants also inherited a light complex- ion. “as a lighter-skinned black,” James skin color was not the only perceived divi- said, “I was called ‘high yellow.’” this paler sion within the black community. no black skin tone seemed to carry advantages person liked segregation, but people dis- within the black community in Birming- agreed about how—or even if—to confront ham. a student said that at Parker high and dismantle it. these splits often cracked school it seemed “you had to be a certain along lines of social class. Growing up, color” to become a majorette or act in the- James said he learned that “middle-class ater productions. Wash believed that some blacks were…very cautious about their churches wouldn’t admit parishioners who dealing with whites. they had to maintain didn’t pass the “comb test”—having hair that balance of pushing without losing you could pull a comb straight through— everything.” those who had less to lose or and the paper-bag test—having skin tone who were willing to risk it all tended to be lighter than a grocery sack. Kids repeated more aggressive. and lived by a popular saying: “If you In may 1954, the U.s. supreme Court black, get back. If you’re brown, stick handed down the first in a series of cases 23 around.” Best of all, “If you white, you all outlawing segregation in public schools. right.” shuttlesworth immediately concluded, “this means that we have the same right MW.WGAJ Chapter 03:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:51 PM Page 24

everybody else has.” he intended to seize under the dismal yoke of segregation…,” he that right—and a lot of others. told the crowd. “these are the days when In his first line of attack, the following men would like to kill hope… But hope is not year shuttlesworth drafted a petition call- dead. hope is alive here tonight.” reverend ing on the Birmingham police force to hire n. h. smith Jr. read aloud a proposed Dec- black patrolmen. his fellow members of the laration of Principles, which stated, “[W]e black Baptist ministers Conference, how- express publicly our determination to press ever, led by J. L. Ware, refused to sign it. persistently for freedom and democracy and still, shuttlesworth managed to collect the removal from our society any forms of 4,500 signatures from blacks and even 119 second class citizenship.” the thousand or from whites. he presented the petition to so people in attendance approved the meas- the city commissioners, but none of them ure with a standing ovation. that evening, responded. the alabama Christian movement for shuttlesworth was also active in the human rights was founded. local branch of the national association for Gathering support for aCmhr from the advancement of Colored People until it other black ministers in Birmingham, how- was forced to close its doors in may 1956. ever, was difficult. most were part of the the all-white University of alabama had established middle class, and they quickly admitted a black woman and then, when opposed shuttlesworth’s new organization. officials discovered she was black, refused to Ware denounced aCmhr as “too militant,” enroll her. With the naaCP’s help, a black forbade other ministers from joining, and lawyer named arthur shores won a lawsuit organized a rival group to try to end segre- against the university. When she appeared gation with less combative techniques. some on campus to register, the white students activists began to call shuttlesworth “the rioted. the university expelled her “for her Wild man of Birmingham.” the president of own safety” and the state banned the the local black Baptist seminary actually naaCP. stated that he supported segregation. to combat the “helplessness and hope- another minister claimed that God told him 24 lessness” that seemed to smother black that shuttlesworth should cancel the next activism, shuttlesworth spoke out at a mass meeting. shuttlesworth snapped, “now meeting at sardis Baptist Church the week just when did the Lord start sending my following the ban. “Our citizens are restive messages through you? You go back and tell MW.WGAJ Chapter 03:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:51 PM Page 25

the Lord that the meeting is on, and the only across the country, black people argued way I’ll call it off is if he comes down here about the best way to dismantle segrega- and tells me himself.” shuttlesworth didn’t tion. some believed the best route ran cancel, but over the next seven years, only through the courthouse. shuttlesworth sixty of approximately four hundred black had been using this method for years, churches in the area—15 percent—ever held purposely breaking laws in order to chal- mass meetings. lenge them in court. Others preferred although emory Jackson, the prominent lobbying legislatures to change racist laws, editor of the Birmingham World newspaper, or even running for office themselves. these supported aCmhr, many other influential methods, however, could be unreliable, slow, blacks did not, including arthur shores and and expensive. By the early 1960s, activists millionaire insurance executive and motel- like shuttlesworth were ready to take to the owner a. G. Gaston. hardly any doctors or streets, holding demonstrations and clash- dentists belonged to the organization, ing directly with the police. either. shuttlesworth concluded, “many of the upper class persons…seem to feel that “I WAS PETRIFIED, AND I WAS ALONE” it is almost taboo to align actively with us.” many white people considered these Ultimately, disputes about the best way to upper-class blacks the “responsible negroes” integrate hardly mattered in Birmingham. or “good negroes.” some had quiet relation- everyone, black and white, lived under and ships with their white counterparts, which abided by the segregation Ordinances. they wanted to preserve, even if that meant none of James’s advantages protected that progress was slow. him from those laws. Despite his light skin James learned to figure out which color, high family income, and good grades, whites could be trusted and which couldn’t. he still had to sit in the back of the city bus “the middle-class blacks had to discern and drink from the colored water fountain which whites were working together toward like every other black person. Before the progress and which ones were patronizing stewarts took car trips, his mother rose at them,” he said. shuttlesworth trusted three o’clock in the morning to cook, since 25 hardly any white people; he believed that “a they wouldn’t be able to eat at restaurants white man smiles like he means ‘yes’ but he on the road. When he wanted a snack after means ‘hell no.’” school, he and his friends had to go to the MW.WGAJ Chapter 03:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:51 PM Page 26

back of the restaurant across the street; One evening he experienced racism first- they weren’t allowed in the front door. hand. “I was on the Bessemer super high- Odessa Woolfolk was one of James’s way,” he said. “some boys pulled up behind favorite teachers in the spring of his junior me very close, and I saw them in my year. she challenged her students to read rearview mirror, and this was at night. the newspaper, talk about current events, they were white boys, and they began to develop and defend opinions about politics, yell,…to move very close and flash their and apply the civics lessons they studied in lights. so I looked in my rearview mirror. I class to everyday life. “no one up until that saw that one or two had hoods on… I was time had asked us what our opinion was,” petrified, and I was alone.” James said. What he learned in her class the car followed James as he turned led him to “look around me and to see some onto side streets. he pulled into a stranger’s of the things that were incorrect in Birm- driveway, shut off the headlights, and lay ingham, some of the racism that was down on the seat. “I heard them turn the actually law at the time, .” corner; they didn’t see me pull up, and they went by.” James knew that, no matter what those white boys did to him, Birmingham’s strict segregation laws and culture would protect them, not him. he didn’t tell his parents about the incident because he didn’t want them to keep him inside all the time. “that is the same drive,” he realized, “that made me ultimately stand up to the system and say, ‘no. I am not going to be confined.’”

JAMES: APRIL 1963

26 In the spring of 1963, Gertrude Grant, a school friend of James’s, started participating Odessa Woolfolk in her thirties in protests. she noticed his growing dismay MW.WGAJ Chapter 03:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:51 PM Page 27

at Jim Crow laws and talked with him about Instead, he started going to mass meet- the . hoping he would ings. “I began to…listen to the things that join her, Gertrude took James to watch a sit- the men and women were saying about dis- in at a segregated lunch counter. he saw crimination and having to make a change,” white people pour ketchup and crack eggs on James said. “I felt a sense of resolve. I had the demonstrators’ heads. enough of the segregation, discrimination, “there was a growing sense of warfare hatred, violence, white signs, colored signs, developing,” James said. “Us versus them. all of it! now was the time to confront it all!” they seemed determined to keep us in James knew he would have to be strong, bondage, which gave us more reasons to take control, and do something to make a resist.” change. sit-ins did not appeal to him. But still, James told Gertrude that sit-ins marching felt right. were not something he could do. he explained to her that he didn’t have the fortitude to sit passively under a cascade of garbage; he knew he’d be too tempted to fight back against the egg-throwers, violat- ing the pledge of that the pro- testers had to take.

27 MW.WGAJ Chapter04:Layout110/26/111:51PMPage28 Chapter four (inset) Arnetta Streeter, as a baby Training an activist not to respond to abuse, Petersburg Virginia, 1960 MW.WGAJ Chapter 04:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:51 PM Page 29

ARNETTA STREETER

“WE NEEDED TO DO SOMETHING RIGHT THEN.”

“WE COULD HAVE MADE HISTORY”

When ArnettA Streeter was in elementary school, she wanted to become a nun. She loved the nuns who taught at St. Mary’s, the Catholic school she attended through third grade. Arnetta said they were “very, very strict,” and she liked the discipline and high academic expectations. She and her two younger sisters and their parents were devout churchgoers, attending Mass at Our Lady of Fatima every Sunday. On Saturday, they often went to a different church closer to their home for confession. this church was one of the largest in Birmingham, with mostly white parishioners who always welcomed them. All of the students at St. Mary’s were black, as required by law. But unlike the staff at black public schools, the teachers—all of whom were nuns—were white. So, Arnetta grew up mingling comfortably with white people. In fact, had she wanted to, she could have “passed” for white herself. “Unless you just knew that I was black,” she said, “you would not be able to tell.” 29 MW.WGAJ Chapter 04:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:51 PM Page 30

Like James, she was so light-skinned Washington elementary, which James that her friends sometimes called her and Wash also attended, was a shock to her. names. “When they would get angry, they All of the teachers were black. the classes would call me ‘half-white’…,” she said. “It were more crowded, and the classrooms would really, really hurt my feelings.” were less well equipped than those at St. Although she had friends who passed, “I Mary’s. was black, and it was no doubt about it in In addition, she had a long walk to my mind,” she said. “[I] never had any school. every day, she passed by elyton ele- desires to pass.” mentary, the white school that was closer to Arnetta’s father told her and her sisters, her home. “My father would always say, “You are made by God.” he taught them ‘One day, black children will be able to go to that their family’s light skin didn’t make elyton.’” Arnetta wasn’t sure she believed them any better or worse than anyone else. that would ever happen. “We…did not think that race should have her father not only believed that inte- been an issue,” she said. gration was inevitable, he even tried to Mr. Streeter was a barber and owned his enlist Arnetta to make it happen. In Sep- own shop. Orphaned as a teenager, he had tember 1957, three years after the U.S. raised his five younger siblings by cutting Supreme Court ordered racial integration of hair, stopping only for Army duty and two public schools, ACMhr tried to recruit years of study at Miles College. Mrs. young people to cross the education color Streeter had graduated from tuskegee Uni- barrier. Several families, including the versity, just like both of her parents and five Shuttlesworths, decided to participate. of her seven siblings. She worked as the Arnetta was eleven years old then, and her youth director at the black YWCA. father wanted her and her sister Joan to Just before fourth grade, Arnetta asked integrate a white school, too. the girls pan- to switch to public school so she could be icked. “We were little chickens,” Arnetta with her neighborhood friends. her parents said. “We cried and thought it was so unfair. preferred that she and her sisters stay at St. We wanted no part of it.” 30 Mary’s but, Arnetta said, “We had a fit.” the Mr. Streeter wanted to force them to go sisters won the fight, and Arnetta learned to the white school, but Mrs. Streeter took she could get what she wanted by making a the girls’ side and he relented. She probably big fuss. saved them from some pain. MW.WGAJ Chapter 04:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:51 PM Page 31

When reverend and Mrs. Shuttlesworth Arnetta determined that if she ever had the and their daughters, Pat and ricky, arrived chance, she would make history. And she at Phillips, one of the city’s four all-white would not cry. high schools, a crowd of white men attacked After she graduated from Washington them. they beat and kicked the minister elementary, where she was a drum nearly senseless and scarred his face, majorette in the marching band, Arnetta stabbed Mrs. Shuttlesworth, and slammed moved on to Ullman high School. In tenth the car door on ricky’s ankle. grade, she and seven friends started the not long after that effort failed, Mr. Peace Ponies, Streeter tried to fight segregation again. a social and the family often went to the movies on savings club. Sunday after church. “[M]y daddy decided Members vol- that we weren’t going to sit on the back of unteered to the bus that day. he got us and he sat us up help younger in the front…,” Arnetta said, “the bus students and driver pulled over…and he told my father saved their that either he [her father] was going to money to give to move back or he [the driver] was going to needy families. In call the police… We were crying… All we early April 1963, the knew was that the bus driver was going to Peace Ponies went to call the police on our daddy.” a mass meeting at An older black woman on the bus chas- Sixteenth Street tised Arnetta’s father, saying, “You don’t do Baptist Church. anything like that when you have children Martin Luther with you.” Once again, Mr. Streeter gave in King Jr. gave the to his children, to the driver, to the older sermon that woman, and to the city’s segregation laws. night. he moved his family to the back of the bus. But he didn’t want to; he wanted to change 31 Birmingham instead. Arnetta said, “My

daddy often told us that we could have Arnetta Streeter, age 14 made history ‘if y’all wouldn’t have cried.’” MW.WGAJ Chapter 04:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:51 PM Page 32

“I remember the first time I heard Dr. King “NO FIGHTING BACK” speak,” Arnetta said. “It was as if he was hypnotizing you… I knew that he was God King wrote, “to retaliate with hate and bit- sent. After we went to that first meeting, we terness would do nothing but intensify hate decided that this was something that we in the world… Someone must have sense were going to do as a project, our club.” enough and morality enough to cut off the Inspired by the sermons of King and other chain of hate. this can be done only by pro- ministers and by the glorious singing of the jecting the ethics of love to the center of our choir, Arnetta and the Peace Ponies got lives.” swept up in the fervor of the Movement. his message wasn’t simply “Love your “It was something that was very, very neighbor.” It was also “Love your enemy.” much a part of me. I really, really believed he drew this message from the book of in the Movement,” she said. “[W]hen we Matthew: “Love your enemies; do good to would leave out of the meeting, it was just them that hate you. And pray for them that like we needed to do something right then.” persecute and calumniate you.” richard they soon figured out what they could Boone, an organizer, explained, “You hate do. In addition to attending the weekday the deed. But you never hate the person.” mass meetings, they would participate in the previous year, before a large crowd Saturday-morning training sessions where in Birmingham, King had demonstrated young activists were taught the two funda- the true meaning of this credo. As King mental precepts of the civil rights move- finished speaking, a young white man ment. the first of these consisted of using named roy James jumped onto the stage “” strategies to confront injus- and attacked him with brass knuckles, tice, such as picketing stores targeted by the slugging him in the back and jaw. rather Selective Buying Campaign and holding sit- than return the blows or even cover his ins at segregated lunch counters. the other face, King dropped his hands by his side related precept was nonviolence—that is, and looked at his assailant. Other minis- carrying out these actions quietly and ters rushed to restrain James, but King 32 respectfully without resorting to violence, stopped them. regardless of how white people, including “Don’t touch him,” he cried. “We have to the police, reacted. pray for him.” King put his arm around the man who had been attacking him. they MW.WGAJ Chapter 04:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:51 PM Page 33

talked quietly. the man, a member of the Lucinda robey, a friend of Arnetta’s American nazi Party, started crying and mother, recruited interested youngsters to admitted that he had come there to prove participate in the Movement. She picked that King was not nonviolent. the minister Arnetta up and drove her to the training, did not even press charges. which was held in the basement of Sixteenth For King and his followers, the only Street Baptist Church. Arnetta discovered moral way to overcome injustice was that the sessions were as tough as boot through direct action that was nonviolent. camp, and the teachers were as tough as the they also believed that this was the only nuns at St. Mary’s. Officially, these teachers practical approach. Protesters who engaged were ministers, community leaders, organiz- in direct action would be breaking the city’s ers, and other professionals. technically, they Segregation Ordinances and would there- were also criminals—picketers, marchers, free- fore be subject to arrest. the key was that dom riders, and other civil rights protesters the protesters could neither resist arrest who had violated segregation laws throughout nor retaliate—no matter what anyone did the South. For these crimes, they had been to them, they were not to fight back. Many harassed, beaten, and jailed—punishments people found this lesson difficult to accept, Arnetta knew she might also have to especially if it meant they were expected to endure. She received detailed instructions love Connor and his aggressively violent about where to march, how long it should police force. reverend tony Cooper, a Move- take to get there, and what to say and not ment organizer, confessed that nonviolence say to police. “was a beautiful concept… But when you’re “they prepared us,” Arnetta said. “they getting your head knocked in, you really knew that if we picketed, we would be gotta think hard.” arrested. they told us distinctly, if they ask you where your mother or father work, you “THEY TAUGHT US NOT TO BE AFRAID” were not to tell them because the repercus- sions could hurt your parents… We were Arnetta needed to think hard about told to say, ‘no comment.’” whether she was so committed to the Move- the trainers knew from experience that 33 ment that she was willing to risk her safety, police or firemen might try to disperse the and maybe even her life. So she, along with marchers with powerful water hoses. “We the rest of the Peace Ponies, attended non- practiced how to get down and put our violence workshops. hands over our heads so that the water MW.WGAJ Chapter 04:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:51 PM Page 34

10 COMMaNDMENTS Of could not hit our head directly,” Arnetta NONvIOlENCE said. “Our arms could be like a shield. [I]f we balled up into balls, then the water Arnetta and other trainees were required would not hurt as much.” to sign this pledge. She even submitted to simulated assaults. “they told us we would be called I hereby pledge myself—my person and body—to the names. they talked to us about [segregation- nonviolent movement, therefore I will keep the ists] spitting on us or hitting us.” then the following ten commandments! trainers—pretending to be segregationists— yelled names, hit them, and spat at them. MEDITATE daily on the teachings and life of Jesus. In some sessions, students had to stand pas- sively without reacting while others REMEMBER always that the nonviolent movement in chanted to their faces, “Catch me a nigger Birmingham seeks justice and reconciliation—not victory. by the toe.” to help the teens weigh the risks and WALK and TALK in the manner of love, for God is love. ponder if they could remain nonviolent, workshop leaders got them to talk about PRAY daily to be used by God in order that all men might be free. how they felt. , one of the trainers, said, “We didn’t want anyone to… SACRIFICE personal wishes in order that all men might be free. participate in the demonstrations and then regret that they did.” he found it was “eas- OBSERVE with both friend and foe the ordinary rules of courtesy. ier for the girls to talk about feelings than boys… the boys would…fold their arms, SEEK to perform regular service for others and for the world. look pensive… not fighting back…the ques-

REFRAIN from the violence of fist, tongue, or heart. tion was, ‘was that a manly thing to do?’” Lafayette explained to the participants STRIVE to be in good spiritual and bodily health. that there were different ways to fight. “nonviolence means fighting back. But 34 FOLLOW the directions of the movement and you’re fighting back with another purpose of the captain on a demonstration. and other weapons. Your fight is to win the enemy over, not to destroy him.” he added, I sign this pledge, having seriously considered what I do “this was a nonviolent academy, equivalent and with the determination and will to persevere. MW.WGAJ Chapter 04:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:51 PM Page 35

to West Point. We were warriors.” King each Peace Pony signed the pledge, com- described them as an army that would “sing mitting herself to nonviolence. everyone but not slay.” knew that the Miles College students who At each stage of training, participants were holding sit-ins at lunch counters had had to decide whether or not to accept the been assaulted, and that those who were risks and whether or not to proceed to the picketing stores had been arrested. never- next step. those who completed the train- theless, after weeks of training, Arnetta ing then had to ask workshop leaders for said, “We could hardly wait until they permission to join the ranks of protesters. started the demonstrations.” Despite the risks, Arnetta and the Peace Ponies resolved to demonstrate. “they taught us not to be afraid,” she said.

ARNETTA: APRIL 1963

Arnetta and the Peace Ponies spent several weekends in April in training. the final requirement for the young protesters was to take the pledge to remain nonviolent, no matter what. “We had to sign a form that you were willing to march, that you were going to be nonviolent,” Arnetta said. “It was very, very important for you to understand. If you could not be nonviolent, they could not use you.”

35 MW.WGAJ Chapter05:Layout110/26/111:51PMPage36 Chapter FIVe A mass meeting in Harlem, New York, in the 1940s MW.WGAJ Chapter 05:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:51 PM Page 37

COLLISION COURSE

“WE SHALL MARCH UNTIL VICTORY IS WON.”

“NEVER HAVE ANY CLOSE CONTACTS”

Audrey, WAsh, JAmes, And ArnettA grew up in their own world. they and everyone they knew were born in one of two segregated places—either in a general hospital in the area designated for blacks only, or in the black hospital, in which case they were delivered by James’s father or another black doctor. (the three dozen black physicians in town couldn’t practice at the white university hospital, even on the floors where their patients were staying.) In elementary school, they joined black scout troops or par- ticipated in activities at the black yWCA, some of which were organized by Arnetta’s mother. In high school, they joined black social clubs, like the Cavaliers, the Cavalettes (its sister club), and the Peace Ponies. they were taught by black teachers in public school, sang and prayed at black churches, competed in black bowling clubs, and lis- tened to music played on the radio by black dJs (actually, so did many white kids). they got their hair cut by black barbers like Arnetta’s father. their parents bought insur- 37 ance from A. G. Gaston. When they died, they were buried in one of the two black cemeteries in town. their world was whole—yet separated, contained, and suppressed by the white world. MW.WGAJ Chapter 05:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:51 PM Page 38

“We could go months,” Wash said, “and In march 1963, movement activists were never have any close contacts with whites.” plotting strategies to seize the rights that holding a conversation, let alone making blacks had been denied. most whites paid friends with someone of another race, was no attention. At the same time, a small nearly impossible. group of white merchants, concerned that A few “responsible negroes” were occa- segregated stores and police brutality were sionally invited to meet privately with a few bad for business, were meeting behind the moderate white businessmen. through the scenes, orchestrating a change in city gov- Birmingham chapter of the Alabama Coun- ernment in order to oust Connor. most cil on human relations, an organization blacks knew little about those plans. established for this purpose, they talked While it might seem that both groups about re-opening the parks and preventing were headed in the same direction—ending boycotts by black customers of white busi- Connor’s iron-fisted rule—their strategies nesses. But the meetings didn’t lead to any and intended outcomes were completely dif- changes. ferent. A few white storeowners were talk- In public, whites and blacks intersected ing with each other and with a few blacks only when blacks about allowing black customers to try on • shopped in the white downtown clothes in their dressing rooms. But thou- • passed whites on the street (black men sands of blacks were shouting at mass sometimes stepped off the sidewalk to meetings that it was time to integrate. allow white women to walk past) Everything. Now. • got arrested Black leaders and white leaders were on • worked as domestics in white house- a collision course with no plans to discuss holds, as Wash’s mother did when he the rules of the road. was young. Intersecting in these ways, however, isn’t “THE NEGRO CHURCH the same as interacting. Wash’s view IS TAKING THE LEAD” through newberry’s window was a reflection 38 of the lives of just about everyone in Birm- In 1957, the year after shuttlesworth ingham, on both sides of the glass. Blacks founded the ACmhr, he spoke to black could look but not touch. And whites rarely leaders at a prayer pilgrimage in Washing- bothered to turn around and see. ton, dC. he said that, in the struggle for MW.WGAJ Chapter 05:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:51 PM Page 39

civil rights, “the negro Church is taking spirited extravaganza. teenage activitst the lead… We have arisen to walk with Gwendolyn sanders said, “A typical mass destiny, and we shall march till victory is meeting [was] shouting, singing, having a won.” From its exuberant beginnings, the hallelujah time. meeting, greeting, loving, civil rights movement in Birmingham was caring, and sharing.” these magnetic gather- rooted in the and its teach- ings quickly became a vital feature of the ings—led by ministers and hailed by civil rights movement. congregants. some host churches were tidy, steepled, By early April 1963, Audrey and her one-story clapboard structures that would family had been attending ACmhr meet- fit comfortably on a village green. Others, ings—always held in churches—every mon- stolid and stately stone or brick buildings, day night for nearly seven years. then covered entire city blocks. In Birmingham, King, who had recently started advising sixteenth street Baptist Church was the ACmhr leaders on strategies to end segre- movement’s unofficial headquarters. It was gation, suggested holding these mass meet- perfectly situated, across the street from ings every night, rather than just once a and right between the week. nightly meetings would allow minis- black and white sections of town. several ters to rouse their flocks and rally volun- thousand boisterous supporters could teers to demonstrate. Audrey continued squeeze into its semicircular rows of green participating for almost sixty-five nights in velvet–covered banquettes, admiring the a row, until the day she was arrested. “I glowing lightbulb cross on the altar. don’t ever remember a time we were not in “every mass meeting was packed,” the meeting,” she said. James said. “Churches were filled to the brim. there was standing room only. People sat around on the floors.” some nights, so “HAVING A HALLELUJAH TIME” many congregants flocked to these hours- A mass meeting rolled worship services, long gatherings that the crowds sponta- social visits, teen hangouts, choir concerts, neously overflowed into three or four other sing-alongs, fish fries, strategy sessions, churches. sometimes, young people would 39 political debates, news reports, educational hold their own mass meeting at a separate assemblies, fundraisers, crowd-rousers, and church, where they led their own services calls for volunteers all into one spiritual and and sang in their own choir. Of course, kids MW.WGAJ Chapter 05:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:51 PM Page 40

didn’t always spend the entire evening sit- After the movement Choir sang one of ting obediently in their pews and listening Carlton reese’s latest compositions, a min- to sermons, even when King was speaking. ister or two delivered sermons. then ushers “Being a teenager,” Gwen Cook said, “I took up the offering. In the same way that would be outside and inside.” James agreed. worship services ended with an invitation “We saw friends from other sides of town.” for new believers who had found Christ the agenda generally followed the order to walk down the aisle for a blessing, mass of a sunday morning devotional service, meetings ended with an invitation beginning with a half hour of prayers, spir- for protesters to walk down ituals, and hymns, some sung slowly, the aisle to volunteer. with long, drawn-out syllables.

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Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham MW.WGAJ Chapter 05:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:51 PM Page 41

King conducted many mass meetings, and INSPIRING WORDS Audrey, Arnetta, and James heard him speak, Arnetta said, “numerous times.” This is an excerpt from a sermon delivered dozens of other visiting ministers were also by Reverend in May 1963. called upon to speak, including Andrew young and ralph Abernathy, as were stu- The Negroes of Birmingham, Alabama, are sick and tired of segregation. dent leaders and ministers-to-be, like . [Yes!] their sermons were uplifting and their We will stick together… Don’t let anybody divide delivery energetic and energizing. these us. Don’t let anybody separate us. men intoned, sang, whispered, and shouted, [No!] rousing participants to a swaying, hollering It won’t be long before we march into freedom’s frenzy and then calming them to quiet land. thoughtfulness. As the ministers called out [Yes! Applause.]… their message, congregants responded loudly with their approval. the sermons I’m on my way… I’m not going to let anybody turn me around. were inspiring. [Right! Amen!] “THERE IS A BOMB” I’m not going to let Bull Connor turn me ’round. [No-o-o. Boo!] mass meetings were inspiring, but they Not going to let the city jails turn me ’round. were also risky at times, infiltrated by spies and beset by threats. At Connor’s direction, [No!] sunglasses-wearing plainclothes policemen Because I want to be free.

recorded speakers’ names and took notes [Yes!] on plans for demonstrations. Audrey’s par- Not only do I want to be free but I got news for ents were unconcerned. “We would tell you: I am go-o-o-ing to be free. them sometimes,” mr. hendricks said, “‘We [Yeah! Yeah! Applause. Whistles. Amen!] appreciate you all being here, but we don’t 41 feel comfortable with you.’” On one occasion, shuttlesworth said to Keeping moving, Birmingham.

the detectives, “you all take this down real [Yeah!] good, so Bull Connor will know what our MW.WGAJ Chapter 05:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:51 PM Page 42

plans are tomorrow.” still, he admitted, “to together as teenagers and sort of hanging be a meeting church was to invite terror out and listening to different speakers talk from the police and the Klan.” to us…. they were telling us it’s our respon- James was present at a particularly ter- sibility. It is up to us to draw a line in the rifying meeting—one that changed his life. sand…and do something to address the While Jesse Jackson was delivering a talk racial problem.” that night, a man walked up to Jackson and handed him a note. Jackson looked at the SHADRACH, MESHACH, AND ABEDNEGO note, put it in his pocket, and continued his sermon. Five minutes later he read it out Like Audrey, Arnetta, and James, Wash loud. “there is a bomb that is going to go off attended mass meetings, but he never got in this church.” serious about them. “We just weren’t really Why didn’t Jackson warn the congrega- into the speeches,” he admitted. “[W]e’d sit tion, James wanted to know, and tell every- there ten or fifteen minutes, and then we one to get out before it was too late? “I had climbed over the balcony and be back outside. my feet turned toward the door,” he admit- We didn’t know anything about no dr. King.” ted. But Jackson continued. “‘If you only still, his mother sent him to sunday knew how many times people have called at school at Zion hill Baptist, and the stories he every movement meeting to say there is a heard had as profound an effect on him as bomb threat because they want us to leave. Jackson’s courage did on James. One of But tonight we are not going anywhere.’” Wash’s favorite Bible stories told the miracle James stayed in his pew. “After I real- of three boys in a fiery furnace: King neb- ized that the purpose was to make us dis- uchadnezzar had ruled that everyone must band…and stop what we were doing, I said, bow down and worship his golden statue. ‘no. We are going…to not be moved.’ We did When shadrach, meshach, and Abednego not move that night. We stayed… If there refused, the furious king had his servants tie was a bomb that goes off, so be it.” them up and throw them into a blazing fur- that evening, James’s attitude toward nace. the fire was so hot it consumed neb- 42 mass meetings changed. “We knew that uchadnezzar’s servants. But the three young when we were going to meetings, it was men walked in the middle of the fire much more serious than us just getting unharmed because they trusted their God. MW.WGAJ Chapter 05:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:51 PM Page 43

“Without knowing it,” Wash explained, “they had prepared us to face a mighty enemy without fear. We were always taught that, if God was on your side, he would come and deliver you.” Whether they got it through mass meet- ings or sunday school, Audrey, James, Arnetta, and Wash had faith in the knowl- edge that segregation was wrong and that God would protect them if they fought to destroy it.

A NEW DAY DAWNS?

While Audrey, James, Arnetta, and thou- sands of other blacks were attending mass meetings, changes in the Birmingham city Sidney Smyer Sr. government were in the works—changes that would throw the city into chaos. these developments had begun almost exactly two his hometown had to resolve its racial years earlier, in may 1961, when the Free- problems. dom riders were attacked at the trailways Back in Birmingham, smyer met with Bus station. other white community leaders who sup- sidney smyer sr., the head of the city’s ported better race relations, including chamber of commerce, was an outspoken david Vann, a lawyer. these meetings con- segregationist. he had traveled to Japan to firmed what they’d suspected: the commis- seek opportunities for Birmingham busi- sioners who governed the city would never nesses. When potential Japanese investors allow any form of integration, even when showed him international newspapers con- wealthy white elites sought it. 43 taining gruesome photographs of the Free- Birmingham was run by a board of three dom rider attacks, smyer realized that commissioners. In addition to Connor, J. t. MW.WGAJ Chapter 05:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:51 PM Page 44

Waggoner served as commissioner of public hanes decided not to run for office again. improvements and Art hanes as mayor. All there were three new candidates for the three men were 100 percent committed to position of mayor: Connor; , enforcing the segregation Ordinances. a lawyer who had served as the state’s lieu- In January 1962, three months after the tenant governor and was rumored to be board voted to close all the parks rather more moderate than Connor; and thomas than integrate them, smyer and several King, a liberal. the three split the vote and other civic leaders presented a petition to a runoff election between the top two, the commissioners at a large public meet- Connor and Boutwell, was scheduled for ing. titled “A Plea for Courage and Com- April 2, 1963. mon sense” and signed by 1,280 white Blacks wouldn’t vote for Connor but they people, the petition objected to the park clo- couldn’t affect the outcome. they made up sures. the commissioners responded by only one-third of the city’s population, and chewing out these prominent citizens in an only one eligible black person in ten was hour-long, “bombastic and abusive” lecture. registered to vote. Wash’s mother took the One petitioner grumbled, “I never had such required test four times before she finally an experience in my life.” passed; she had to name all sixty-seven that experience convinced smyer, Vann, counties in the state. Audrey’s father told and the others that the three men who her that some tests asked absurd questions: ruled Birmingham had to be replaced. the “how high is height? how far is distant? commissioners had just been elected in how many bubbles in a bar of soap?” October 1961, for terms that were to run Boutwell won the runoff election anyway until 1965, but these relatively moderate with 58 percent of the vote. White leaders community leaders didn’t want to wait. assumed that the results would persuade the best strategy seemed to be to replace civil rights activists to cancel the protests the entire form of government with a new they had planned. Once Boutwell and the one that would be larger and therefore more city council were in office, surely they would responsive to Birmingham as a whole. modify the segregation Ordinances. then 44 they arranged for a referendum, and in there would be no reason to protest. the november 1962, voters agreed to establish Birmingham News optimistically pro- a nine-member city council and a mayor. claimed, “new day dawns for Birmingham.” the election for these seats was scheduled for march 5, 1963. MW.WGAJ Chapter 05:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:51 PM Page 45

But Connor and the other two commis- Who was running Birmingham? Was sioners refused to leave office. their terms there a power vacuum with nobody at the didn’t end for another two-and-a-half years, top? Or, a power overload with too many they argued, and they intended to serve officials giving orders? If blacks held their remaining time. so, for the next protests, as they had warned they would, thirty-seven days, Birmingham had two city who had the authority to decide how the governments, each of which sued the other city should respond? If Connor remained in for control. meanwhile, until a court decided charge, he’d probably keep arresting them. who was in charge, the three commissioners If Boutwell took over—well, no one knew convened every tuesday morning in city exactly what he would do. hall, as if they were still in power. then, somebody had to do something. every afternoon, Boutwell and the city coun- cil members met in the same chamber, as if they were in control. the two mayors shared the official mayor’s office.

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Sit-in at a Birmingham lunch counter, 1963 Chapter SIX MW.WGAJ Chapter 06:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:50 PM Page 47

PROJECT C

“OVERWHELMED BY A FEELING OF HOPELESSNESS”

PROJECT CONFRONTATION

On Wednesday, april 3, 1963, King returned to Birm- ingham from his home in atlanta. Just days earlier, his wife had given birth to their fourth child. at a mass meeting at st. James Baptist Church that evening, he declared, “We are embarking on a mission to break down the barrier of segregation in Birmingham.” With no intention of calling off the protests, he outlined the steps to accomplish this mission. , executive director of the southern Christian leadership Conference, soon named King’s plan “project C.” The “C” stood for Confrontation. Black adults and college students would confront white Birm- ingham again and again. They would order food at seg- regated lunch counters. They would kneel and pray in segregated parks and on the steps of city hall. They would picket stores that maintained segregated dressing rooms, urging shoppers to take their business elsewhere. Walker intended to plan these actions meticulously, 47 measuring the distance between black churches and city hall and counting lunch-counter stools. MW.WGAJ Chapter 06:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:50 PM Page 48

With this information, he could compute behind the “segregator,” the board that the time demonstrators would need to march divided the front (white) section from the to their destination, assign the right num- back (black) section. But the front was ber of protesters to each lunch counter, and filled, and when another white person estimate the amounts needed for bail. boarded, the driver ordered the black peo- Though nonviolent, all of these confronta- ple in her row to get up and move farther tions were illegal. King reasoned that if back, where they’d have to stand. The oth- enough protesters were arrested, they would ers moved; parks didn’t. Maintaining her fill the jails and overwhelm Connor’s ability demure and dignified demeanor, she to enforce segregation laws. refused to give up her seat. Her arrest and But what would it take to fill the jails? jailing sparked anger in the black commu- How many protesters would be needed? nity. parks’s boss, e. d. nixon, who was There were two Birmingham city jails: active in the Montgomery naaCp, sug- southside (also called City Jail) and ensley, gested a one-day of the bus system. as well as a small holding cell at city hall. at a packed church meeting that night, Together, they could hold a total of 700 pris- King, only twenty-six years old, declared, oners. The Jefferson County Jail could hold “there comes a time when people get tired an additional 505. These facilities already of being trampled over by the iron feet of housed prisoners who had been charged oppression… But we come here tonight to with other crimes, so a reasonable estimate be saved from that patience that makes us was that project C would need to convince patient with anything less than freedom about a thousand people to get arrested. and justice.” The crowd was galvanized; the Could they do it? boycott stretched into 381 days. Finally, in mid-november 1956, the U.s. supreme “PEOPLE GET TIRED OF Court ruled that the city’s bus segregation BEING TRAMPLED” law was unconstitutional. On december 20, Montgomery desegregated its buses. Organized protests had succeeded in other The church gathering at which King had cities, including Montgomery, which was 48 spoken became the first of many hundreds just ninety miles away. riding the bus of mass meetings. King became recognized home from work on the afternoon of decem- as a national leader of the civil rights move- ber 1, 1955, was sitting right ment. direct action became his primary tool. MW.WGAJ Chapter 06:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:50 PM Page 49

This tactic of persistent, nonviolent “fill up the jails,” soon became his mantra. determination was tried again in Greens- after the a&T students left at the end of boro, north Carolina. On February 1, 1960, the school year, local high schoolers took four freshmen at the all-black north Car- their places and the sit-ins continued. olina a&T College spontaneously sat down Finally, six months after the sit-ins began, at the segregated Woolworth’s lunch Woolworth’s desegregated its lunch counter counter. a black waitress bawled them out in Greensboro and, by fall, did so nationally. for embarrassing their race, but they were eventually, King believed, even Birming- otherwise ignored. The next day, 29 more ham would have to agree to integrate. students joined them; the following day, 85; then, 300. as word spread through Move- “STUNNING DEFEAT” ment circles and national media, the sit-ins spread, too, to other cities. When shut- despite the successes in Montgomery and tlesworth observed the nicely dressed young Greensboro, segregation remained an im - people sitting quietly, unserved, at a lunch penetrable wall in Birmingham and else- counter in High point, north Carolina, he where across the south. On the day that telephoned sClC’s headquarters. “Tell Mar- Montgomery desegregated its buses, tin,” he said, “that we must get with this.” sit- shuttles worth immediately demanded that ins, he realized, could “shake up the world.” Birmingham do the same. Five days later, By the end of that month, sit-ins had on Christmas, “dynamite Bob” Chambliss sprung up in thirty-one cities across eight bombed his house. The day after that, the southern states. When King witnessed one city’s three commissioners rejected shut- in durham, north Carolina, he predicted tlesworth’s demand, and he, audrey’s father, that such peaceful protests were “destined and others were arrested for riding in the to be one of the glowing epics of our time.” front of a bus. authorities finally lost patience with the progress came in repeated baby steps; demonstrators and started arresting them. each hard-fought, hard-won accomplish- King urged, “‘let us not fear going to jail… ment in one locale amounted to an isolated if the officials threaten to arrest us for incident that failed to spread to other com- 49 standing up for our rights, we must answer munities. each achievement of a right—to by saying that we are willing and prepared choose any seat on the bus, to sit down at a to fill up the jails of the south.” This phrase, counter while eating—had to be fought all MW.WGAJ Chapter 06:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:50 PM Page 50

over again in the town down the road and King arrived in mid-december and held in the neighboring state’s courts. integra- a mass meeting at which he raised the spir- tion in one town had no effect in others, yet its of the frustrated protesters. “don’t get a single setback could threaten to stamp out weary,” he preached. “We will wear them the Movement across the entire region. down with our capacity to suffer.” arrested in november 1961, activists tried direct- the next day, he promised to remain in jail action techniques to force albany, Georgia, to with his supporters through Christmas. desegregate. On november 22, three weeks except he didn’t. pritchett offered to deseg- after the federal interstate Commerce Com- regate the bus station, so King posted bail mission barred discrimination in interstate after two days, leaving behind hundreds of travel, three high schoolers and two college others who were weary and suffering. as students walked into the whites-only waiting soon as he left town, pritchett reneged on room of the Trailways Bus station. laurie the offer. The protesters felt betrayed by pritchett, chief of police, arrested them, just both the police chief and King. as the students had planned. They were King returned to albany in July 1962 for answering King’s call to fill up the jails. Over sentencing and chose to be jailed rather the next several weeks, more than a thou- than pay a fine. However, pritchett outfoxed sand more protesters descended on albany. him again by secretly paying his bail. yet pritchett had done his homework, again, King’s followers watched him walk though. He knew the Constitution wouldn’t free while they remained incarcerated. allow him to bar all the demonstrators who although 1,200 people had been arrested, gathered to object to the arrests. But he no jail was filled, and the town’s whites had didn’t want a crowd so big that it would draw made no concessions. reporters. so, he allowed some picketers to albany was judged a “stunning defeat” stand in groups or to kneel and pray on scat- for the civil rights movement. The campaign tered street corners. When his police force backfired so badly that sClC nearly went made arrests—three hundred on the first bankrupt. Many people lost faith in King, day alone—they did so politely. Then, rather and the future of his organization looked 50 than try to jam all the prisoners into bleak. One journalist predicted, “The next albany’s thirty-one cell jailhouse, he farmed town he visits to inspire those who are ready them out to different jails in surrounding to suffer for their rights he will find people counties. saying, ‘remember albany… [He’ll] lead you MW.WGAJ Chapter 06:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:50 PM Page 51

into trouble with the white folks and then although Mrs. Hendricks didn’t get the per- run off and leave you…’” Time magazine mit, she did get what she had really come headlined the fiasco, “King was The loser— for—confirmation that, having been denied a failure at nonviolence, rejected by his own a permit, marchers would likely be arrested people.” and sent to jail. nonviolent direct action went into hibernation until January 1963, when POINTS FOR PROGRESS shuttlesworth asked King to come to Birm- ingham. it wasn’t just Birmingham that Organizers also knew it was critical to state was at stake by then. so were King’s lead- explicitly to whites (and blacks) why they ership, his strategies, and—possibly—the were protesting, what they wanted, and Movement as a whole. what the city would have to do to get them to stop. during the first week of april, aCMHr issued a press release publicizing “YOU’RE NOT GOING TO GIVE their points for progress, or, as they also US A PERMIT?” called it, their “Manifesto.” it was under such pressure that project C The press release began with these rolled out. This time, organizers had to be words: “The negro community has made it absolutely certain that the protesters would perfectly clear that they will submit to be arrested and jailed. so, on april 3, 1963, arrest and jailing to demonstrate that they Mrs. Hendricks and a Baptist minister will no longer endure the laws and custom went to Birmingham City Hall. at the office of segregation, brutal treatment by the of the commissioner of public safety, they police and injustice in the courts…” requested a permit to march. local and national dailies published the Connor responded, “i’ll march you over points for progress. so did the black bi - to the City Jail, that’s where i’ll march you.” weekly newspaper, the Birmingham World. “you’re not going to give us a permit?” But despite the media coverage, few whites she asked. paid much attention. Many more blacks “no, i am not.” paid attention, but few took action. 51 “Thank you,” she said and left. MW.WGAJ Chapter 06:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:50 PM Page 52

POINtS FOR PROGRESS “FILL THE JAILS?”

1. Desegregation of all store facilities From the beginning of project C, the numbers of people volunteering to be arrested were • Lunch Counters discouragingly low. On april 3, Walker tele- • Rest Rooms phoned three hundred possible protesters— • Fitting Rooms the same number of people arrested on the first day of protests in albany. Only sixty- 2. Immediate up-grading of employment opportunities available for Negroes, and the beginning five aCMHr members and local black col- of a non-discriminatory hiring policy. lege students showed up. The volunteers held sit-ins at five department stores and

3. Merchants request the City Government to drop drugstore lunch counters. in response, most all charges against those persons arrested while of the managers closed the counters and exercising their Constitutionally guaranteed right to turned off the lights, refusing to serve any- peacefully protest. one, white or black. Unsure what else they could do, the demonstrators filtered away. 4. Merchants request the City Government to at one location, a white man spat in rev- establish a Bi-racial Committee to deal with future erend Calvin Woods’s face. The minister problems of the community and to develop specific smiled at him. at only one store did the plans for: management call for the police. number arrested: 20. • hiring Negroes to the police force On april 4, 75 volunteers fanned out. • alleviation of obstacles in voter registration again, most stores closed their counters. • school desegregation eight blacks tried to order food at drugstore • re-opening all municipal facilities lunch counters. number arrested: 4. on a desegregated basis On april 5, only 50 demonstrators enlisted. • desegregation of movies and hotels some of them sat in at two drugstore counters. number arrested: 10. 52 On april 6, shuttlesworth changed tactics from sit-ins, which weren’t resulting in enough arrests, to what he called “an orderly MW.WGAJ Chapter 06:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:50 PM Page 53

walk.” Just 35 people joined. They walked On april 10, storeowners closed their two-by-two to a park where they knelt, lunch counters to prevent sit-ins. instead, prayed, and sang “.” eight Miles College students entered the number arrested for parading without the segregated Birmingham public library, sat permit Connor refused to grant them: 29. at desks, and read magazines. some of the The New York Times headlined articles white patrons commented, “it stinks in about these disappointing results: “integra- here” and asked the students, “Why don’t tion drive slows” and “Mass demonstra- you go home?” Meanwhile, other black pro- tions Fail to develop.” testers stood on a corner downtown. num- On april 7, palm sunday, the numbers ber arrested: 39. swelled to several hundred marchers. led On april 11, members of aCMHr dis- by dr. King’s brother, reverend a. d. King, tributed 50,000 leaflets to discourage shop- they walked from church toward downtown. ping at white stores. a total of 27 people When the police captain ordered them to volunteered to march. number arrested: 12. desist, they knelt and prayed. police unleashed three German shepherds and the “MASS-ACTION STUNTS” dogs knocked down and bit a teenaged observer. number arrested: 26, including Hundreds—sometimes thousands—of people three ministers—a. d. King, John porter, were flocking to nightly mass meetings, and “Fireball” smith—in their sunday responding exuberantly to the impassioned robes. preachers who spoke there. Why were so On april 8, participation plummeted few of them willing to walk down the aisle again. students dashed in and out of stores and volunteer for project C? holding what the Birmingham News called Many people who supported the cause in “hit-and-run” sit-ins. number arrested: 0. their hearts hesitated to put their bodies on On april 9, sit-ins were conducted at the line. Fears of police brutality and job four stores. al Hibbler, a well-known blind loss were real. some were uncertain that black singer who had come down from new direct action was the best strategy, and oth- Jersey, attempted to join those in jail by ers were downright opposed to it. 53 picketing a store in white downtown; police The black community was still far from arrested then quickly released him. num- united, and the divisions between upper- and ber arrested: 3. lower-class blacks and between moderate MW.WGAJ Chapter 06:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:50 PM Page 54

John Porter and A. D. King march on Palm Sunday, 1963

and activist ministers were becoming new mayor and city administration have just increasingly complicated. been elected. it is in the best interest of all project C had launched on april 3, the day concerned for a certain degree of restraint to after the election results were announced. be shown on the part of all responsible citi- Many blacks, as well as whites, hoped that zens.” activists were stunned and dismayed; Mayor Boutwell would be more moderate previously, emory Jackson, the World’s edi- than Connor and his fellow commissioners. if tor, had staunchly supported shuttlesworth. so, the sit-ins and marches—and resulting But now, fearing a repeat of albany, he dis- jailings—would be unnecessary. missed the nonviolent protests as “mass- 54 in response to the demonstrations, the action stunts.” Birmingham World published an editorial on even members of the city’s Baptist april 10 stating, “much of this direct action Ministers Conference urged dr. King, a seems to be both wasteful and worthless… a fellow Baptist minister, to leave town. MW.WGAJ Chapter 06:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:50 PM Page 55

shuttlesworth and King were frustrated But the numbers told a different story. and furious with their fellow clergymen. On The next day only three people were the morning of Monday, april 8, King arrested. By the tenth day of project C, scolded the two hundred black ministers at fewer than 150 people had been arrested— a conference for “ignoring the social condi- nowhere near enough to fill the jails. Fear- tions that cause men an earthly hell… i’m ful of reprisals, even those who supported tired of preachers riding around in big cars, project C could do little more than shout living in fine homes, but not willing to take “amen” at mass meetings. their part in the fight.” His lecture did not While the leaders continued to argue, win converts. By the end of the meeting, audrey, arnetta, James, and hundreds of only reverend John H. Cross, the minister other kids were increasingly excited by of sixteenth street Baptist Church, was what they heard night after night, unaware persuaded to join the cause. that the Movement might be disintegrating shuttlesworth complained that two pow- around them. erful forces, one white and one black, were squeezing the civil rights movement to “WHY WE CAN’T WAIT” death. On one side were “the Klan and the police and on the other side, those negroes— a crescendo of public criticism very nearly middle class preachers…and those that go drowned out organizers’ calls for volunteers. about their business—who should be with in a letter to the Birmingham Post-Herald, you and who are not.” Because blacks a white reader asked, “Can’t the local couldn’t agree on what, if anything, to do, negroes understand that all they have to do the New York Times predicted “the campaign is wait a little longer? Then certain white might be temporarily abandoned.” businessmen, politicians and clergymen… desperate to save the Birmingham will hand them, on a silver platter, more Movement, King tried to rally swarms of than could ever be gained by marches, sit- volunteers at a full-house mass meeting ins, and kneel-ins. and there would be no that Monday night by asserting, “We are need for going to jail.” going to fill all the jails in Birmingham.” He a group of moderate white clergymen 55 even promised to collect the funds to pay wrote in a public statement, “We recognize their bail. The crowd clapped and hollered the natural impatience of people who feel enthusiastically. that their hopes are slow in being realized. MW.WGAJ Chapter 06:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:50 PM Page 56

But we are convinced that these demonstra- He considered both of them racists; one was tions are unwise and untimely.” just more dignified than the other. Boutwell The federal government took the same had called the , a position. attorney General robert F. Ken- weak bill passed during president eisen- nedy, president John F. Kennedy’s brother, hower’s second term, a piece of “monstrous suggested, “perhaps the timing of these legislation.” More recently, he accused demonstrations could be reconsidered.” King and other activists of being outsiders some whites were hinting that they who had come to town “to stir inter-racial would be willing to accept desegregation. discord.” Many prominent local blacks were willing as a result, King believed, “We will be to wait for the new mayor to take office. sadly mistaken if we feel that the election Why did King, shuttlesworth, and other of Mr. Boutwell will bring the millennium Movement leaders insist on acting now— to Birmingham.” shuttlesworth added, especially in such a confrontational way— “Boutwell’s not very well. He’s ’bout well.” rather than waiting for the possibility of a as for white moderates who were urg- more peaceful resolution? ing delay, King replied, “i have almost shuttlesworth answered that question reached the regrettable conclusion that the day after the election. “We’re tired of the negro’s great stumbling block in the waiting,” he fumed. “We’ve been waiting stride toward freedom is not the…Ku Klux 340 years for our rights. We want action. We Klanner, but the white moderate who… want it now.” feels that he can set the time-table for The city government was in limbo. no another man’s freedom.” one knew when the courts might finally Movement leaders were impatient men decide whether Connor and his two fellow willing to confront both fearful blacks and commissioners were in or out of office. obstinate whites because they knew that, as Boutwell might never be inaugurated. King stated, “‘Wait’ has almost always meant even if he did eventually take office, ‘never.’” at a mass meeting, he contended, neither shuttlesworth nor King trusted “The time is always right to do right.” 56 Boutwell to meet aCMHr’s demands. shuttlesworth told congregants at a mass meeting, “There isn’t a whole lot of differ- ence between Mr. Bull and Mr. Boutwell.” MW.WGAJ Chapter 06:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:50 PM Page 57

“IF YOU GO TO JAIL…THE BATTLE he would have to break the promise he’d OF BIRMINGHAM IS LOST” just made—a serious breach of trust. later on the same day, Connor directed Boutwell was sworn in to office but he had the bail bond company to stop posting bonds no more authority—and less power—than for the protesters, claiming that the sClC Connor, who continued to run much of the didn’t have enough money to cover them. city government in the meantime. This move left King in a no-win predica- project C seemed to be failing, and peo- ment: in order to post bail for those who had ple were losing interest. attendance at some been arrested (and for those who he hoped mass meetings was dropping. Fewer volun- would march with him the next day), King teers were walking down church aisles. The needed to head north immediately on a national press was turning its attention fundraising tour. if he left town, though, he elsewhere. if it was to survive, project C wouldn’t be able to march as he had prom- badly needed people to sit up and take ised. if he stayed and marched, in defiance notice. of the injunction, he would be arrested and On april 10, King announced that he, unable to raise the promised bail money. shuttlesworth, and abernathy would march “Good Friday morning, early, i sat in together in two days, on Good Friday. He room 30 of the Gaston Motel,” King wrote, hoped others would join them. To encourage “discussing this crisis with twenty-four key participation, he promised that the organi- people. as we talked, a sense of doom began zation would post bond for anyone arrested to pervade the room… Our most dedicated who needed to return to work and family. and devoted leaders were overwhelmed by at 1:15 a.m. on april 11, though, Connor a feeling of hopelessness. no one knew what served King with an injunction forbidding to say, for no one knew what to do. Finally him, the other leaders, and their organiza- someone spoke up… ‘Martin,’ he said, ‘this tions “from engaging in, sponsoring, pro- means you can’t go to jail. We need money. moting or encouraging mass street parades, a lot of money. if you go to jail…the battle marches, picketing, sit-ins, and other of Birmingham is lost.’” His own father, actions likely to cause a breach of the reverend M. l. King sr., not only urged him 57 peace.” To march, King would have to defy not to march, he implored him to call off all the court-ordered injunction—a serious of the marches. if he did, project C would breach of the law. But, if he didn’t march, end only ten days after it had begun. MW.WGAJ Chapter 06:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:50 PM Page 58

nevertheless, King, along with shut- dressed in blue jeans to honor the selec- tlesworth and abernathy, decided to tive Buying Campaign, they led fifty march on Good Friday after all. He activists singing along a explained to aCMHr and sClC leaders route lined with nearly a thousand black that, “if the injunction had been issued on spectators. some knelt as the marchers [the] basis of equal justice for all, we passed. When Connor ordered, “stop them,” should abide by it. But our action is based two patrolmen blocked their path, and the on a Moral Mandate, backed up by a Con- marchers knelt in prayer. They were stitutional Mandate.” arrested, and King and abernathy spent

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Fred Shuttlesworth, Ralph Abernathy, and Martin Luther King Jr. march on Good Friday, 1963 MW.WGAJ Chapter 06:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:50 PM Page 59

eight days in solitary confinement. during “you can put me in jail but you can’t stop that time, King wrote the now-famous us.” Then, to the congregants, he added, “letter from Birmingham Jail.” except for “The negro has been sitting here dead for a reading on a radio station in new york three hundred years. it is time he got up City, the letter was not made public until and walked.” the following summer. With that, James said, Bevel “became On april 12, dozens of people defied the pied piper for the young people.” an injunction against marching. number Only a few hundred adults heard Bevel’s arrested: 46, including three very promi- frenzied sermon that night, and just seven- nent preachers. teen volunteered to go to jail. But kids got the message, especially when the preacher “BIRMINGHAM IS SICK!” who followed Bevel proclaimed, “some of these students say they have got to go to With King, shuttlesworth, and abernathy in school, but they will get more education in jail, a new minister spoke at the mass meet- five days in the City Jail than they will get ing on the evening of april 12, Good Friday. in five months in a segregated school.” a former pop musician with a recording con- While Movement leaders despaired tract, twenty-six-year-old cap- because grown-ups refused to walk down tured the attention of the young people. He the aisle and continued shopping in segre- sometimes described himself as a “chicken- gated stores, young people began to heed eating, liquor-drinking, woman-chasing Bap- the call. Finally, someone was talking their tist preacher.” He topped his shaved head language. with a skullcap and wore blue-jean suits cov- arnetta and the peace ponies pulled out ered in buttons. James said, “He had snCC, their walking shoes. COre, sClC, all the movements. He looked like he was not too much older than us.” “Birmingham is sick,” Bevel called down from the pulpit of sixteenth street Baptist Church. Both blacks and whites “are so sick 59 that they can’t see what segregation has done to them.” He turned directly to the policemen recording the meeting and said, MW.WGAJ Chapter07:Layout110/26/111:49PMPage60 Chapter seven James Bevel and Martin Luther King Jr., 1965 MW.WGAJ Chapter 07:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:49 PM Page 61

THE FOOT SOLDIERS

“WE GOT TO USE WHAT WE GOT.”

“IT’S YOUR RESPONSIBILITY”

James Bevel intended for his language to upset people, especially kids. at saturday morning nonviolence training sessions, he harangued the young participants. “[Y]ou are responsible for segregation,” Bevel pro- claimed, “you and your parents because you have not stood up… [n]o one has the power to oppress you if you don’t cooperate. so, if you say you are oppressed, then you are…in league with the oppressor; now, it’s your respon- sibility to break the league with him.” arnetta and her friends found Bevel inspiring. other kids were insulted and some shamed by the charge that they were aiding the enemy. Why would a minister blame young people for conditions that were beyond their con- trol—that had been beyond every black person’s control for well over a century? the leadership of the civil rights movement was grow- ing desperate. the future of the movement seemed to hinge on what happened in Birmingham. But Project C wasn’t 61 attracting nearly enough volunteers. fewer than 150 demonstrators had been jailed. dr. King was incommuni- cado, in solitary confinement, following his Good friday arrest. the national press was abandoning Birmingham. MW.WGAJ Chapter 07:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:49 PM Page 62

so Bevel turned to young people. “a boy “I WAS ARRESTED FOR in high school, he can get the same effect in THE FIRST TIME” terms of being in jail…as his father,” he rea- on the sunday after Bevel materialized at soned, “yet, there is no economic threat on the sixteenth street Baptist Church, arnetta family because the father is still on the job.” plunged into her first demonstration. she the argument made sense economi- met up with a group that included the other cally, but it was a dangerous strategy, not Peace Ponies, twelve to fifteen miles College only for the “boy in high school” but also for students, and several preachers. they girls who, it turned out, became the first walked from downtown to city hall, knelt on responders. the steps, prayed, and sang. they were not arrested.

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Protest outside a lunch counter, Birmingham MW.WGAJ Chapter 07:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:49 PM Page 63

“the next saturday,” she said, “i was When arnetta heard the doors of the arrested for the first time.” that morning, Jefferson County Jail slam behind her, she april 20, arnetta put on new clothes and wondered if her parents were right: maybe told her parents she was going bowling with she was too young to demonstrate. the Peace Ponies. instead, mrs. robey again “We were fingerprinted,” she said. “they drove her downtown. “i lied to my parents took our pictures; then they began to ques- about where i was going,” arnetta said. “i tion us.” Gaping at her light complexion and didn’t have my parents’ permission to go to long pigtails, a matron asked, “What are you jail.” doing in here?” arnetta didn’t want her mother to worry “i want my freedom,” arnetta replied. when she failed to come home, so mrs. robey the matron burst out laughing. “she promised that she would tell mrs. streeter thought i was not black,” arnetta said. where her daughter had gone. she dropped “she felt i was being smart-mouthed.” in arnetta off at the intersection of third retaliation, the matron locked arnetta “in a avenue north and nineteenth street by day room that had no facilities for sleep- loveman’s department store. it was next ing… it just had a big iron table. We didn’t door to J. J. newberry’s where, more than even have anywhere to sit… the food— anything, Wash wanted to sit at the counter there was no way to eat the food. they had and eat a banana split. us scrubbing, gave us rags to scrub along College students had been picketing both the front of the cells. if you were too loud… stores. like every other strategy Project C you were given extra duties.” planners had tried, however, this campaign she had no way to know how long she’d was failing; black customers continued to be in jail. When she was afraid, she sang spend money at both businesses. Bevel freedom songs. “We sang them whenever we hoped they’d be too embarrassed to shop had the chance,” she said, “and calmed there if high schoolers picketed. down.” about one o’clock monday morning, holding a sign that read “freedom today, on april 22, arnetta heard someone call her tomorrow,” arnetta walked with six other name. a civil rights organizer had put up his Peace Ponies from the corner, past love- house as collateral and bailed her and the 63 man’s, to the alley between the two stores. at other Peace Ponies out of jail. he drove her the alley, police stopped them. ten minutes home. “i had a new sweater,” she said. “i ran into her nonviolent protest, arnetta was on off and left that sweater. never looked back.” her way to jail. MW.WGAJ Chapter 07:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:49 PM Page 64

ARRESTS PLUMMET her parents and sisters were awake, waiting for her when she got home. they talked for hours about the demonstrations, April 13. Picketers, including students from nonviolence training, and her involvement. Ohio and ministers from Connecticut, arnetta’s sister Joan decided she wanted to march, too, but mr. and mrs. streeter refused walked in front of a downtown department to allow it. store. Number arrested: 6 “What am i going to tell my children when they ask me what was i doing during April 14. Ministers led marchers, supported by the demonstration?” Joan asked. over a thousand singing spectators, toward their mother answered, “You tell your children that you were at home crying the jail to pray for King and Abernathy. because you wanted to participate but you Number arrested: 32 were being obedient to your parents, and your sister was being hardheaded.” April 15. Sit-ins and pickets were held at two mr. and mrs. streeter supported inte- department stores. Number arrested: 9 gration but were concerned for their daugh- ters’ safety. “You’ve done your part,” they April 16. Protesters demonstrated at a variety told arnetta. “You need to leave this alone.” store and a bakery. Number arrested: 7 she convinced them on one issue, though. April 17. A group of 15 women walked toward from then on, they would attend mass meetings with her. the courthouse to register to vote but were

stopped en route. Number arrested: 7 MASS RALLIES. LOW TALLIES

April 18. Sit-ins were held at two lunch on tuesday, april 23, arnetta attended a counters. Number arrested: 7, all teenagers boisterous mass meeting along with about 1,500 other young blacks and three white April 19. Sit-ins were held at a lunch counter. 64 college students. the gathering celebrated Number arrested: 11 dr. King’s release from jail and honored the students, like the Peace Ponies, who had been participating in nonviolence workshops. MW.WGAJ Chapter 07:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:49 PM Page 65

the students who had demonstrated PROJECT C SINKS stood up and testified about their actions. some described sit-ins at lunch counters where bystanders smeared food on them. April 20. Dr. King was released from jail. arnetta spoke about her experiences in jail Demonstrators picketed and held sit-ins at and her regret about losing her sweater. four stores. Number arrested: 15, includ- “they were all cheering us on,” she said. ing Arnetta and the Peace Ponies “they were very proud of us.” Praising the young people, shut- April 21. Small groups of worshippers tlesworth shouted, “Keep on walking, keep on sitting-in, keep on picketing.” then, he attempted to enter white churches; some introduced three white students who were were admitted. Number arrested: 0 active in the movement. Barbara Jo mcBride and samuel Curtis shirah Jr. had April 22. Sit-ins were held at three stores. joined a miles College march against injus- Number arrested: 0 tice. minnie martha turnipseed had partic- ipated in a sit-in with black students at April 23. Five students picketed a downtown Woolworth’s. thanking them for their com- store. Number arrested: 5 mitment, shuttlesworth enthusiastically put his arms around the women’s shoulders. April 24. Sporadic demonstrations held. the crowd cheered again. Connor’s spies were disgusted. a black Number arrested: 6 man touched young white women! the next day, Connor called the dean at turnipseed’s April 25. Number arrested: 5 college and she was expelled. April 26. Number arrested: 4 the young people who attended this meeting might have believed that the move- April 27. Number arrested: 9 ment was successful, that thousands were April 28. Number arrested: 0 protesting, that integration was around the 65 corner. many adults knew better. at other April 29. Number arrested: 0 mass meetings that night, congregants learned what happened that day to a white mailman on a one-man freedom Walk. MW.WGAJ Chapter 07:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:49 PM Page 66

William moore had hoped to make the case use textbooks discarded by white students, for racial tolerance by wearing signboards, take and fail voter registration tests, and including “end segregation in america,” get beaten up by policemen and racist thugs while he walked from Chattanooga, ten- for—well, no one knew how long. nessee, to Jackson, mississippi, where he the leaders despaired. What should planned to confront Governor ross Barnett. they do? moore was murdered forty miles from Birm- Bevel answered: fill the jails with school ingham. no wonder hardly anyone was children. demonstrating. no matter how long or pas- sionately King exhorted the crowds to vol- “RAISE THEM SO THEY’LL BE PEOPLE unteer, he could not persuade them to risk ON THEIR OWN” their lives. the jails were still nowhere near full, and in the coming days, the prison pop- Project C was supposed to pit black activists ulation barely budged. against white segregationists. instead, black Wyatt tee Walker recognized that the leaders were confronting each other. Birm- movement had “run out of troops. We had ingham’s black population was fractured scraped the bottom of the barrel of adults over Project C. to those who were willing to who could go [to jail].” wait and see, Bevel’s proposal to incarcerate on april 29, King called an emergency kids rather than adults seemed not just meeting. Project C was about to collapse. unnecessary and stupid, but immoral. Without hordes of volunteers to flood the King wasn’t willing to wait and see, but jails and attract the press, the campaign to he also rejected Bevel’s strategy. enlisting desegregate Birmingham would evaporate. children was too dangerous. another minis- Worse, civil rights victories elsewhere in the ter, reverend harold long of the first Con- country were practically ancient history. it gregational Church, was appalled that Bevel had been more than two years since the was encouraging kids to disobey their parents Greensboro sit-ins and over six years since and the law. a. G. Gaston exclaimed, “as a the bus boycott in montgomery. it seemed responsible citizen of Birmingham, i deplore 66 that the entire movement was doomed. if the invasion of our schools to enlist students King’s strategy to fill Birmingham’s jails for demonstrations during school hours.” failed, blacks throughout the south could shuttlesworth countered, “sometimes expect to drink from separate water foun- you have to raise them so they’ll be people on tains, go to separate schools where they’d their own… [t]he best education was being MW.WGAJ Chapter 07:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:50 PM Page 67

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Shuttlesworth’s petition MW.WGAJ Chapter 07:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:50 PM Page 68

educated to destroy the system which kept black in alabama. and we were going to get them enslaved.” he had raised his own chil- hurt if we didn’t do something.” dren this way. six years earlier, while riding still, King was not convinced. Bevel con- by themselves on an interstate bus from an fronted him with a simple question: how old integrated summer camp in tennessee back does a child need to be to accept Christ and to alabama, Pat, ricky, and fred Jr., aged join a church? as a Baptist minister, King eleven through fifteen, refused to move when knew the answer: age didn’t matter as long the driver ordered them to sit in the back of as the child made a conscious decision. so, the bus. the children spent a night in the Bevel continued, how could King allow a Gadsden City Jail. When their father drove child to commit to being a Christian but not to pick them up, local police ticketed him at allow that child to protest segregation? every stop sign, even though he obeyed the King agreed with the principle but still traffic laws, and he lost his driver’s license could not agree to funnel black children into for a year. Birmingham’s jails. in a nonviolence workshop at the end of Bevel knew King needed foot soldiers to april, shuttlesworth spoke to the aspiring parade to jail. “how i fill the jail is my busi- activists, saying, “You are soldiers, and you ness,” he decided. anyway, there was no live in america, and nobody can tell you not choice. “We got to use what we got,” shut- to march.” meanwhile, he prepared a request tlesworth pointed out. for a permit “to walk with a group of persons, two abreast, on the sidewalk,” on may 2 or “D-DAY” MINUS TWO may 3, “whichever is more convenient for the AND COUNTING City of Birmingham.” he didn’t believe a per- mit was necessary but applied anyway “out on tuesday, april 30, the city denied shut- of an abundance of caution and…to comply tlesworth’s petition to march on may 2 or 3. with the law.” he also didn’t know who had students who had been participating in non- the authority to grant a permit, so he sent violence workshops handed out hundreds of the request to all three commissioners, leaflets at the black high schools. (these had been secretly copied overnight, by candle- 68 mayor Boutwell, and two other city officials. many children were ready to go. Gwen light, by a black printer who worked in a Cook said that they didn’t care that “[a] lot white-owned shop.) the leaflets urged stu- of people were worried we were going to get dents to leave school on thursday, may 2, hurt. the reality of it was we were born and march anyway, even without a permit. MW.WGAJ Chapter 07:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:50 PM Page 69

at the mass meeting tuesday night, AUDREY, WASH, JAMES, Bevel called from the pulpit, “it will be our AND ARNETTA: MAY 1, 1963 town that day. the only way to get what we want is for everybody to get together and at the youth meeting the night before, audrey tell Boutwell what we want.” Cheers and “just got up and walked down the aisle… after “amens” erupted from the assembled. he the mass meeting, i told my mother, ‘i want called the day, “d-day” after the invasion to go to jail,’ and she just said, ‘oK.’” that helped the allies win World War ii. having watched whites pelt black adults the next day, may 1, Bevel hit the ele- and college students with eggs and ketchup mentary schools with William dothard, a at lunch counters, James knew he couldn’t local movement organizer. dothard, who sit-in. But he could march. had already been arrested twice, called him- arnetta realized her parents were self “meatball” to protect his and his par- wrong. she hadn’t yet done her part. ents’ identities. at a mass meeting that Wash wondered why on earth he should night, Bevel promised, “We are going to go to jail, voluntarily, without having done break Birmingham wide open…[landing] anything wrong. where they least expect us… [We are] going shuttlesworth later admitted, “When we to give the employees of the negro schools a retired for the night, we didn’t know what holiday tomorrow because the students are we were going to do. We were at odds. going to march.” the d-day march was on. nobody could agree that children ought to King remained uncertain about using be a major part of this.” kids. But at the end of the meeting, when he however, hundreds of children—like asked for volunteers to go to jail the next arnetta—had already signed the ten Com- day, the adults stayed glued to their pews. mandments of nonviolence. “nobody stood up but us kids,” Gwendolyn “it was too late for the conversation [the sanders said. Urging them to sit down, King grown-ups] were having,” high schooler tried to explain that jail was no place for Carolyn maull said. “the ball had already children. after all, he had recently been started rolling.” released from “the utter darkness…in such 69 a dungeon.” But they kept standing. “it was some- thing that the children took hold to and wouldn’t let go,” arnetta said. Chapter eight MW.WGAJ Chapter08:Layout110/26/111:49PMPage70 Marchers leave Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, 1963 MW.WGAJ Chapter 08:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:49 PM Page 71

MAY 2. D-DAY “THEY’RE COMING OUT!”

“THERE’S GONNA BE A PARTY AT THE PARK”

Most Mornings, young people who set their radio dial on WEnn might wake up to the popular black DJ shelley stewart warbling, “good goobly woobly!” or, maybe they’d hear him cry, “timberrrr, let it fall!” as he dropped a needle onto a spinning James Brown or sam Cooke platter. on the morning of thursday, May 2, however, his teenage listeners heard, “Kids, there’s gonna be a party at the park. Bring your toothbrushes because lunch will be served.” stewart’s white fans must have wondered what he meant. the black ones got it. this was the signal to launch demonstrations in Kelly ingram Park, down the street from the station’s offices. they knew there was no more chance of getting lunch in the park than there was of being served a banana split at the counter at J. J. new- berry’s. But they needed their toothbrushes because, after demonstrating, they would probably be going to jail—possibly for days. 71 Many kids headed straight to sixteenth street Bap- tist Church that morning without bothering to go to school first. James drove there with friends. MW.WGAJ Chapter 08:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:49 PM Page 72

Audrey’s parents took her after she said code. But kids squeezed through or climbed goodbye to her teacher and grandparents. over the gates or slid out of windows. Music Wash, as usual, was AWoL from school, but students in the Choir Annex simply ran out he didn’t go to the church. the back door. other kids showed up at school and then When Arnetta saw , one left as soon as they got the word from march of her nonviolence trainers, arrive at her organizers or student leaders. As one of school, she thought, “it’s here, it’s about to those leaders, Arnetta had learned at the happen!” she was joyful at “seeing all those mass meeting the night before that organ- children coming out to participate in the izers wanted the kids to report to school Movement.” she described Dr. Bell, the first. organizers thought it would make a principal of Ullman, as “running around better impression if student leaders didn’t like a chicken with his head cut off.” skip school the entire day, and they could Under orders from superintendent theo persuade even more children to participate. Wright, principals read a notice warning the leaders were assigned to visit specific students that, if they left school, they would classrooms. “We never entered into the class- be disciplined. they left anyway, in droves. room,” high schooler gwendolyn sanders teachers who were concerned about stu- explained. “We would pass by the door…and dents’ safety or who disapproved of their give a cue, and the next thing you know, they playing hooky tried to bar classroom doors. were following us because the word was out “A number of teachers told us we were that we were going to turn the school out wrong,” Arnetta said, “that we were break- that day… We knew which door to take them ing laws, and we were putting our parents’ out, which route to take to the destination.” jobs in jeopardy.” But, her favorite teachers, At Wenonah Junior High, guys walked up Miss Woolfolk and Mrs. Cleopatra goree, and down the hallways, calling students to turned around and looked at the blackboard come out. Kids at another school listened for as if they didn’t notice the students leaving shelley stewart to use the signal “hayride.” their classrooms. At Parker High school, the signal was “sock Miss Woolfolk thought that her students 72 hop.” An organizer also stood across the were doing the right thing. “i was teaching street from Parker, holding a sign that read, American government, what the Constitu- “it’s time.” r. C. Johnson, the principal, had tion guarantees, what democracy should be heard rumors of a mass exodus and had pad- about,” she said. “And sitting in a segre- locked the gates, probably violating the fire gated school system and going to the back MW.WGAJ Chapter 08:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:49 PM Page 73

door of restaurants—it made sense for stu- ing—and more and more. As each group dents to take a stand.” burst in, they shouted the name of their school to the raucous cheers of kids already “THE MORE WE WALKED, there. Most of all, they sang: “Ain’t gonna THE MORE YOU GATHERED” Let nobody turn Me round,” “oh, Free- dom,” “Keep Your .” Every After defying attendance rules and pouring song ratcheted up their fervor and reminded out of school buildings all over the city, the them why they were daring to confront the students started walking to Kelly ingram dreaded Birmingham police force and why Park. twenty kids from Fairfield—almost they really did want to go to jail. “it was like nine miles from downtown Birmingham— one big pep rally,” a student said. packed into an organizer’s open convertible. Audrey talked quietly with her mother Hundreds walked behind, as if they were and father. As far she could tell, she was the following a float in a homecoming parade. youngest child there, and she didn’t know Andrew Marrisett, a Movement organizer anyone else. “My girlfriend…was to demon- who didn’t get a ride, said, “i had a Chevro- strate, too, that day,” she said. “i had let on my right foot and one on my left.” expected to see her. But she wasn’t there.” As they passed other schools, some nevertheless, Audrey said, “i didn’t have shouted, “Demonstration!” More kids ran any fear.” out to join them. Masses converged on six- teenth street Baptist Church from all direc- “YOU ARE FREEDOM FIGHTERS… tions. “the more we walked, the more you BUT WITHOUT WEAPONS” gathered,” gwen Cook said. “We poured into sixteenth street like a waterfall.” Around noon, shuttlesworth and Bevel organizers directed some marchers to called James and some other students the Metropolitan AME Zion Church on the aside for a meeting. shuttlesworth re- other side of the park. A third group congre- minded them, “[you are] freedom fighters, gated inside the Apostolic overcoming Holi- as much as those in the army. But without ness Church of god on seventeenth street. weapons… still, you are expected to be as 73 By the time Audrey and her parents disciplined as soldiers.” arrived at sixteenth street Baptist, hun- “they asked us if we had any weapons,” dreds of kids were filling the sanctuary and James said. “they passed the basket the basement social hall. More kept com- around… nobody put anything in… they MW.WGAJ Chapter 08:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:49 PM Page 74

said, ‘We’re going to pass the basket around James stood upstairs at the very front of again. Because, if you don’t go along with all the marchers, next to his friend gertrude. [nonviolence] totally, then don’t go at all.’ “We were thinking about the seriousness of they passed the basket again.” this time, what we were about to do,” he said. James dropped his fingernail clippers into At one o’clock, a DJ at WEnn dropped the basket. After the second circuit, he said, the needle on the gospel song “All Men Cre- “it was full with pocketknives; somebody ated by god.” this was the cue to start the had brass knuckles, any little thing that march. the double doors of sixteenth street people thought would give them an edge… Baptist swung open. We didn’t know if we were going to be mixed James immediately saw the trouble they with the jail population. so you’re wonder- were about to step into. ing how you’re going to fit in with the guys who have been in there twenty years. there were a lot of unanswered questions.” “WE DIDN’T DISPERSE” Meanwhile, organizers asked children for their vital statistics—name, age, parents’ “When the door was opened, i was shocked names, and address. in case of emergency, at the number of people,” he said. Beyond they had to know whom to contact. shortly sawhorse barricades that surrounded the before one o’clock, organizers arranged the church, policemen sat at attention on eight hundred or so young demonstrators motorcycles. Hundreds of black adults into groups of fifty, each group in double-file crowded the park. “i could see reporters… lines. there were so many that some gath- i remember hearing a man saying, ‘they’re ered upstairs in the sanctuary and others in coming out! they’re coming out!’ there the basement. they were reminded of their were lights and people all around.” destination—city hall—and their route. James knew the route that he and some kids were handed signs to carry: “i’ll gertrude and the forty-eight marchers Die to Make this Land My Home,” “Justice behind them were to take to try to reach for All. now.” “Can a Man Love god and their destination, city hall, four blocks 74 Hate His Brother?” away. “We walked down the steps, turned in the basement, Audrey held her sign left, and went up…sixth Avenue,” he said. in one hand and clutched her board game in “We crossed seventeenth street, and we the other. started up the hill. We got about a block Arnetta waited by the door. and a half until we were confronted.” MW.WGAJ Chapter 08:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:49 PM Page 75

Jamie Moore, the police chief who our signs and all, i started crying,” Arnetta reported directly to Bull Connor, held up a said. this time she didn’t cry out of fear. huge bullhorn and stepped in front of “When i looked up and saw all of the peo- James and gertrude. “stop!” Moore ple…the idea of what was about to take ordered. He told the marchers they were place. the…Movement was moving for- parading without a permit. ward. it was just overwhelming.” From behind him, James heard some- Each group emerged singing and clap- one say he had a permit. “so, gertrude and ping. Audrey’s group sang “Ain’t gonna Let i are thinking, ‘Why didn’t they tell us?’ it nobody turn Me ’round.” she later [turned out it] was somebody’s driving per- exclaimed, “the singing was like a jubi- mit,” he said. “We answered, ‘no. We do not lance.” Her group didn’t march as far as have a permit.’ We did not want to antago- James’s had. “We got across the street, to nize them.” then, said James, Moore the middle of the next block.” As her par- threatened, “‘if you do not disperse, you ents watched, she was arrested and put in will be arrested.’ Well, we didn’t disperse.” the paddy wagon. Holding her game tightly, At that point, things got even scarier for she was driven to Juvenile Hall at City the marchers. Connor rolled up in a mas- Jail. sive white car shaped and outfitted like a Each time the last marcher in a group tank, complete with gun turrets. “Connor was loaded into a paddy wagon, the police told them to arrest [us],” James said. “We assumed the parade was over. Just that were crammed into the paddy wagons that morning, Connor had assured his men that were meant to hold maybe eight people at King would quickly “run out of niggers.” the most—two in [each of] the four cubicles But, then the church doors would open that they had. they crammed three and again, and more kids would burst out. one four of us into one cubicle and they contin- officer finally asked shuttlesworth, “How ued to press the door until they got it shut many more have you got?” and locked and [had] us taken off to jail.” “At least a thousand,” he answered, As soon as James’s group was hauled exaggerating the number. away, Bevel released the next group of fifty “god A’mighty,” the policeman ex claimed. 75 students. When that batch was arrested, When they couldn’t cram any more kids the next group burst from the church. into paddy wagons, police commandeered “Leaving out of the basement…we had school buses. the children climbed aboard MW.WGAJ Chapter 08:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:49 PM Page 76

as if they really were going to a party in only one group reached city hall before the park. they happily waved their arms being arrested. nevertheless, the Move- out of the bus windows. ment reached its real destination—jail. By the kids were exhilarated; the police- the end of thursday, May 2, between five men were exhausted. An officer asked a and eight hundred young people were marcher, “When is this going to end?” she incarcerated. this was two or three times responded, “Do we have our freedom yet?” the number of adults who had been “i wish you could have your freedom arrested during the entire month of April. just to stop this,” he admitted.

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“THE FIGHT THAT DECIDES WHETHER decides whether America will live or die. AMERICA WILL LIVE OR DIE” never before in any city has there been a movement so great.” two thousand people jammed sixteenth Bevel asked everyone who felt inspired street Baptist Church in celebration that by the Movement to raise their hands. Hun- evening. King intoned, “i have been dreds of people’s hands shot up. He told inspired and moved today. i have never seen them to “go to jail… Let’s all meet at the anything like it… if they think today is the sixteenth street Church Friday, saturday, end of this, they will be badly mistaken.” and sunday mornings and go from there to of the Congress of racial freedom.” Equality added, “this is the fight that

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AUDREY, JAMES, WASH, AND slow and resigned, she said, “i know, i ARNETTA: MAY 2, 1963 know. i am looking. i see him.” James said that his family wasn’t surprised. “they Arnetta didn’t go to the mass meeting that knew that i was going to the Movement… i night. she was disappointed she hadn’t think they kind of knew that i would go [to been arrested. somehow, she had gotten the march].” separated from the rest of the Peace Ponies, Meanwhile, Wash had arrived at Kelly many of whom did get arrested and jailed. ingram Park to watch. “[W]e saw those peo- instead, she went home and talked with her ple willingly turn themselves over to the parents about the excitement of marching. police…,” he said. His reaction: “Wow, they they repeated their advice: “You’ve done must be crazy.” Experience had taught your part. You need to leave this alone.” Wash that “the police was vicious murder- Audrey and James didn’t go to the mass ers.” He knew how much pain they could meeting either. they were in jail. inflict on young black bodies—as Arnetta Audrey was taken to a large dayroom. discovered the next day. she didn’t know anyone, and everyone was older. Dinner was unappetizing. “they gave us grits…” she said. “they were horrible— all soupy, no salt.” that night, she slept on a bunk bed “on one mattress, with one sheet,” and no covers. James’s parents found out he was in jail by watching the news. His father and uncle were attending a medical convention in st. Louis. When they turned on the television in their hotel room, the newscasters were reporting the Birmingham arrests. James’s uncle pointed at the screen and said, “isn’t that James right there?” Dr. stewart imme- 79 diately called his wife, who was at home. MW.WGAJ Chapter09:Layout110/26/111:48PMPage80

ChapterMarchers wait to be arrested, 1963. nine MW.WGAJ Chapter 09:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:48 PM Page 81

MaY 3. DOUBLe D-DaY “YOU WONDERED HOW PEOPLE COULD BE SO CRUEL.”

“LET ’EM HAVE IT!”

ArnettA wAs one of almost two thousand kids who played hooky from school on Friday, May 3, which Bevel dubbed Double D-Day. Most of them congregated at six- teenth street Baptist Church. they were anxious to rock and roll out the doors, down the steps, across the park, and into the school buses that would carry them to jail, where they would join the hundreds of kids who had been arrested the day before. But first they were given their marching orders. these were especially important that day because fire- men with trucks and hoses had joined the policemen opposite the church. Arnetta knew from her nonviolence training what that meant: the authorities were threat- ening to blast them with high-powered water hoses. A group of twenty or so students was to head west, in the opposite direction from where most had marched the day before. they were decoys; their goal was to confuse the police and lure them from their posts. sixty more 81 students would take advantage of the gap in the police lineup and march eastward toward city hall. MW.WGAJ Chapter 09:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:48 PM Page 82

Inside the church, marchers provided “Disperse or you’re going to get wet,” their vital statistics to organizers, who also evans warned. collected half a trash can full of knives, nail the marchers did not disperse. files, scissors, and any other item that police “Let ’em have it!” Connor ordered. might label a weapon. Dr. King gave them a the surge of water shocked most of the pep talk. “If you take part in the marches marchers into retreating. several, though, today you are going to jail, but for a good faced the hoses and kept singing. “Free-ee- cause.” At one o’clock, they lined up. the ee-dom. Free-ee-ee-dom.” doors opened, and they sashayed out, the firemen escalated the barrage. By singing, “Free-ee-ee-dom. Free-ee-ee-dom. joining two hose ends to one nozzle mounted Free-ee-ee-dom. Freedom. Freedom” to the on a sturdy tripod, they could blast water melody of “A-a-a-men.” through monitor guns at twice the force— For nearly an hour, everything pro- 100 pounds per square inch instead of 50. ceeded according to plan. the westbound they fixed their sights on the group march- decoys surged around a policeman who ing up eighteenth street. Arnetta and tried vainly to halt them. the main group another Peace Pony led this group. marched as far as the informal boundary the Peace Ponies had learned in non - between the black and white downtowns, violence workshops how to protect them- where they were confronted by a blockade selves from the hoses: put their hands over of squad cars and fire engines. their heads, roll into a ball. But “the little But Bull Connor hadn’t planned on jail- bit of training that we had did no good,” ing two thousand more demonstrators that Arnetta said. “[we were] hugging together, day. He was already running out of cells— and the water just washed the two of us just as organizers had intended. Young peo- down the street. the water was piercing.” ple kept pouring out of the church with no some students thought they might die. end in sight. All he could think to do was “once that water…hit me,” Gwendolyn scare them into staying inside the church. sanders said, “I didn’t know if I was going Connor and Police Captain Glenn V. to survive it or not because the pressure 82 evans stepped in front of the group that was from that hose was so great that it would approaching seventeenth street and Fifth knock your breath away.” Avenue north. several firemen hefted a mas- the impact sheared the hair off the side sive hose equipped with the usual fogger of Carolyn Maull’s head. It slammed another nozzle and pointed it at the marchers. girl into a car, cutting her face. It lifted a boy MW.WGAJ Chapter 09:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:48 PM Page 83

Water from the fire hoses hits a marcher, 1963

into the air. screaming and shouting, the ing. when my daddy saw the firemen put- children didn’t know which way to run as ting water on me, he got upset,” she the firemen swept the hoses back and forth recalled. “He was going to go…turn the across the park. Dogs barked and yelped, water off. My mother, she was struggling seemingly desperate to get at them. A few with him to keep him from going over there. marchers huddled in doorways or behind they would have killed him. that’s what trees. others were hurled against rough she told me… ‘You could have gotten your brick buildings. Dozens wrapped their arms father killed.’” around each others’ shoulders to hold them- Her parents collected her and took her selves up, though they soon crashed to the home, sopping wet and bruised. she put on pavement. “You wondered how people could dry clothes. then, determined to go to jail, be so cruel,” high schooler rickey Powell she told them she wanted to go back. even 83 said. though her parents were worried about her Arnetta’s parents saw it all. “My daddy safety and distressed that she hadn’t told and mother, a lot of adults, came around… them she planned to march, they reluctantly Little did my daddy know I was participat- drove her back to the church. MW.WGAJ Chapter 09:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:48 PM Page 84

“LOOKING FOR OPPORTUNITIES tripped over me. He jumped up and kept TO STRIKE A BLOW” going after the kid but the kid got away. I was so proud of myself.” wash skipped school again that morning. Lured by the clamor, he dashed down sixth “HE TURNED A DOG ON ME” Avenue north toward the marchers. “[I] stood on the street between the shotgun Under attack, the firemen turned their houses,” he said, “and I watched them [the hoses on the taunting crowd of about a children] being manhandled by the police.” thousand adults, who also refused to dis- He couldn’t bear to stand by and do nothing. perse. Audrey’s mother worked in a nearby wash had never gone to nonviolence office; when a torrent of water shattered training, and there was no one to restrain a window by her desk, she was stunned. him. Hiding behind rows of bystanders, he “Don’t cry,” her boss said. “that’s what they scooped up a handful of stones and hurled want.” them at the police and firemen. others Despite the flying bottles and surging joined him. soon, rocks, bricks, and broken water, young people kept emerging from the bottles—some flung from rooftops—crashed church. “no one should think that it was around the officers. “we would throw a easy,” Gwendolyn said. “no one should brick, a bottle, and then we’d take off,” think that no one was frightened.” But fear wash said. “that’s what we were doing did not deter them. Instead of a walk in the while everybody else was peacefully park and a bus ride to jail, as they had marching—looking for opportunities to expected, the teens marched directly into strike a blow. we were more interested in a melee. hitting the policemen in the head with a Connor bolted the doors to sixteenth rock than in going to jail.” street Baptist Church from the outside, when he saw an opportunity to save locking the five hundred to one thousand someone, though, wash dared to come out remaining marchers inside. then he called into the open. “somebody in the crowd for the K-9 unit. threw a bottle,” he said. “the policeman saw eight surging, snarling German shep - 84 where it came from and came running into herds—each on a short leash clenched by the crowd. the person who threw it took off. a policeman—tore across the park toward the crowd just split. when the policeman the protesters. Hundreds of terrorized by - got to me, I tripped on purpose. And he standers screamed and fled. MW.WGAJ Chapter 09:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:48 PM Page 85

Fifteen-year-old walter Gadsden, a he was charged with parading without a sophomore at Parker High school, had come permit and jailed in the same cell as James. to the park to check out the commotion. He three other teens were bitten so badly—one was just turning to leave when, he said, “an by the biggest, blackest, meanest dog officer grabbed me and held me while he Arnetta had ever seen, a dog his handler turned a dog on me.” the German shepherd named “nigger”—that they had to be hospi- lunged at his stomach. Fortunately, walter talized. Also hospitalized were two firemen suffered only a torn sweater and a bad and a photographer who had been struck by scare. Like those who had come to march, bricks.

Dog attacks Walter Gadsden, 1963

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Bevel grew worried. If demonstrators or and my freedom,” he said. “I have to go help bystanders became more aggressive, Con- them.” the events of Double D-Day accom- nor would have an excuse to retaliate with plished what no earlier efforts had been even more violence, possibly something able to do: unite black Birmingham. Many worse than hoses and dogs. the commis- blacks finally agreed that any peaceful sioner had already complained that the means to integrate the city was justified, dogs weren’t vicious enough. including letting young children get jailed. As a result, two hours after that day’s when video of children being hosed marches began, organizers decided to clear across asphalt and charged by growling out troublemakers like wash. Bevel bor- dogs appeared on the news that night, rowed a megaphone and joined the police in America started to pay attention to how ordering everyone to go home. A fireman Birmingham treated its negro population. agreed to unlock the church doors if the pro- one child was photographed holding up a testers would leave quietly. the young peo- hand-lettered sign that read, “we’re ple, including Arnetta, filed out. she would Human, too.” But Connor didn’t care about have to wait for yet another day to do her public opinion in the rest of America. His part to fill the jails. concern was public safety in Birmingham, Movement organizers got more than and he intended to suppress anything that they bargained for that day. An additional threatened it. five to eight hundred children were jailed, but also a number were injured, and many “I’LL LEAVE YOU HERE” more, terrified. Blacks who had opposed the marches might have reacted by demanding “who forced you to march?” they cease. Instead, in many cases, the vio- “why would you do this?” lence against the marchers made them “Are you against the American govern- reconsider their position. A. G. Gaston, for ment?” instance, was just telling David Vann over Audrey sat on a straight-backed chair in the phone that he wished sCLC would leave an otherwise vast, empty room, dressed in a pinafore and Mary Janes with turned- 86 town when he looked through his office win- dow and saw a young girl deluged by hoses. down socks. she looked across a broad con- Gaston abruptly changed his mind. “My ference table at five white men. she people are out there fighting for their lives wondered if they planned to kill her. MW.WGAJ Chapter 09:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:48 PM Page 87

“nobody forced me,” she answered black room. “I told you to sit down,” the politely. matron snapped. “when I tell you something, “Are you sure?” you do it. or I’ll leave you here.” “Yes, sir. I decided myself.” Audrey hadn’t heard anyone order her to “why?” sit down. she was absorbed in playing her “I want my freedom.” board game with another child in the day- “what do you talk about at those meet- room. For failing to sit, she was threatened ings?” with solitary confinement, though the matron “our freedom. we want to be able to go did not leave her alone there, after all. when places and do things like anybody else.” Audrey returned to the dayroom, she put her “Did you talk about Hitler?” game away, lay down her head, and cried. Audrey had never heard of Hitler. “what about Communism?” “THERE’S NOBODY HERE WHO Audrey had never heard of that either. CAN SAVE YOU” “Are you against America?” “no, sir.” James, Gertrude, and other young people today, when people suspected of commit- were crammed into paddy wagons and ting a crime are arrested, police must read driven straight to jail. “My head was pressed them their Miranda rights. these rights up close to a bar,” James said. “the driver allow the accused to remain silent while jerked on the brake. My head bumped into being questioned until they get advice from the bars. I had a big knot on my head. He a lawyer. But Miranda v. Arizona, the made it clear that we had entered hell, and supreme Court case that granted these he had the keys.” rights, was not decided until three years there were no television cameras to after Audrey was arrested, which meant record or publicize what would happen to that neither she nor the other children had them there. James realized “there’s nobody any rights. here who can save you… Fear began to Audrey was frightened only two times really, really set in.” during the week she spent in Juvenile Hall. while being booked, he watched a police- 87 the first time was during this interrogation. man ask a friend his name. the friend the second time, a matron snatched her from responded with the phrase he had learned her seat and dragged her into a completely in nonviolence training: “no comment.” MW.WGAJ Chapter 09:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:48 PM Page 88

the officer, James said, “jumped up and they would start hitting people with the with such anger that the chair fell flat on chain to make them back up.” its back on the floor as he lunged for the Like Audrey, James found the food boy. He grabbed him in the collar and repulsive. “You had grits on the bottom, pulled him over the desk and onto the floor. water on top of the grits, and grease on top He told him that he would lock him away of the water,” he said. “no salt, no season- where nobody would ever find him, and ing. It was just not edible.” James subsisted that went for the rest of us if we said ‘no on occasional three Musketeers candy bars comment.’ so, then the policeman gets up, secretly supplied by jail trustees—black straightens the chair, straightens the desk, inmates incarcerated for other crimes. and he looks at me and says, ‘now, what is James figured that they had access to vend- your name?’” ing machines. James stewart, fifteen, answered, “My on May 3, James’s second day in jail, he name is John Davis. I’m sixteen.” He made listened to the news on his radio and heard up names for his parents, too. He threw out something about water hoses. soon after, “so much erroneous information so quickly, new protesters arrived—and they were the officer said, ‘slow down, boy, slow soaking wet. they told those who had been down.’” the officer wrote it all down, then jailed on D-Day about the monitor-gun searched James and confiscated his foun- hoses. James learned about the dog attacks tain pen and watch. James had cleverly when some inmates asked him to help a hidden a small transistor radio in his coat young man who’d been severely bitten. the pocket, though, and had draped his coat authorities, James said, “didn’t take care of over his arm before he reached the desk. this guy. He was just in there with us with the policeman neglected to search his coat. the holes in his leg. I looked at his leg. After the interview, James said, “they He was pretty seriously injured.” put us in a holding facility that should have James asked them, “why are you bringing held maybe thirty people… they put close him to me?” to three to four hundred boys in the same they said, “Because your daddy is a 88 room. when they brought more, we were doctor.” But James couldn’t help him. saying, ‘You can’t put more. there’s no place to put them.’ when they couldn’t get the cell door open, they would reach in with a chain, MW.WGAJ Chapter 09:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:48 PM Page 89

“WE MUST NOT BOO THE POLICE”

Despite the mistreatment that the young demonstrators endured, the ministers at Friday night’s mass meeting in sixteenth street Baptist Church did not criticize the Birmingham police force. on the contrary, referring to rock-throwers like wash, Andrew Young scolded, “we have a nonvio- lent movement but it’s not nonviolent enough… we must not ‘boo’ the police when they bring up the dogs—we must praise them.” then, King reassured hundreds of wor- ried parents. “Your daughters and sons are in jail… Don’t worry about them. they are suffering for what they believe, and they are suffering to make this nation a better nation.”

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VIEWS FROM OTHER SIDES WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?

“THEY HATED US SO MUCH”

James hadn ’t truly understood the Birmingham police force’s capacity for torment until he was jammed standing-room only, alternately sweating and chilled, into a jail cell. he was a straight-a student and the son of professional parents; his experiences had been very different from Wash’s. “I was shocked,” James said, “that they were doing that; that they were in authority; that they hated us so much. they didn’t even know us.” Why were the authorities so cruel? Why were white people so determined to keep blacks off their lunch counter stools and out of their schools and swimming pools? Why would they allow officials to imprison, interrogate, hose, and set vicious dogs on children? “the great majority in Birmingham do not want integration,” Connor asserted when the federal court ruled that segregation of public parks was unconstitu- tional. Because he and the Klan had thoroughly intim- idated white people as well as black people, it’s 91 impossible to know what the majority of Birmingham’s whites wanted. Few dared to contradict him. MW.WGAJ Chapter 10:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:47 PM Page 92

Interviews with people who lived there “YOU GOTTA KEEP YOUR WHITE in the 1960s and readings from other AND YOUR BLACK SEPARATE!” sources indicate a range of views, from the most brutally racist to the most daringly many white people opposed integration integrationist. each person had her or his because they firmly believed that the “white own way of expanding, maintaining, or tol- race” was superior to the “black race”—that erating—and occasionally bridging—two whites were smarter, harder working, and parallel, unequal Birminghams. more honest. a prominent lawyer said, “all

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of the negroes in alabama were all savages diane mcWhorter, a white girl a year in africa… they had no concept of working older than audrey, heard her father say, in order to obtain a livelihood. their con- “the nigger is oriented to rote memory only.” cept, when they were hungry, was to raid that is, he believed blacks could memorize the jungles.” facts but not think or analyze. Pam Wal- reverend , a white bert, also white and a year older than civil rights activist, explained what the seg- James and arnetta, said her high school regationists feared: “to break down the teacher taught the class that “it was proven barriers of segregation is to permit…an that the blood of blacks ran in a more slug- inferior race to mix with a superior race, gish way than the blood of whites.” the and the inevitable result would be…a mon- teacher told the class that this was why grelization of and a pulling down of that black students couldn’t go to school with white superior race… many members of whites; they couldn’t learn. the KKK had that as almost a religious belief in their hearts, that we’ve got to “THE RESULTS OF OUR LABOR” maintain that kind of purity of the race or otherwise we’re dooming ourselves and our many americans also worried that russian future generations.” revolutionaries were plotting to overthrow most white children had no opportunity democracy. It was rumored that commu- to learn that the idea of racial superiority is nists had secretly infiltrated all levels of the nonsense. they were raised with these sorts american government as well as political of convictions and were barred from inter- parties and social groups. officials, journal- acting with anyone who might prove them ists, and ordinary citizens accused anyone wrong. “We were all anti-integration,” they mistrusted—for almost any reason, Charles entrekin, a white high school stu- including questioning the city’s segregation dent at that time, later said about his ordinances—of being a communist. If con- neighbors. “you could walk down the street victed, often with no evidence, citizens could and knock on anybody’s door and ask them lose their jobs or be imprisoned. Fearmongers asserted that communism if they were in favor of integration, and they 93 would say, ‘no, not at all.’ you had a…uni- threatened not only democracy but also formity of belief in the inferiority of the capitalism, the american economic system. black race.” under segregation, most whites were MW.WGAJ Chapter 10:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:47 PM Page 94

wealthier than most blacks, who generally many whites feared that if the commu- worked at nonprofessional, low-paying jobs. nists took over, the government would own they were the hired help—maids, custodi- everything and could hire blacks to do the ans, ironworkers—holding jobs whites jobs whites held, for less money. Charles didn’t want. heard his parents talk. “they were worried reverend abraham lincoln Woods, that whites were going to lose jobs to Calvin Woods’s brother, observed that whites blacks,” he remembered. diane’s father told “were enjoying the results of our labor… her that white civil rights activists were they were enriched. We were impoverished.” spearheading the communist takeover of he was right. In 1960, the median income america—and, furthermore, they had cun- for Birmingham’s wealthiest white families ningly duped gullible blacks into helping was $10,668. For its wealthiest black fami- them. lies, the median income was only $6,545.

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A postcard identifying Martin Luther King Jr. as a communist MW.WGAJ Chapter 10:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:47 PM Page 95

“I CANNOT CONDONE… mayor Boutwell spoke for many whites THE USE OF CHILDREN” when he said, “I cannot condone and you cannot condone the use of children… I do since whites rarely interacted with blacks not need to emphasize the difference other than those who worked as their servants, between demonstrations by adults and many might not have considered how they the terrible danger of involving immature felt about integration. they didn’t have to teen-agers and younger children.” think about it because integration wasn’t an at the national level, attorney General option—until shuttlesworth, King, and others Kennedy agreed. “an injured, maimed insisted that it was not just an option but or dead child,” he said, “is a price that none an absolute necessity. suddenly, the white of us can afford to pay. school children citizens of Birmingham had to face the pos- participating in street demonstrations is a sibility of sharing space with black people. dangerous business.” But regardless of whether or not any whites would be willing to accept integration, “OUTSIDE AGITATORS” many deplored the activists’ techniques to achieve it. local citizens were especially outraged that on may 4, the Birmingham News re- “outside agitators,” as they labeled people ported that hundreds of children had like King, Bevel, and shuttlesworth, were “walked out of their classrooms…to become stirring up trouble in their hometown. members of an undisciplined mob of demon- (though shuttlesworth was still deeply strators.” Within days, as the newspaper involved in the Birmingham movement, he described it, “thousands of negro teen-agers had moved to ohio two years earlier for a broke through police and fire lines and better job. King was from atlanta, and flooded the downtown business district… Bevel was from nashville.) “We didn’t think [y]elling and jeering negroes broke and ran much of martin luther King,” Charles said. against traffic lights, in the middle of the “We thought he was fomenting problems.” street and through alleys…shoving white Boutwell urged “local negro citizens” not people off sidewalks, and bulling their way to follow “the questionable leadership of 95 in and out of department stores.” shoppers strangers, people whose sole purpose is to stayed away; businesses suffered as sales stir strife and discord here, and then who plunged. will leave our citizens to pay the penalty of MW.WGAJ Chapter 10:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:48 PM Page 96

VOICES OF WHITE this discord, once they have worked their BIRMINGHAM mischief.” although almost all of the demon- strators and most of the leaders were from Birmingham, many whites agreed with the “All these years…there should have been opinion of a white woman who demanded of social exchange between colored and white a native teenage marcher, “Why don’t you children… To me the solution is very simple: niggers go back to the north? the niggers just treat human beings as human beings. here is satisfied.” But to many of these people Negroes are not many white people condemned the chaos human beings. Please don’t use my name… downtown and the alleged outsiders who If you do I will lose my job.” instigated it. some of them may have used —Anonymous, high school teacher their disapproval of the movement’s tactics as a cover for their racism and their desire “We’ve got to accept integration. to maintain segregation. others might have Not that I want to but it is here.” been open to integration but truly detested the leadership’s confrontational techniques —Jesse Madaris, parking lot attendant and use of children. It’s impossible to know how many whites in Birmingham fell into the first group, how many into the second, “You can’t blame the Negro for what and how many somewhere in between. no they are trying to do. Sooner or later they are going to win, but they aren’t one was taking polls to find out. going to school with my children.” “AFRAID TO COME OUT —Tommy Arwood, auto body shop worker IN THE OPEN”

“When a man takes small children and a small but noticeable minority of whites puts them where they can get hurt, quietly supported integration—or, at least, he is far worse than Bull Connor.” rejected hard-line segregation—in the vot- ing booth. although most whites voted for 96 —R. L. Burdette, scrap iron broker Connor in the runoff election in april, enough supported Boutwell that he and the new city council won. the day after the MW.WGAJ Chapter 10:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:48 PM Page 97

election, reverend ed Gardner, a black “TRYING TO CHANGE THINGS” minister, pointed out, “many white people living in Birmingham today are sympathetic a few white merchants came out into the with our movement,” although, he added, open because they feared that the negative most “are afraid to come out in the open.” perception of Birmingham was bad for busi- several white people had been working ness. though they supported segregation, toward integration behind the scenes. emil they opposed Connor’s tactics. the most hess, a department store owner, removed prominent of these businessmen was sidney the colored drinking fountain and placed smyer, who had helped orchestrate the paper cups beside the white one for all of his change in Birmingham’s government in customers. he also quietly desegregated the order to remove Connor. dressing rooms in his store. david Vann met only a very few whites openly opposed with blacks to negotiate an end to the selec- segregation and dared to speak out loud. tive Buying Campaign. reverend ellwanger preached at mass even a few policemen objected to segre- meetings and helped the sClC plan strate- gation or, in any case, objected to enforcing gies. eileen Walbert, Pam’s mother, worked it. Police Chief Jamie moore admitted that with the Birmingham Council on human some of his officers “absolutely didn’t like it. relations, a biracial organization, to stop I mean they didn’t like it.” on d-day, police police violence against young black males officer Captain George Wall said to Captain and to remove “White” and “Colored” signs evans, “ten or fifteen years from now, we from drinking fountains and buses. “a few will look back on this and we will say, ‘how people,” mrs. Walbert said, “were trying to stupid can you be?’” change things.” But everyone had to obey the segrega- Whites who tried to improve race rela- tion ordinances, even those who despised tions often suffered for their efforts. the Klan them. “the ultimate tragedy of Birming- and the police sent informers to Council ham,” King observed, “was not the brutal- meetings. Klan members often followed the ity of the bad people but the silence of the whites home in their cars, flashing high- good people.” beam headlights and nudging their bumpers. 97 a newspaper published their photographs and addresses; neighbors yelled “Commu- nists!” at them. MW.WGAJ Chapter 10:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:48 PM Page 98

the Walberts once found a cross burning in their yard. some people received threat- “THERE’S TROUBLE DOWNTOWN” ening phone calls in the middle of the night. ellen Cooper, whose father was a lawyer While black teenagers were being arrested who represented black miners, knew not to downtown, many white teenagers were answer the phone or the door when she was unaware—not just of the protests, but also home alone. lamar Weaver, a white minis- of their causes. only when they left town ter and steelworker, helped shuttlesworth did many of them understand the troubles integrate the white waiting room at the at home. train station. the police threw him out of “Culture is like weather,” Charles said. the station into the fists of a waiting mob, “People breathe in the prejudices of their some of whom he recognized from work. he culture without any understanding of what barely escaped to his car, which the mob they’re taking in. It takes something to bashed with cement blocks. he then raced wake them up.” Charles “woke up” in col- to a black funeral home where the owner lege and then had “tremendous fights” with hid him in a coffin. his father, who called him “a traitor to his others were affected professionally. race” and threw him out of the house. “the When Pam’s father, a music teacher, hung waking up period was startling…,” he said. a picture of martin luther King Jr. over his “[W]e felt betrayed and lied to.” piano, one of his students quit. dale rus- Pam had a friend who said the same sakoff’s father, a doctor at the university of thing after she sat in classrooms with black alabama hospital, resigned when he was students at college in ohio. she discovered told that he could not require medical stu- they weren’t inferior, after all. “It’s like find- dents to call black patients by their full, ing out that everyone you ever loved or given names. respected had lied to you,” she told Pam. trying to change Birmingham, especially many white families taught their chil- out in the open, was very risky business. dren to believe they were better than Charles said, “these people were heroes blacks. Boys from such families would go 98 because they were standing up to speak out. “nigger-knocking in nigger-town” on satur- they were the only little voices to counter a day nights—that is, driving through black huge megaphone of popular news media.” neighborhoods to throw water balloons at MW.WGAJ Chapter 10:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:48 PM Page 99

the black residents or knock elderly black many white people knew nothing about the people over. Interviewed on a national tele- demonstrations that consumed the area vision program, a local college student around Kelly Ingram Park. the media was stated, “I don’t believe in the mixing of the very different then, and alabama, along races, and I don’t care what anybody says. with the rest of the deep south, was differ- I might be prejudiced. I don’t know. I prob- ent from much of the rest of the country. ably am… I am against integration.” “In alabama,” Wash said, “there was a cot- Generally, though, race was not a topic of ton curtain. news didn’t come in, and news conversation in white households. susan didn’t get out.” one woman who worked in levin, a white high school senior in 1963, the Jefferson County Courthouse, where said, “I was always aware that there were hundreds of teens, including Wash, were unpleasant things going on. I was equally jailed, says she never saw or heard any aware that these were not things to be young person arrested or incarcerated, talked about. they were very dangerous… never read about it, and never even knew it nobody ever said to me, ‘you can’t talk about happened. these things.’… yet, somehow, we didn’t.” the two white-owned newspapers, the not even in early may 1963. When Birmingham News and the Birmingham susan’s father told her, “there’s trouble Post-Herald, buried most articles and photos downtown. don’t go,” she obeyed him. the of the protesters on inside pages. It wasn’t “trouble” didn’t touch her. segregation so until Charles left home that he realized that thoroughly cleaved blacks from whites these papers didn’t cover news at all; they within the city of Birmingham—and, fur- published popular opinion. “they weren’t thermore, Birmingham from the rest of the doing investigative reporting,” he said. “the country—that while thousands of young New York Times was writing revealing sto- black people protested, thousands of young ries about what was going on in Birming- whites remained oblivious. ham but we weren’t reading them.” even the black-owned Birmingham “A COTTON CURTAIN” World editorialized against the demonstra- tions. It published fewer articles and photos 99 today, with news streaming constantly on than the local white papers. television, radio, the internet, and portable the three national television networks wireless devices, it’s hard to imagine that reported on the events, but their nightly MW.WGAJ Chapter 10:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:48 PM Page 100

news broadcasts lasted only fifteen minutes. longer discuss current events. right then, dale’s father complained that he had to Pam knew there was “a struggle going on, watch The Huntley-Brinkley Report, a and I would be called upon to enter into it.” national news program headquartered in Pam was no less frightened of retaliation and Washington, dC, to find than any other white person. she saw the out what was happening right there in cross burning on her family’s lawn and downtown Birmingham. knew their phone was tapped. “I was often the Birmingham News continued to afraid,” she admitted. “this cold kind of suppress the story for decades. In 2004, a fear…would feel like my insides were turn- researcher discovered a cardboard box in a ing to liquid; then, a hot spear. then, I closet. It was marked “Keep. do not sell.” would turn cold and shiver.” Inside were thousands of unpublished, still, she couldn’t stand the “apartheid” unseen photographic negatives of civil rights that defined Birmingham. “no matter how activities that took place in Birmingham much we might wish otherwise, the black between 1950 and 1965. “the editors people were in this part of town, and the thought if you didn’t publish it, much of this white people were in that part of town,” she would go away,” a photographer explained. said. “this seemed so entrenched, I couldn’t the publisher finally released some—but imagine it changing.” after shuttlesworth not all—of the photos in 2006. was beaten for trying to enroll his daughters in segregated Phillips high school, Pam “I FELT FLOODED wrote him a fan letter. “I told him how much WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT” I admired him, how much I wished that it would be possible for us to meet one day.” When Pam was ten, a neighbor made a her wish came true when she joined her racist comment while driving the carpool to parents at a meeting of the Council on school. Pam refused to ride with him ever human relations in the basement of shut- again, even in pouring rain. When she was tlesworth’s church. “there he was,” she twelve, she told her sixth-grade class that said, “coming down the aisle toward me 100 blacks should be allowed to go to any school with this beautiful grin.” Pam cried. “their they want. “the teacher and everyone words,” she said about the ministers’ ser- argued with me,” Pam said. the next day, mons at the meeting, “were like sweet rain her teacher announced they would no from heaven.” MW.WGAJ Chapter 10:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:48 PM Page 101

soon after, shuttlesworth invited her to hendricks was sitting in a juvenile deten- come back for a youth fellowship meeting tion center dayroom. where black students who had been jailed Charles entrekin was pondering what to and released were to be honored. she and do after graduation; Washington Booker the other two “nonprejudiced” high school- was throwing bricks at the police. ers she knew attended. susan levin, who had recently decided “It was a very hot day, beastly and dusty which college to attend, was in class at in that part of town. there were some cans shades Valley high school; James stewart of soda there but they didn’t have enough was crammed into a jail cell. for everybody. We were sitting in a circle, Pam Walbert, who had recently won a and they started passing around a can of scholarship in the Junior miss alabama soda.” like other white kids, Pam had been competition, was rehearsing a theater taught at school that black people had a lot production; arnetta streeter was getting of diseases. “even though I knew that pounded by water from a high-pressure hose. wasn’t true, I had never had the experience of sitting down with a group of young black people and eating together,” she said. “they started passing this can of soda around the circle. I remember watching it being lifted to…a black girl’s lips. at the moment when I lifted that can to my lips, I felt flooded with the holy spirit.”

WHITE KIDS AND BLACK KIDS: FRIDAY, MAY 3, 1963

at about the same time: diane mcWhorter was playing with her fifth-grade classmates (one of whom played 101 scout in the movie To Kill a Mockingbird) at the private Brooke hill school; audrey MW.WGAJ Chapter11:Layout110/26/111:47PMPage102

ChapterProtesters march down street in Birmingham, 1963 eleven MW.WGAJ Chapter 11:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:47 PM Page 103

MaY 4—6, 1963

Saturday, May 4

“NOBODY ELSE WAS GETTING OUT”

After three dAys in jAil, james was starting to feel sick. his parents were trying to arrange his release, but james had given a fake name and address and claimed he was sixteen years old when he was booked. As a result, the family lawyer had been unable to locate him. “he had been looking for me some way,” james said. “there were people who knew me, and finally the word got back that they were looking for me!” james was tempted to leave jail when the lawyer showed up, but he refused. “[n]obody else was getting out and we understood that we would get out as a group,” he explained. james and his fellow protesters believed that the Movement leadership would send an attorney to represent all of them, and he intended to stay until that happened. As the day wore on, more 103 inmates, some sopping wet, were shoved into his cell. MW.WGAJ Chapter 11:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:47 PM Page 104

reverend A. d. King, one of the few dozen of them converged at a predeter- adults arrested on d-day, was in the same mined spot. One girl pulled out a banner cell as james and the other three to four she had hidden in her clothes that read, hundred young men. to keep their spirits “love God and thy neighbor.” the entire up, james said, “he would sing sometimes group, holding the banner high, then for fifteen minutes by himself. he wouldn’t marched over to city hall. give up. eventually, one or two of us would just as they arrived, Connor stepped begin to sing, and then we would all join in.” outside. he hadn’t expected to face protest- One of james’s favorite songs was “every- ers for at least another hour. Connor had body loves freedom.” the students arrested. Grinning, they fol- singing comforted the jailed protesters all lowed a policeman down a ramp into the over town. shuttlesworth advised students, station. “when you’re arrested, sing your hearts out!” Meanwhile, several adults, including in one jail, boys and girls in nearby cells took Mrs. streeter’s friend Mrs. robey, drove turns serenading each other. At another, about fifty other young people to the white when wardens sang “dixie” over the loud- downtown. some whipped out picket signs. speaker system, students drowned them out, surprised and irritated that the protesters belting “We shall Overcome.” were no longer confining themselves to the black part of town, Connor told his force to arrest all “strolling negroes,” who would “STROLLING NEGROES” then be ferried to jail on school buses. Once Movement strategists concocted a new plan again, Connor ordered the doors of six- to catch the police off guard that saturday. teenth street Baptist Church locked to pre- On d-day and double d-day, the marches vent more protesters from hitting the had begun at exactly 1:00 p.m. and ended at streets. 3:00 p.m. On saturday, May 4, protesters A crowd of about three thousand adults started two hours earlier. At 11:00 a.m., had gathered in Kelly ingram Park, where small groups of teenagers, some wisely events turned nasty. the spectators hurled 104 wearing raincoats in case they got hosed, rocks and bottles at the police, and the ambled out of sixteenth street Baptist police sprayed the crowd with hoses. no one Church and Apostolic Overcoming holiness knows who acted first. the result was Church of God. the teens meandered— another melee. Wash might have joined the apparently randomly—until about two- bottle-throwing throng, except his mother MW.WGAJ Chapter 11:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:47 PM Page 105

James Bevel consults with police, 1963

had taken him to spend the weekend with police, talking through the bullhorn and giv- her family in demopolis, about a hundred ing orders, and everybody was obeying the miles south of Birmingham. orders,” he said. “it was like, wow.” Bevel grew concerned when he spotted SHUTTLE DIPLOMACY guns and knives in the crowd. Borrowing a police captain’s bullhorn, he bellowed, “Get By mid-afternoon, tensions downtown sub- off the streets now. We’re not going to have sided, but newspapers, magazines, and tel- violence. if you’re not going to respect the evision displayed the shocking images of policemen, you’re not going to be in the what had occurred. King had timed the 105 Movement.” protests to take advantage of the deadlines stunned to hear him side with the police, for the nightly news programs, and footage the crowd dispersed. Bevel was equally sur- of kids crammed into paddy wagons and prised that they complied. “i’m with the being washed down the street by fire hoses MW.WGAJ Chapter 11:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:47 PM Page 106

HEADLINE NEWS ment was not required to intercede to pro- tect the demonstrators. had they wanted to, the president and “Dogs and Hoses Repulse Negroes at attorney general could have intervened on Birmingham. 3 Students Bitten.” behalf of sClC, ACMhr, and the marchers, —The New York Times, May 4, 1963 since their picketing and marching took place on public property. however, the “Hoses Again Drive Off Demonstrators,” Kennedy brothers did not want to take —The New York Times, May 5, 1963 sides. they were members of the demo- “Sirens Wail, Horns Blow, Negroes Sing,” cratic Party, which was the most powerful —The Birmingham News, May 7, 1963 party in the south. Most southern democ- rats were committed to the idea of white “Alabama Negroes Defy Police and supremacy, and the White house did not Block Town.” want to offend that branch of their party. —The Times of London, May 8, 1963 the president’s spokesman stated that he hoped the situation would be resolved by “Sospesa per un giorno l’agitazione the people of Birmingham. in short, as far dei negri antirazziali a Birmingham.” as the federal government was concerned, —Italian newspaper, May 1963 what was happening in Alabama was Alabama’s problem. still, President Kennedy admitted that were especially effective in rousing national a picture of a dog biting a young man made outrage and attracting the attention of the him feel sick, and he directed the U.s. federal government. attorney general to send a negotiator to the federal government had not previ- Birmingham. ously intervened, partly because federal law that afternoon, Burke Marshall, assis- did not explicitly forbid private businesses, tant attorney general for civil rights, such as department stores and lunch coun- arrived in Birmingham. he quickly noticed 106 ters, from maintaining segregated facilities. that “there were many whites that Also, the protests—sit-ins, for example— wouldn’t talk to any blacks, and there were that had occurred on private property were many more whites that wouldn’t talk to illegal, and therefore the federal govern- certain blacks, and there were no whites… MW.WGAJ Chapter 11:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:47 PM Page 107

who would talk with Martin King.” Mar- publicly identified. the names of the other shall would have to conduct “shuttle diplo- eighty-eight members were kept secret in macy,” moving back and forth between order to protect their businesses and per- groups instead of meeting with everyone sonal lives. together. But first, he had to figure out this committee formed a Biracial sub- which black civil rights leaders and which committee, which consisted of relatively white businessmen and politicians to open-minded white businessmen who were involve. willing to sit down and negotiate with shuttlesworth didn’t want anyone else— negroes they deemed “responsible.” neither black or white—to speak for him. he the identities nor the number of citizens wanted to talk directly to the white leader- who served on the Biracial subcommittee ship. But few, if any, would agree to meet was ever revealed. with him. Most white leaders also refused to allow anyone to represent them in nego- AUDREY tiations. the dispute between Connor and Boutwell was still unresolved, and city lead- While this political muddle tied up the city, ership was in chaos, As a result, Marshall Audrey, like james, passed her third day in had to juggle not only blacks versus whites, detention on saturday. “i didn’t have any but also blacks versus blacks and whites fresh underwear or a change of clothes or a versus whites. toothbrush,” she said. she shared a bath- the chamber of commerce had estab- room with fifteen to twenty other girls. dur- lished a senior Citizens Committee, a group ing the day, they were allowed outside in a of eighty-nine of the city’s most prominent concrete recreation area but Audrey said, merchants, industrialists, and other key “we didn’t do a lot of playing… there was professionals. (in this case, “senior” refers no classes to keep up your academics. so to important rather than elderly citizens.) you just were basically there.” she was sur- this all-white group, selected by sidney prised the wardens hadn’t made some sort smyer the previous summer, was assigned of plans for them. Because of her experi- the colossal task of solving the city’s race ences with the Movement, Audrey had 107 problems. smyer, the committee’s chair, was assumed all adults were well organized. the only member who allowed himself to be MW.WGAJ Chapter 11:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:47 PM Page 108

Sunday, May 5 four of his friends. As he left, “people put all kinds of notes on me,” he said. “they… JAMES AND ARNETTA wanted me to call their mother…and tell them they were okay.” the police returned On sunday, dr. and Mrs. stewart sent their his pen, but they had confiscated and kept lawyer back to james’s overcrowded cell his radio when they realized he was listen- with a message for him: “you need to come ing to the news. the minute james got out.” home, he took a bath. then, for the first Because the young prisoners’ cell was time since thursday morning, he ate some- packed so tight, most of them had been thing besides candy bars. forced to stand—day after night, night after Meanwhile, Arnetta was still disap- day. “We had to sleep in shifts,” james said. pointed and frustrated that she hadn’t been “Certain ones would lie down and try to arrested with the other Peace Ponies. she sleep, and the rest of us stood around the yearned to try again, but Bevel had called walls or sat in the windowsills… there off marches on the sabbath. were no chairs. And when we couldn’t stand any longer, we would arouse them and have “DAMMIT! TURN ON THE HOSES!” them stand up, and then we would sleep.” even worse, “the toilet facilities were sunday blossomed into a day of miracles. in deplorable. At the end of this room, there the morning, blacks held kneel-ins at a were five toilet seats… you went to the dozen white churches, a few of which wel- bathroom in front of three to four hundred comed them. some white congregants shook people.” the ceiling over the toilets was hands with the protesters. open to the sky. When it rained, the water that afternoon, Guy and Candie drenched them while they were going to the Carawan were arrested on the steps of new bathroom. As further punishment, he said, Pilgrim Baptist Church. the Carawans, their jailors “turned the air conditioning on who were white, had composed many of the at night and the heat on during the day.” Movement’s songs. they had hoped to 108 By this fourth day in jail, james was record sunday’s mass meeting at the church getting sick. “i was at my wits’ end,” he for the smithsonian institution. But, Con- admitted. his parents provided bail—thirty nor announced, “no blacks and whites dollars cash—for him as well as for three or would be singing together in Birmingham.” MW.WGAJ Chapter 11:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:47 PM Page 109

Bevel was so angered by their arrests face. Many of the assembled knelt and took that he called from the pulpit, “We’re tired up his chant. of this mess!” he wanted the congregation “turn on the hoses,” Connor com- to protest but didn’t want to break the sun- manded. the firemen didn’t move. day truce. so he declared, “let’s not march. “dammit! turn on the hoses!” Connor let’s just walk.” repeated. Over a thousand worshippers sponta- still, the firemen didn’t move. instead, neously rose from their pews, and, for some of them cried. One fireman told his the first time since Project C began, adults chief, “you turn it on yourself. i am not and children “walked” together. the line going to do that.” Another said, “We’re here stretched five blocks long, forming the to put out fires, not people.” the firemen largest protest march in Birmingham and policemen stepped aside to allow a history. thousand blacks singing “i Got freedom led by new Pilgrim’s reverend Charles over My head” to cross the street to a park, Billups jr., the crowd sang “i Want jesus to where they knelt and prayed. Walk with Me” and strode—in high heels shuttlesworth likened the occasion to and veiled hats, in suits and neckties— “the parting of the red sea.” King called toward the southside jail, where they these “thirty seconds… one of the most fan- hoped to hold a pray-in. inspired by the tastic events of the Birmingham story.” courage of the incarcerated young people, Miracle sunday, as it came to be known, they risked arrest, job loss, and attacks by was not over yet. that evening, the white the police. folksinger joan Baez performed a free two blocks shy of the jail, they were con- concert at all-black Miles College. in her fronted by ranks of police and firemen, led perfect-pitch soprano, Baez hummed the by Connor. “you have no parade permit,” he melody of “We shall Overcome” to simple called. “reverse your direction and return guitar chords. she sang the first verse solo. to the church… if you do not, then we will then the audience joined her for the remain- have no alternative but to disperse you in ing verses: “We’ll walk hand in hand” and, whatever way we can.” louder, “We are not afraid.” Applause and 109 reverend Billups called back, “turn on whistles reverberated in the hall. your water, turn loose your dogs, we will elsewhere that evening, Marshall met stand here till we die.” tears ran down his with the Biracial subcommittee. the white MW.WGAJ Chapter 11:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:47 PM Page 110

department store owners indicated that bailiff, and they took me straight over to they’d think about desegregating some fit- juvenile detention. My parents and attorney ting rooms. neither of the two city govern- had to go there to get me.” ments, however, offered to meet any of ACMhr’s other demands itemized in the “I AIN’T SCARED OF YOUR JAIL” Points for Progress. Miracle sunday offered hope, but no At about the same time that james solutions. the marches would start up appeared for his first hearing, Mrs. Booker again the next day. had a stern talk with her son. she and Wash had returned from demopolis sunday Monday, May 6 evening. suspecting that Wash might play hooky from Ullman high again on Monday “HE DISRESPECTED HIM” and throw more bottles at policemen around Kelly ingram Park, she ordered him, “don’t At nine o’clock Monday morning, james you dare go down there.” attended his court hearing. Because he’d she had good reason to worry. Connor given a false age when he was arrested, he had called in reinforcements from sur- was initially sent to an adult court. rounding counties. hundreds of officers “the judge called me up to verify my with guns, clubs, and short-wave radios sur- age. When i told him i was fifteen, he rounded the park and surveyed the area couldn’t do anything with my case,” james from rooftops. said. But Wash had no intention of obeying “What are you doing here?” judge his mother. “When she took me to school Charles Brown demanded. Monday morning,” he said, “i went straight Arthur shores was representing james. through the school. in one door, right out he stood to defend him. Brown peered down the other. there must have been three to at shores and commanded, “sit down, four hundred kids leaving the school, Arthur.” headed toward downtown.” the judge’s order shocked james. “i was Many had seen a flier that leaders had 110 appalled at the way he disrespected him,” distributed to the black high schools. “fight he said. “so i said to myself, ‘i’m pretty for freedom first, then go to school,” it read. much on my own here.’… they called the “join the thousand in jail who are making MW.WGAJ Chapter 11:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:47 PM Page 111

their witness for freedom… it’s up to you to heat outside. joan Baez, who had been free our teachers, our parents, yourself, and smuggled to the church facedown in the our country.” back seat of a car, joined the students inside. Wash didn’t know what he would do Bevel proposed a deal with Police Chief when he reached the park but, he said, “i Moore: if the students marched peacefully knew i was going back down there.” so that afternoon, would officers arrest them many of his friends had been arrested, he without using hoses and dogs? Moore realized that “if you wanted to have folks to agreed, although he refused to shake on it talk to and hang out with, you had to go to when Bevel offered his hand. in case the jail.” blacks broke the deal, Connor yet again sur- Wash joined the throng, which marched rounded the park with fire engines and up fourteenth street south and crossed to high-pressure hoses. dr. King reminded the sixteenth street. “When we got over the high-spirited youngsters, “the whole world crest of the hill, we could see is watching you.” down sixteenth,” he said. “And there was As on previous days, organizers collected another group of kids coming from Carver every item that resembled a weapon. Wash [high school]. We saw them and started regretted having to relinquish his pocket - cheering. the next two blocks, we looked knife and thought, “i should have left [it] at down sixth Avenue [north], and there were home.” kids coming from Parker [high school]. just after one o’clock, a group of sixty there was a big crowd of us. And we were marchers emerged from the church and all right there at sixteenth. And it was on!” headed up east sixth Avenue. they were the principal of Parker high tried to led by , a black comedian from block students from streaming out of the Chicago, who carried a sign that read, school. As 1,300 of them swept past him, they “everybody Wants freedom.” immediately, chanted “Gotta go, Mr. johnson, gotta go.” forty policemen confronted him. fewer than nine hundred of Birming- “do you have a permit to parade?” a cap- ham’s almost 7,500 black high schoolers tain asked him. showed up at school. By nine a.m., two thou- “no,” Gregory answered. (not “no, sir,” 111 sand of them had gathered inside sixteenth which was the way that blacks were street Baptist Church, and at least one expected to speak to whites.) thousand more sweated in the ninety-degree “no what?” the captain demanded. MW.WGAJ Chapter 11:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:47 PM Page 112

“no. no. A thousand times no.” so many children wanted to be in on the “i hereby place you all under arrest.” action, they cheerfully stood in lines a block the crowd cheered. Kids pumped their long, waiting for the big yellow school bus to arms, shimmied their legs, wagged their take them to jail. Within ninety minutes, a bottoms. to the melody of “the Old Grey thousand jubilant protesters were on their Mare,” they belted out these lyrics: “i ain’t way—almost as many as had been arrested scared of your jail ’cause i want my free- during the previous four days. Most of them dom, want my freedom!” were girls. On board the buses, they chanted “i didn’t know that morning that i was freedom songs, stomped their feet, and shook going to…make the decision to go to jail,” their fingers out the windows at police. Wash said. “it was part festival, part day of “first they took us to City jail,” Wash liberation.” said. “it was so crowded, they put us out- side. there were two guards, who had to

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figure out what the heck to do with all these “WE FILLED UP ALL THE ROOMS!” nappy-headed children—maybe five hun- dred kids. We were saying, ‘We’re just as the children who were already in jail sud- good as you.’ A policeman was sitting on a denly got a lot of company. “As the day pro- fire escape, and he was listening to us.” gressed,” Audrey said, “the rooms filled.” Wash had never had a conversation with a she was no longer bored. One of the policeman. arrestees sent to juvenile hall was a friend After an hour or two, he and the other who was two years older. finally, Audrey kids were bused from City jail to juvenile had someone closer to her own age to play hall. Again, they were placed outdoors, “in with. the courtyard,” Wash said, “between the from talking with the new inmates, buildings, like a natural canyon.” the police watching television, and overhearing the pulled a rope across the area, putting males matrons’ conversations, she learned what on one side, females on the other. was going on downtown. “We would get all “We started singing,” Wash said. “We excited and smile…and whisper, ‘did you sang and we sang—all the Movement songs, hear the news? We filled up all the rooms!’ all the gospel songs… And, there was this We’d be all proud about the jails filling up.” young sister. she sang ‘the lord’s Prayer.’ the dayroom in which Audrey was held We all bowed and got down on our knees. i became almost as overcrowded as james’s remember seeing the white people in the cell. it held around two hundred inmates, window who worked there, these clerks and mostly younger children, but had only sixty- all. they were all looking at us. it was a dif- two beds. elsewhere, seventy-five prisoners ferent kind of look. it was one of the most squeezed into pens built for eight. A come- emotional things in my life. everybody was dian even in lockup, dick Gregory quipped, quiet. she had a beautiful voice. the prayer “it was wall to wall us.” is a beautiful prayer, and she sang it.” Arnetta finally got her chance to be “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive arrested again, just like the other Peace those who trespass against us,” she sang. Ponies. she had joined the throngs march- “deliver us from evil.” ing from the church when a group of police 113 it was nearly sunset. “some of… [the and firemen confronted them. she was clerks],” Wash said, “had tears in their eyes.” rounded up and taken to the station. But, to her deep disappointment, she did not MW.WGAJ Chapter 11:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:47 PM Page 114

manage to get locked up. “they were bring- Wash had been bused a second time ing in so many children,” Arnetta said, from the courtyard of juvenile hall to the “they could not keep them. so we were jefferson County jail. he slept on the con- booked and released.” crete floor that night, but at least he had been given a sandwich and was protected “YOU CAN’T TREAT PEOPLE from the rain. THIS WAY” several young inmates already inside the City jail heard the children crying out- Between thursday, May 2, and Monday, side. “We all climbed up and looked out the May 6, almost 2,500 young people had been window,” Mary hamilton, a teenage organ- arrested. Connor could not squeeze one izer, said. they saw “a good two hundred more body into any cell, but he was deter- children out in the rain, just being mined to corral the new arrestees some- drenched…the rain was just coming in tor- where. he chose the 4-h barns at fair Park, rents.” Mary and her cellmates banged on the state fairground from which, ironically, their cell walls, trying to get help for them. negroes were usually banned, except on one instead of shepherding the youngsters thursday night a year. indoors, Mary said, “A mob of policemen it took six hours to process and trans- came in and herded us all into these solitary- port the hundreds of marchers, who were confinement cells, which were about two then housed in the cattle pens and hog [feet] by two. you could take two short steps pavilions. Many stood in the open with no in both directions. had nothing in them but food, water, or place to sleep. At nightfall, it a little steel seat… there were twelve to fif- started to rain. Children stood crying in the teen of us in these cells… We were very cold, wet darkness. hundreds of parents uncomfortable.” After five hours in what she drove to the park to throw blankets and called a “sweatbox” and another teenage sandwiches over the high fences but the inmate described as “a big steel coffin,” they police kept most of them away. reporters, banged on the walls to be released. Mary told too, were barred from the area. One who the police, “the girls have been in here… asked to see the prisoners was told, “if you 114 without bathroom facilities and without want to see something, there’s a lot of good water. you can’t treat people this way.” the movies downtown.” police removed all the girls from the cell except Mary. she spent another two hours in MW.WGAJ Chapter 11:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:47 PM Page 115

solitary before a policeman allowed her to go Don’t hold them back if they want to go to to the bathroom. Before he did, he walloped jail. [Right!] For they are doing a job for not her in the head. only themselves but for all of America and for all of mankind.” [yes! yes!] “MAKING HISTORY” elsewhere, negotiators were deadlocked. “this is the most inspiring movement that Burke Marshall pleaded with the Biracial has ever taken place in the subcommittee for hours, pacing the floor of America,” King said at one of the four the entire time. nevertheless, the white mass meetings he spoke to that evening. business leaders refused to desegregate, As many as ten thousand people attended and Movement leaders refused to call off the the meetings. After the Birmingham Move- marches without agreement on the Points ment Choir performed “i’m On My Way to for Progress. in an article entitled “U.s. freedom land” at one of them, King went working to head off a bloodbath,” the Birm- on to say: ingham News reported, “there is an alarm- ing vacuum of leadership between the two There are those who write history. There extremes.” are those who make history. There are those since the beginning of Project C, less who experience history. I don’t know how than five weeks earlier, a reported 2,425 many historians we have in Birmingham people, almost all of them students, had tonight. I don’t know how many of you been arrested. the jails and fairground would be able to write a history book. But were filled to bursting. downtown busi- you are certainly making history, and you nesses were empty. the whole world was are experiencing history. [yes!] And you will watching. make it possible for the historians of the future to write a marvelous chapter. Never in the history of this nation have so many people been arrested for the cause of freedom and human dignity. [yes! that’s right!]… 115 Don’t worry about your children. [yeah!]… MW.WGAJ Chapter12:Layout110/26/111:45PMPage116

ChapterBirmingham police officers take students’ signs, 1963 twelve MW.WGAJ Chapter 12:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:45 PM Page 117

MAY 7—10, 1963

Tuesday, May 7

OPERATION CONFUSION

Organizers dubbed Tuesday “Operation Confusion.” Their goal was to shut down central birmingham. early that morning, youth leaders routed students from their homes and schools and dispatched them to six- teenth street baptist Church. Fewer than 14,000 black students—out of 34,000 enrolled in birmingham city schools—were present for roll call. Many of those who had checked in had then checked out, bringing the absentee rate to well over 20,000. at the seven black high schools, 6,300 students skipped. The Birmingham News reported that teachers were “holding classes as best they could.” The stakes were high. superintendent Wright threat- ened, “[T]hose over sixteen found guilty of participation [will] be expelled from school.” Furthermore, parents whose children had unexcused absences were subject to fines of up to $100 and ninety days of hard labor. 117 nevertheless, at ten o’clock in the morning, King held a press conference at which he stated that recent events “mark[ed] the nonviolent movement coming of age” and were “the fulfillment of a dream.” MW.WGAJ Chapter 12:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:45 PM Page 118

Like multiple bursts of firecrackers on authorities began calling parents and ask- the Fourth of July, Operation Confusion ing them to come pick up their children; a was launched at noon. First, a group of four- judge waived the bail bond for many. Wash teen youngsters, some carrying lunch bags described the reaction, saying, “it was like, and one with a suitcase, emerged in pairs ‘if you come get ’em, we’ll give ’em to you’… from the church and circled Kelly ingram They had to buy new pots, new cooking Park. When they slipped back into the utensils… it would kill your budget.” church, another group sprang out, like a Police could do nothing but confiscate relay team. at the same time, around six and crumple picketers’ signs. blacks called hundred black youths converged on the May 7 “Jubilee day.” as dick gregory later white downtown. They picked up protest explained, “Once you arrest three thousand signs from “Movement moms” like Mrs. people, you have no control, especially when robey, who were strategically deployed they ain’t scared of you.” around the area, and headed to eight differ- after an hour, the young people creating ent stores. some created confusion by mayhem around town marched to sixteenth approaching lunch counters, threatening to street baptist Church where they were sit-in, and then leaving. Others touched the greeted by 1,400 compatriots. along the stores’ merchandise, outraging white sales way, they sang “We shall Overcome.” clerks. shuttlesworth praised his troops. “bull James’s mother drove him back down- Connor thought the jails were like hell to town. When he saw friends demonstrating, us, but you all have made a heaven out of he jumped out of the car. “There he goes,” the jail… you are as good a soldier as any his mother said. James recalled, “They were that go across the water. because you are having fun. They had a big crowd. a police- fighting for what your country is and what man pulled up on a motorcycle. as soon as it will be.” he said, ‘you’re all under arrest,’ everybody Hearing raucous cheers from two thou- scattered in as many different ways as we sand high-spirited young people in the were individuals. He couldn’t do anything church and fearing another wave of 118 about it.” protests, a policeman asked a Movement arrests were no longer an option for the leader to encourage them to leave. That police because city, county, and even sur- idea backfired. The students obliged the rounding counties’ jails were full. Juvenile policeman by pouring into the park and MW.WGAJ Chapter 12:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:45 PM Page 119

then swarming back toward the white loudspeakers, he bellowed commands for downtown. Their numbers were doubled the roving youngsters to disperse. When when about two thousand spectators joined they didn’t obey, he called, yet again, for the stampede. Many chanted, “We’re going hoses and dogs. The dogs were held in to ja-il! We’re going to ja-il!” Only a couple check this time but both observers and pro- of dozen could be accommodated that day. testers were blasted with hoses. at least The rest satisfied themselves by roaming one of them didn’t mind; organizer andrew the streets, celebrating. Marrisett said, “When they put on the King exalted that there were “negroes on water hose, i took a washcloth, and i the sidewalks, in the streets…in the aisles of bathed.” downtown stores. There were square blocks shuttlesworth and a. d. King did mind, of negroes, a veritable sea of black faces.” though. as bevel had done on saturday, Traffic was blocked. White workers out for King borrowed a policeman’s bullhorn and lunch retreated to their offices. White shop- tried to squelch the escalating violence. pers fled. downtown was at a standstill. For “you’re not helping our cause,” he called to blacks, the scene was a dream fulfilled. For the rock throwers. “you mustn’t taunt the storeowners, police, and city leaders, it was police.” a nightmare, especially when, at 2:45 p.m., Waving a white handkerchief, shut- the mood abruptly shifted. tlesworth led about three hundred kids toward sixteenth street baptist Church. a “HEY, LET’S PUT SOME WATER fireman paid no attention to the minister’s ON THE REVEREND” peace sign and called out, “Hey, let’s put some water on the reverend!” The force of some in the crowd started hurling rocks the water rolled shuttlesworth down the and bricks at the police. Officers from five church steps and slammed him into a brick surrounding towns, an armed contingent wall. He prayed, “Lord, i’ve been coming from a neighboring county, and state troop- this way a long time. This is it. i’m ready ers all joined Connor’s force and retaliated when you are.” an ambulance took him to against the mob by chasing and clubbing Holy Family Hospital to treat his injuries. 119 anyone with dark skin. black and white Connor said he was sorry he’d missed it and pedestrians got into fistfights. Connor wished the reverend had been carried away lurched up in his armored car. Through in a hearse. MW.WGAJ Chapter 12:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:45 PM Page 120

Water hoses and billy clubs finally dis- you come back in the same room and sign persed the rioters and protesters late that the second emancipation Proclamation.’” afternoon. but Police Captain evans knew that brute force would not resolve racial Tuesday, May 7— problems in birmingham. “What does this Wednesday, May 8 accomplish?” he wondered. “What do we hope to do here by doing these kinds of NEGOTIATORS PULL AN ALL-NIGHTER things?” While central birmingham dissolved into “WE WANT EVERYBODY IN THE mayhem outside, Marshall met with the STRUGGLE FOR HUMAN DIGNITY” senior Citizens Committee at the chamber Mass meetings filled three churches that of commerce to discuss black leaders’ night, including a students-only meeting at demands. He conferred with the blacks by st. Paul’s. at sixteenth street baptist, rev- telephone. Most members of the committee erend ed gardner addressed frantic fami- had no intention of caving in to the “outside lies. “We want everybody in this struggle for agitators” they blamed for the protests. One human dignity,” he said. “Perhaps some member wanted the governor to declare mothers don’t want freedom but our chil- martial law to suppress the riots. dren want freedom… i want all the grand- Melvin bailey, the county sheriff, told mothers to get this: stand back.” them that the sole place left to house pris- bevel fired up students, telling them to oners was the university of alabama’s foot- forget school the next day. “We want all of ball field. He also expressed his fear that, the students to be out tomorrow… We sooner or later, someone was going to get intend to have the fire department pumping killed. Many committee members worried water. Wear your swimsuit if you want to.” that if they ringed it with barbed wire, their King concluded the mass meeting by beloved would look like a con- describing an evening he’d recently spent centration camp on the nightly national with President and Mrs. Kennedy at the news. Pointing at the chaos outside, sidney 120 White House. “after dinner…they showed smyer stated, “if we’re going to have a good me the room where abraham Lincoln… business in birmingham, we better change signed the emancipation Proclamation. i our way of living.” by the end of the after- told him, ‘Mr. President, i would like to see noon, a majority of the committee had MW.WGAJ Chapter 12:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:46 PM Page 121

grudgingly acknowledged that they were return to school? Would the city drop going to have to compromise with King. charges against them? Would the bail for all They didn’t agree on any particular compro- of them be dismissed? if not, the Movement mise, just on the idea of needing to do so. would somehow have to scrounge about The biracial subcommittee was charged $250,000 to secure their release. with working out the details. The “responsible negroes” who were on “AIN’T NO USE SCALDING the subcommittee included shores, and, THE HOG ON ONE SIDE” from sCLC, King, abernathy, and young. Hearing rumors of secret, late-night meet- smyer and unidentified leading business- ings, shuttlesworth checked himself out of men constituted the white membership; a the hospital on Wednesday morning and— representative of Mayor boutwell’s office still woozy and wearing his hospital id— attended as an observer. Marshall worked made his way to the drews, where King, back and forth between the two sides. young, abernathy, and other black leaders The subcommittee met throughout the had talked through the night. There, shut- night—first in an office building, then at the tlesworth learned about the compromises the mansion of John drew, a wealthy black biracial subcommittee had made. He was insurance executive. as talks continued, livid. in his absence, shuttlesworth believed, many details fell off the agenda. blacks King had allowed the Points for Progress to started by demanding that the settlement be worn down to a worthless nub. On top of address all four of the Points for Progress. that, King had called off the marches! by three o’clock in the morning, when they “We’re not calling anything off,” shut- finally reached a tense arrangement, the tlesworth insisted. He reminded King of his black representatives had retreated. They failure two years earlier in albany, geor- offered to call off the demonstrations if the gia—the debacle that had nearly under- businessmen would agree, in principle, to mined the civil rights movement. “People just two aspects of partial integration: have said this of you before—that you come (1) some desegregation of some facilities in in and get people started, and then you go some downtown department stores and off and leave them to their trouble.” He 121 (2) “‘token’ employment of negroes.” stood to stomp out, but dizzy from medica- a key point left undecided was what to tion and weak from his injuries, he sank do about all the kids in jail. Could they into a chair. MW.WGAJ Chapter 12:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:46 PM Page 122

abernathy tried but failed to calm shut- King and abernathy for having marched tlesworth, who insisted, “with what little without a permit on good Friday, over three strength i have left, i’m gon’ get up and lead weeks earlier. Judge brown (the same judge those three or four thousand kids back in who had disrespected arthur shores at the streets.” Over a thousand were already James’s court hearing) gave the ministers a waiting at sixteenth street baptist Church choice between 180 days in jail or paying a for his go-ahead. ruinously high bail bond. Fortunately, a. g. Marshall then confessed that he’d prom- gaston posted the bonds. ised President Kennedy he could hold a press The two ministers, along with shut- conference that afternoon announcing an tlesworth, announced, “We held off on mas- agreement. shuttlesworth still refused to sive demonstrations today as a demon stration compromise. “ain’t no use scalding the hog of good faith to give the negotiators a chance on one side,” he argued. “While the water is to work in a calm atmosphere.” but, they con- hot, scald him on both sides and get him tinued, if the settlement—including dismiss- clean. if the water gets cold, you ain’t never ing charges against the young people in gon’ clean off that hog.” (some people at the jail—was not worked out by 11:00 a.m. the gathering recall that shuttlesworth invoked next day, protests would proceed. a different animal: “a snake half dead is as bad as a snake all alive—it’ll still bite you.”) “We got to have unity,” King pleaded. Wednesday, May 8 “We just got to have unity.” He finally per- suaded the quarrelsome group to come to an AUDREY accord. instead of permanently canceling the marches, they agreed on a twenty-four- That same afternoon, another judge hour moratorium. if the white power struc- released more than five hundred children ture refused to sign a written agreement from jail, no bail required. audrey was one within that time, marches would resume. of them. Mrs. Hendricks had been calling King and smyer endorsed the truce at sep- someone she knew at the jail each day to 122 arate press conferences that afternoon. check on her daughter, so she knew when to despite black leaders’ goodwill offer to pick audrey up. Five older freed students suspend marches, the city’s white leadership held a press conference at which they testi- quickly revealed its bad faith. an hour after fied about the brutal treatment they had the press conference, Connor rearrested suffered in jail. audrey didn’t meet the MW.WGAJ Chapter 12:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:46 PM Page 123

press, nor did she march again. but she DUELING PRESS kept attending mass meetings. STATEMENTS

“WE ARE GOING TO BE FREE” “[T]here is an important moral issue involved That night, more than two thousand people of equality for all of our citizens. And until you jammed sixth avenue baptist Church, give it to them you are going to have difficulties despite the nearly ninety-degree heat. “We as we have had this week in Birmingham.” are back here tonight on our voyage for free- —President John F. Kennedy dom,” reverend gardner intoned. “We are going to be free. sure as i am standing “[T]he President wants us to surrender this behind this altar, we are going to be free.” state to Martin Luther King and his group of nineteen rabbis from Jewish congrega- pro-Communists…I wish to commend Bull tions around the country joined him at the Connor and his forces…” altar. “We came to applaud you,” one said. —Governor “We came to applaud your courage and dig- nity in your struggle.” “It’s his duty to put down riots and apprehend another rabbi taught the crowd a subversives and not encourage them…” Hebrew song, “Hinei Ma Tov U Ma Naim.” —Mayor Art Hanes, regarding He explained what the words meant: “How Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony.” next he asked every- one to put their arm around the person sit- “I have made no commitment with reference ting on either side of them and sing it again, to any matters being negotiated.” swaying together side to side. Connor’s —Mayor Albert Boutwell spies had to report that they “were sitting between two negroes, and they really gave us the treatment.” 123 bevel closed the mass meeting by urging the young people to fill sixteenth street baptist Church the next day. “[i]f the com- mittee lies to us, we will be ready to break MW.WGAJ Chapter 12:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:46 PM Page 124

loose and strike… We have had 2,200 people authority, where none technically existed, in jail, and today there was 6,000 more that for determining the city’s future way of life. was ready to go,” he said. “We have declared Calling the white members of the bira- war on these people… We will sleep in the cial subcommittee “a bunch of quisling, streets until they know we want freedom.” gutless traitors,” outgoing Mayor Hanes rather than on the streets or in prison, insisted that “if they would stand firm, we arnetta, James, and audrey spent Wednes- would run King and that bunch of race agi- day night safely at home. Wash, the most tators out of town.” Connor labeled the reluctant foot soldier, spent another night agreement a “capitulation by certain weak- in jail. kneed white people under threat of violence by the rabble-rousing negro, King.” ironi- SILENCE cally, given the state’s ban on boycotts, he urged, “The white people and other people Thursday morning, audrey returned to of this city should not go in these stores. Center street elementary school. no one That’s the best way i know to beat down asked her about her week in jail, and she integration in birmingham.” One of the didn’t say anything. “i was just one of the white negotiators, whose name had leaked kids, as everybody else was,” she said. “it out, received so many threatening phone didn’t dawn on me that it was a big deal.” calls that he had to change his telephone Over fifteen thousand other children number. obeyed bevel’s command to stay away from at eleven o’clock, the deadline for the school on Thursday, in case they needed to negotiations came. The committee was resume marching. When whites lashed out silent. The deadline passed. Would the stu- at the tentative settlement, it appeared that dents march again? the youngsters would march yet again. King cancelled the press conference at although the mayor’s office had sent an which he was supposed to announce either an informal observer to one meeting of the sen- agreement on the Points for Progress— ior Citizens Committee’s biracial subcom- including dismissal of charges against the 124 mittee, no elected officials served as children—or the resumption of marches. members. business leaders had simply negotiators worked throughout the day, with appointed themselves representatives of the both sides making concessions. in late after- people of birmingham and had taken noon, King told the press that they were close MW.WGAJ Chapter 12:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:46 PM Page 125

enough to a deal that he could extend the Thursday, May 9 moratorium on marching for one more day. The biggest sticking point was the “BIRMINGHAM HAS REACHED AN ACCORD charges against the arrested children. King WITH ITS CONSCIENCE” had been negotiating with businessmen, not the school superintendent or city officials blacks and whites had signed off on the who would have the final say in the matter. agreement together, but each group “The only thing that we can ask of the mer- announced it separately. at 2:30 Friday chants,” he said, “is that they recommend in afternoon, King, shuttlesworth, and aber- a very strong manner that the charges be nathy gathered at a metal picnic table in dropped.” The merchants, however, had lit- the courtyard of the gaston Motel. Journalists tle incentive to make such a recommenda- and photographers crowded around them. tion; they were already so terrified of shuttlesworth began. retribution for their role in the negotiations, they refused to be publicly identified. and, even if they made a recommendation, the officials had no reason to act on it. at the mass meeting that evening, rev- erend abraham Woods announced that national labor unions had raised enough money to bail the remaining 1,500 kids out of jail. but the money was not yet in hand. banks would be closed over the upcoming weekend, and the children remained incar- cerated. abernathy assured the crowd that if negotiations weren’t completed before daybreak, they would return “with their marching shoes on.” Later that night, the biracial subcom- 125 mittee finally reached an agreement. but no one wanted to stand up in public and read Bull Connor reads the press release announcing the it out loud. agreement to end racial strife in Birmingham, 1963 MW.WGAJ Chapter 12:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:46 PM Page 126

“The City of birmingham has reached Friday, May 10 an accord with its conscience…,” he said. “birmingham may well offer for Twentieth COMPROMISES ALL AROUND Century america an example of progressive racial relations; and for all mankind a dawn Compared with the original Points for of a new day, a promise for all men, a day of Progress, the agreement was definitely a opportunity, and a new sense of freedom for compromise. none of the stipulations took all america…” effect immediately, as the original Points He then read the points on which black had demanded. There was no reference to leaders and white businessmen had agreed. either a biracial committee that would deal with future problems or to “specific plans” THE BIRACIAL for hiring negroes on the police force and AGREEMENT reducing obstacles to voter registration. above all, there was no mention of dropping “all charges” against the demonstrators. 1. The desegregation of lunch counters, rest Furthermore, execution of the plan depended rooms, fitting rooms and drinking fountains on the good will of the merchants, enforce- in planned stages within the next 90 days… ment by city officials, and the cooperation of 2. The upgrading and hiring of Negroes on white citizens—none of which was likely. a nondiscriminatory basis… This will include King issued a statement. “…[W]e have the hiring of Negroes as clerks and salesmen come today to the climax of a long struggle within the next 60 days… for justice, freedom and human dignity in the City of birmingham. i say the climax, 3. Our movement has made arrangements for and not the end, for though we have come a the release of all persons on bond or their personal recognizance. Our legal department is long way, there is still a strenuous task working with further solutions in this problem. before us and some of it is yet uncharted.” nevertheless, King recognized the sig- 4. Through the Senior Citizens Committee or nificance of the achievement. “[i]t is a vic- the Chamber of Commerce, communications 126 tory that cannot possibly be confined to the between Negro and white will be publicly limited area of one race… We must not see re-established within the next two weeks. We the present development as a victory for the would hope that this channel of communications negro: it is rather a victory for democracy between the white and Negro communities will and the whole citizenry of birmingham— prevent the necessity of further protest demon- strations such as have been conducted. MW.WGAJ Chapter 12:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:46 PM Page 127

white and black.” He added, “[u]ltimate pare food for those left behind. His mother, credit and glory and honor must be given to he says, “didn’t whip me, didn’t scold me, almighty god, for He has clearly been at which let me know that what i had done work among us.” He concluded, “We must was alright.” now move from protest to reconciliation.” although none of them felt heroic, When shuttlesworth stood to leave the audrey, James, arnetta, and Wash were press conference, he fainted. jubilant about what they, as four young peo- at another hotel on the white side of ple in a mass of thousands, had accom- town, smyer announced the agreement on plished. White leadership had finally behalf of the senior Citizens Committee, agreed to the principle of integration. whose other members, still a mystery, were When representatives of the alabama afraid to appear in public. smyer felt he Christian Movement for Human rights met needed to explain why the white business- with those from the southern Christian men had acquiesced to black activists’ Leadership Conference on Friday, May 10, demands. to discuss the agreement, a member pointed “it is important that the public under- out, “nothing was said in either statement stand,” he said, “the steps we have taken about the children.” abernathy assured the were necessary to avoid a dangerous and group that “charges against the students imminent explosion.” He urged birming- would be dropped. There would be no hamians to abide by the agreement. “[n]ow expulsions or suspensions. This was a that peace has returned to our community, definite condition of the cessation of it is up to all to help preserve it by doing demonstrations.” nothing which would destroy it.” Ten days later, James learned that, if such a condition had been agreed to, it had THE CHILDREN been written in disappearing ink.

On Friday, city and county jails released hundreds of children, including Wash. as he and his mother left, he saw matrons 127 bringing huge, new pots and pans to pre- MW.WGAJ Chapter13:Layout110/26/111:45PMPage128 Chapter thirteen Armed members of the Alabama Highway Patrol near Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, 1963 MW.WGAJ Chapter 13:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:45 PM Page 129

MAY 11—MAY 23, 1963

Saturday, May 1 1 —Sunday, May 12

“THE KLAN IS RIDING AGAIN”

At lAst, there wAs An Agreement. But not everyone was in agreement, as all of Birmingham, black and white, learned over the weekend. hostility to desegregation put nonviolence to the test, and—for a while—nonviolence failed. On saturday afternoon, Bevel held a youth rally at sixteenth street Baptist Church. Before discussing plans for a voter registration drive, he read aloud from a flier he had come across that morning announcing a Ku Klux Klan rally to be held at 7:30 that night. “white Citizens, Know Your rights,” he read, “the city of Birm- ingham and the entire United states of America, which was created by your ancestors for your personal benefit, is under attack by Jews and negro Communist citi- zens!... mongrelizers, beware! the Klan is riding again.” 129 several thousand Klansmen and their families flocked from a half dozen states around the south to a park on the outskirts of Birmingham. local policemen in uniform also attended. MW.WGAJ Chapter 13:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:45 PM Page 130

with the grounds illuminated by two Bricks shot off the front of the house into twenty-foot-high flaming crosses, the leader the crowd. the front door blew into the of the Klan, Imperial wizard robert shel- kitchen at the back of the house. the living ton, warned the crowd to resist “demands room was suddenly open to the street. from any of the atheist so-called ministers nearly every window was shattered. the of the nigger race…” Ominously, he added, roof was propelled forward and hung pre- “martin luther King’s epitaph, in my opin- cariously over the front sidewalk. Amaz- ion, can be written here in Birmingham.” ingly, the entire family escaped unharmed, shortly after 8:00 p.m., the switchboard including mrs. King, who had been sitting operator at the gaston motel answered the in the living room. phone. the caller told her the Klan was more than a thousand furious bystanders holding a rally just outside of town and gathered. As police arrived, the crowd flung asked if King was staying in room 30, his bricks at them and slashed their tires. even usual room when he was in Birmingham. though his house had just been ruined and Five minutes later, the phone rang again. he and his family nearly murdered, A. D. Another caller asked her if she had a casket King again made the case for nonviolence. for King. the operator reported the threat- grabbing a bullhorn, as he had the previous ening calls to sheriff Bailey, who dismissed tuesday, he begged the crowd, “Please put her concerns, saying, “If you see anything, your bricks down!” call us.” Just before midnight, a third explosion At 10:45, half an hour after the Klan rally hit, this one so loud that A. D. King thought ended, a uniformed policeman got out of a his church, only a few blocks away, had squad car and placed a package by the front blown up. “that’s the motel,” a movement steps of A. D. King’s parsonage. As he drove leader said, referring to the gaston motel, off, the policeman tossed a second object over five miles away. toward the house. It immediately exploded, this bomb, hurled from a speeding creating a small sinkhole in the sidewalk. Chevrolet, had hit the room directly beneath hearing the noise, a crowd gathered. ten room 30. movement strategists had been 130 minutes later, the original package also meeting in room 30 for thirty-eight straight exploded, even more powerfully. It was a one- days until that saturday night. the explo- two punch: the first explosion was designed sion blasted a hole the size of two refrigera- to draw onlookers, the second to injure them, tors through the steel-reinforced concrete as well as A. D. King and his family. wall, shattered windows in the neighbor- MW.WGAJ Chapter 13:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:45 PM Page 131

Bomb-damaged trailers at the Gaston Motel, 1963

hood, and destroyed three nearby trailers. even before the details of police involve- Diners and waitresses fled the motel restau- ment were known, blacks retaliated with rant, screaming. Fortunately, no one was unleashed frustration and fury. enraged badly hurt. patrons of nearby pool halls and bars poured though the switchboard operator had into the motel’s parking lot, surrounding informed police of the threatening phone streets, and Kelly Ingram Park. they threw calls, officers had stopped patrolling nearby bottles and chunks of concrete at officers. streets several hours earlier. however, an Yet again, movement leaders pleaded official police vehicle—assigned to an officer with the crowd to disperse. wyatt tee who was the nephew of “Dynamite Bob” walker tied a white cloth around his arm, Chambliss—accompanied the Chevrolet climbed on top of a car, and shouted through from the scene. a bullhorn, “Please do not throw any bricks Despite evidence that the police were anymore. ladies and gentlemen, will you involved in both the Klan rally and the cooperate by going to your homes.” A 131 bombings that followed, outgoing mayor bottle-tosser responded, “how come we have hanes suggested that martin luther King to go home every time they start violence?” Jr. and his fellow civil rights activists were someone threw a brick; it slammed into responsible for the explosions. walker’s ankle. MW.WGAJ Chapter 13:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:45 PM Page 132

“BURN ANYTHING stabbed him, then overturned the cab and THE WHITE FOLKS OWNED” torched it. when sparks set nearby build- ings aflame, the mob prevented fire trucks soon, more than 2,500 people surged into the driven by whites from reaching the site. black downtown. most, like wash, wanted to Police sprayed tear gas from a tank, but the get even. “we threw rocks at white folks’ mob refused to disperse. A city block of cars,” wash said, “roamed the streets, van- apartment houses and businesses blazed. dalize, burn anything the white folks owned.” At about 1:30 in the morning, A. D. King, Others went out of curiosity. “I was at who had finally quelled the mob outside his home,” Arnetta said, “but we got in the car shattered home, drove to Kelly Ingram and we came downtown. It was scary—a Park. through a megaphone, he called out, full riot.” After seeing Connor’s armored car, “now if we who were in jeopardy of being the streeters left and drove over to ensley killed, if we have gone away not angry, not to view the damage to A. D. King’s house. throwing bricks…why must you rise up to mr. and mrs. hendricks also brought hurt our cause? You are hurting us! You are Audrey and her sister downtown. As they not helping!” got close to the motel, though, they saw fires he managed to gather three hundred and turned around. “It was a dangerous sit- protesters and lead them in prayer. “Oh, uation,” mrs. hendricks said. “we got out of god, we pray that thou would’st give us at there.” this hour the spirit of patience. give us the James and his family didn’t go down- spirit of love. give us the spirit of under- town that night, but he knew about the standing. And bless our lives and bless this bombings and what they meant. “the battle city.” some people sang “we shall Over- had intensified,” he said. “we went to jail… come.” working together, the ministers and and we won—like a soccer game… the some policemen began to convince the bombings were at a different level; they crowd to disband and head toward home. A were trying to kill somebody.” local black civil defense unit also acted hero- marauders smashed car windows and ically; one of its members, James lay, res- 132 looted stores—some owned by whites and cued the white cabdriver, and another others by blacks. someone stabbed a police- member managed to quell one of the fires. man three times in the back. rioters pulled By 2:30 in the morning, the riots were a white taxi driver out of his vehicle and nearly spent. MW.WGAJ Chapter 13:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:45 PM Page 133

“YOU’RE DAMN RIGHT As the heat from the fires finally IT’LL KILL SOMEBODY” became intolerable and dawn began to dis- pel the menacing darkness, the riots nevertheless, six hundred state troopers, petered out for a second—and final—time armed with submachine guns, sawed-off that night. Fifty people, some seriously shotguns, and tear gas, rushed to Kelly wounded, had been taken to the hospital. Ingram Park. they were led by Colonel Al Downtown Birmingham was in shambles; lingo, the state’s director of public safety, and two apartment buildings and seven stores were accompanied by a posse of armed white in a nine-block area lay devastated. the militants, who were under no one’s command. editor of the Birmingham News called sun- some rode in on horseback like a cavalry. day, may 12, “a sabbath of sorrow.” the day Fearing—accurately, it turned out—that was also the second anniversary of the the troopers would make things worse, beating of Freedom riders at the Birming- Chief moore urged lingo to withdraw. “we ham trailways Bus station. don’t need any guns down here,” he argued. “You all might get somebody killed.” WHAT ABOUT THE AGREEMENT? “You’re damn right it’ll kill somebody,” lingo retorted. he fired off his automatic the violence raised an agonizing question: shotgun and led the troops on a charge would the agreement hold? down the streets. the New York Times President Kennedy stated his commit- reported that blacks “fled in terror as they ment to the agreement on national televi- were clubbed with gun butts and night- sion that night, saying, “the Birmingham sticks. the ‘thonk’ of clubs striking heads agreement was and is a fair and just could be heard across the street.” troopers accord.” But, just in case, he ordered three followed wyatt tee walker as he dashed thousand federal troops to army bases near into the gaston motel to protect his wife. Birmingham and nationalized the Alabama they knocked her on the head and later national guard, readying them to inter- beat him, breaking his wrist. vene if violence reignited. lingo’s beat-’em-up and scare-’em-off state officials, on the other hand, opposed 133 tactics not only didn’t work any more, they the compromise. lingo said, “there wasn’t badly backfired. tensions flared yet again any agreement that I know of.” governor and blacks swept through the area, burning wallace labeled the Biracial subcommittee and slashing for another three hours. “a group of appeasers who…have played MW.WGAJ Chapter 13:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:45 PM Page 134

right into the hands of martin luther King join a “holy crusade against intolerance and and his cohorts.” racial injustice.” he concluded, “brother- Despite this opposition, smyer con- hood is more than a sunday word.” firmed that the senior Citizens Committee Monday, May 13 members would uphold their end of the agreement. King, who returned to Birming- “LET NOBODY PULL US SO LOW” ham immediately upon hearing about the riots, concurred. “I do not feel the events,” Audrey, Arnetta, and James went to school he said, “nullified the agreement at all.” on monday. miss woolfolk announced to the At the mass meeting sunday evening at class that Arnetta had been arrested. “she new Pilgrim Baptist, King cautioned the gave me a big hug,” Arnetta said, “made me flock: “we must work passionately and feel real proud.” unrelentingly for first-class citizenship, but martin luther King Jr. and ralph Aber- we must not use second-class methods to nathy visited the same bars and pool halls gain it.” his brother, A. D., stood next to him that the rioters had spilled out of on saturday as proof. “when the lord is with you,” he night. After playing—and losing—a game of said, “even bombs can’t hurt you.” pool, King would gather players around the Over that weekend, demonstrations bar or pool table. As if he were preaching at a were held in dozens of cities to support civil mass meeting, he told a group: rights in Birmingham. In washington, DC, I can well understand how we are often three thousand people picketed the Depart- driven to the brink of bitterness, and even ment of Justice. An equal number massed despair, because of the way we are treated by on the Boston Common. marchers in san policemen and highway patrolmen, and the Francisco carried placards reading, “Broth- way we are bombed, and our children are erly love for All, not ‘whites Only.’” About exploited…but…it is possible to stand up one hundred demonstrators protested at the against all of these evils and injustices with- United nations in new York City. In out fighting back with violence… [N]ot only is Philadelphia, 5,000 black church members violence immoral in our struggle, but it is also impractical…We make a much greater moral 134 and 150 ministers rallied at Independence hall. reverend leon sullivan of Zion Bap- impact when we are the recipients of violence tist Church called for all religious groups to rather than the inflictors…Let nobody pull us so low as to make us hate them… MW.WGAJ Chapter 13:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:45 PM Page 135

then, while drinkers and pool players held no one was ready to celebrate, however. hands and sang “we shall Overcome,” King Over the next week, lingo’s state troopers passed around a hat and collected their remained in Birmingham. to help suppress weapons. starstruck, some of the men followed more conflicts, nearly 17,800 nationalized him from site to site, until carbine-carrying combat troops patrolled downtown while state troopers blocked King’s route and made military helicopters flew noisily overhead. him return to the damaged gaston motel. meanwhile, black and white negotiators later in the day, movement leaders bickered over the number of black sales- received troubling news. On behalf of the sen- people the white storeowners were willing ior Citizens Committee, smyer announced to hire. that the desegregation agreement meant that Monday, May 20 only “one negro sales person will be employed in one store.” not, as the civil rights leaders had believed, at least one clerk in each store. “YOU ARE EXPELLED” nevertheless, leaders did not call for protests. the mass meeting that afternoon During roll call on monday morning, James’s at sixth Avenue Baptist Church featured two homeroom teacher called his name, as usual. famous athletes who had broken the color But she didn’t call the names of everyone in barrier in their sports. Floyd Patterson, a the class. why was she reading only some former heavyweight-boxing champion, told names? the crowd how much the achievements in “we’re looking at each other,” James Birmingham meant to blacks in the north. said, “wondering what’s the nature of this Jackie robinson, the first black major list… About three-quarters of the way league baseball player, said that his chil- through the people she was calling, we real- dren had told him they wanted to march in ized they were people we knew who had Birmingham, too. King closed the meeting by participated… she got very upset. she got emphasizing, “this is not a racial conflict… tearful… she said, ‘You have to leave the the tension in Birmingham is between jus- class. You are expelled.’ we had to do it. All tice and injustice.” the people who were expelled had to get up 135 Justice was partially served the very next and leave. we were just shocked.” day. Downtown department store owners this selective roll call happened at the met the most immediate terms of the agree- other black high schools in town, too. the ment by desegregating their dressing rooms. Birmingham Board of education expelled MW.WGAJ Chapter 13:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:45 PM Page 136

1,081 students that day. Juniors, like James, said. “Bull Connor was striking back in would have to repeat the school year. seniors whatever way he could.” would be unable to graduate, ever. King At the mass meeting that afternoon, called the expulsion “a tragic move and an Bevel, without consulting other movement immoral move.” strategists, called for all black students to Despite her participation, Arnetta was walk out of their schools in protest. he also not expelled, but she and other students distributed thousands of fliers on which, stayed home from school anyway in the days without approval, he had added King’s that followed. “the parents had gotten very, name alongside his. very afraid by this time, and they were hold- King had left town over the weekend, but ing onto their kids because they were fright- he dashed back to Birmingham. he was wor- ened at the things that could happen,” she ried about how blacks would react to the expulsions. If they rioted again, the desegre- gation agreement would certainly come STUDENTS undone. he urged the leaders of ACmhr to Which side are you on? respond “with restraint and with united calmness,” and they cancelled the students’ The Board of Education has given an order to expel and mass meeting that Bevel had scheduled for suspend all students who participated and were arrested during the demonstration to end segregation in Birmingham. the next morning. they also arranged for two black attorneys to sue the board of edu- Our motto must remain the same: cation. Arthur shores (who had represented James) and Constance Baker motley, an out- “All stay out until all can get in.” side lawyer, sued on behalf of linda Cal “All for one and one for all.” woods, reverend Calvin woods’s daughter, “Which side are you on?” for the right of all expelled students to return to school. All students who were expelled or suspended and all students In the courtyard of the gaston motel, who know those students were right, please answer roll call King gathered a group of students who had at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church at 9 o’clock not been expelled and directed them to on Tuesday, May 21, 1963. return to school on tuesday. reluctantly, they acquiesced. he instructed those, like FIRST CLASS OF FREEDOM: James, who couldn’t go back, to “stay home Dr. M. L. King, Jr., and study.” Rev. James Bevel and Rev. C. Billups MW.WGAJ Chapter 13:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:45 PM Page 137

Wednesday, May 22 appealed the decision to the circuit court in Atlanta. that court had decided that the “VICTORY NIGHT” expelled students could return to school. “there was a huge roar in the place, and Despite King’s instructions, James said that people were excited…,” James said. “that he and other expelled classmates “spent the restored my faith…” he and 1,500 other next couple of days just walking around… young marchers exuberantly waved their talking about what had happened, what flags. does it all mean, what is going to happen to Dr. King announced that the court’s us… how do I get to college?” On tuesday, decision proved that “the students who may 21, students met with King and asked engaged in these peaceful protests were not to send representatives to ACmhr meet- only moving down a path of morality but ings to help plan a response to the board of they were moving within constitutional education. paths… this vindicates our actions, and it On wednesday evening, may 22, James vindicates our movement.” and his friends decided at the last minute to Connor’s spies reported, “tonight was go to the mass meeting at new Pilgrim Bap- their victory night.” tist. “we almost didn’t go,” he said, “and we went in late, and we sat on the last row in Thursday, May 23 the back… Constance motley said, ‘we are going to give these American flags to each “WORST DAY” one of you… we will start in the back and you just come down and get the flags.’” James On thursday, may 23, 1963, the Alabama was the first one to receive a flag, just as he supreme Court unanimously ruled Albert had been the first person out the door of Boutwell the winner of the mayoral elec- sixteenth street Baptist Church on may 2. tion. the city council replaced the commis- the speakers described what had hap- sioners, who cleaned out their offices that pened: the federal judge in Birmingham had afternoon. Bull Connor was out of a job. ruled against linda Cal woods. James’s “this,” he said, “is the worst day of my life.” 137 heart sank at this news. But then, the speak- ers continued, woods’s lawyers had quickly MW.WGAJ Chapter14:Layout110/26/111:41PMPage138 Chapter FOUrteen Whites taunt black demonstrators during a protest in Gadsden, Alabama, 1963 MW.WGAJ Chapter 14:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:41 PM Page 139

FREEDOM AND FURY

“A LITTLE CLOSER TO FREEDOM”

In hIs annual address to the aCMhr on June 5, 1963, shuttlesworth said:

…how glorious it is to realize that Negroes in Birm- ingham, Alabama, have not only helped to bring about a change in local government, but also a change in the attitude of the National government about the racial situation… We are closer to freedom because the Negro in this city united as never before. Both young and old, students and adults, middle class, low class and no class, all joined together to put on the biggest mass demonstration ever to occur in America… Police dogs, the police lines and the water hoses could not put out the fire that started burning in Birmingham.

shuttlesworth gave his talk the perfect title: “a little Closer to Freedom.” Blacks in Birmingham were closer 139 but, sadly, had not yet reached freedom’s land. audrey, Wash, arnetta, and James still could not choose which park to play in or which water fountain to drink from. MW.WGAJ Chapter 14:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:41 PM Page 140

While the events of april and May 1963— The next week, newly designated Mayor especially the children’s marches—brought Boutwell desegregated the city’s golf courses about an agreement between Birmingham’s as his first official action under the agree- white business leaders and the black popu- ment. he did not desegregate playgrounds or lation, actually implementing that agree- swimming pools, however, claiming the city ment required many more months (years, did not have the funds. Parks had been more even) of efforts that yielded success only in heavily used by blacks than golf courses, and fits and starts. they remained closed into the late 1960s. But Most whites still wanted nothing to do it was a baby step in the right direction. Pub- with integration. The brand-new city coun- lic libraries had been informally desegre- cilmen hadn’t participated in the negotia- gated by demonstrators and were soon tions and felt little responsibility for the officially integrated. Their bathrooms, how- results. In an article about the Biracial sub- ever, were not and remained locked; all committee, the Birmingham News wrote, patrons—black and white—had to seek facil- “These white citizens…had no authority. ities elsewhere. They did not speak for any elected city offi- In mid-July, Boutwell appointed the cials. They did not speak for any citizens… biracial commission called for in the Points negroes obviously accepted that…nothing for Progress. Of the 212 members, only 27 that anyone ‘agreed upon’ was binding.” were black, and none of the black members The marches were over but the lawsuits, was given a leadership position. bombs, and riots continued. reactions to the On July 23, 1963, the city council took agreement—and reactions to the reac- the most dramatic step of all: it repealed tions—yo-yoed back and forth throughout Birmingham’s segregation Ordinances. the summer and into september. suddenly, it was legal “to conduct a restau- some hopeful changes occurred almost rant or other place for the serving of food in immediately. On June 5, the Tutwiler, Birm- the city, at which white and colored people ingham’s ritziest hotel, voluntarily began are served in the same room…” The follow- accepting black guests. On June 23, down- ing week, restaurants in downtown depart- 140 town department stores removed “White” ment stores and five-and-dimes integrated and “Colored” signs from bathrooms and their restaurants and lunch counters. drinking fountains. Within a month, those in suburban shop- ping centers followed suit. MW.WGAJ Chapter 14:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:41 PM Page 141

The repeal of the ordinances also offi- later they ate at two restaurants. “They cially applied to taverns, movie theaters, were very polite,” arnetta said about the pool and billiard rooms, bowling alleys, waitresses at one location, “overly courteous railroads and street railroads, toilets, because they realized we were testing. The buses, and taxis. But not to public schools only problem that we had throughout the or universities. day was when we went to a hot-dog stand. They put a lot of hot sauce on the hot dog. We “I GOT SOME ICE CREAM!” didn’t know until we bit down on it.” adults who tested integration of eating arnetta’s mother received a phone call from facilities were also, generally, served without her friend lucinda robey. Could arnetta incident. reverend Calvin Woods sent teams and her sister Joan test the repeal of segre- to order lunch at formerly all-white restau- gation by going to the movies and out to rants and reported, “The waitresses were lunch? Mrs. streeter agreed. “The first very cordial while the cooks looked on with place we went,” arnetta said, “was to the quiet amazement.” What a change from alabama Theatre. Mrs. robey picked us up april 3, when a white man spat at him as he and provided the money that we needed.” sat at a lunch counter! arnetta, Joan, and two other black girls a couple of establishments balked. One walked up to the ticket booth and bought waitress ran out of Woolworth’s when tickets. Then, for the first time, they testers sat down at the counter. and blacks entered the theater through the front door had to sue Ollie’s, a barbecue restaurant and sat downstairs. “For whatever reason,” that refused to integrate until the u.s. she says, “I was not scared.” The girls didn’t supreme Court ordered the owner to do so, stay all the way through the movie; they over a year later. were just there to test the owners’ compli- soon, Wash, too, got what he had wanted ance with the agreement. On the same day, more than anything. “I went to newberry’s,” they also bought tickets and went to movies he said, “and I got some ice cream.” he at the lyric and the Melba Theatres. They couldn’t afford a banana split but he was had never been inside the Melba before; it able to eat upstairs, not in the basement, at 141 didn’t have a balcony, which under the seg- a “diner-style, stainless steel bar with stools regation Ordinances was the only place and a soda machine with pictures of food on blacks had been allowed to sit. the wall.” MW.WGAJ Chapter 14:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:41 PM Page 142

audrey, too, went with her parents to and James had helped bring about in Birm- restaurants where they had never been able ingham. during the late spring and summer, to eat. Before that, she said, “you could nearly fifteen thousand demonstrators, most only…look through the window.” of them young people, took part in at least James didn’t venture immediately into 758 nonviolent protests in 186 cities. desegregated Birmingham. he and his In some towns, novice activists needed friends just watched what was happening. guidance from the experienced young pick- “We were happy to see that occur and to eters and marchers from Birmingham. In know that the walls were down,” he said. “I July, teens from Birmingham helped organ- went to the alabama Theatre after a while ize almost a dozen marches in st. augus- and saw a movie while sitting downstairs. tine, Florida. Gwendolyn sanders and her sitting in the appropriate place was a weird sisters joined a busload of children to help feeling.” integrate the city’s lunch counters. sixteen- some white people were relieved by inte- year-old Gwendolyn was a protesting pro; gration, too. Pam Walbert’s mother said, “It she had participated in nonviolence train- gave us a sense of freedom…because we ing, picketed stores, and persuaded other were all victims of the system.” students to join the Movement. she had been arrested and jailed twice. “BIRMINGHAM PUT A SPOTLIGHT When Gwendolyn tried to place an order ON NATIONAL RACISM” at an International house of Pancakes in st. augustine, she was arrested and spent The results of what came to be known as the four days in jail. another week, while she Children’s March (also the Children’s Cru- was marching with three hundred people sade) resonated throughout the country. through the town square, whites jumped “Birmingham put a spotlight on national from behind bushes and beat them. Gwen- racism,” James pointed out. “Because it was dolyn was hit in the head and spent a week widely televised, and they brought out the in the hospital. despite these assaults, she dogs and the water hoses, then racism was went on to demonstrate in atlanta, Georgia, so exposed. That sparked demonstrations 142 and anniston and Gadsden, alabama. all around the country.” actions such as these led to the desegrega- People everywhere clamored for the tion of public facilities in at least 261 cities kinds of changes that audrey, Wash, arnetta, around the country that summer. MW.WGAJ Chapter 14:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:41 PM Page 143

ELSEWHERE “A MORAL ISSUE”

The escalating number and fervor of • College students in Jackson, Mississippi, held a sit-in for protests, along with pressure from Move- three hours at a Woolworth’s lunch counter while young ment leaders in Birmingham and elsewhere, whites poured ketchup, mustard, sugar, and paint on them— at last persuaded President Kennedy that and, when the protesters still refused to leave, beat them. he had to take a stand on civil rights. On Other young people marched toward downtown Jackson, June 11, 1963, Governor Wallace attempted waving flags and singing; when police confronted them, they politely waited in line to be arrested. to prevent two black students from enrolling There were so many, they nearly filled the jails. at the university of alabama by standing in the doorway to block their entrance. his • Demonstrators tried every day for a week to grandstanding failed, however, and he was integrate two movie theaters in Greensboro, forced to step aside and let them enter. That North Carolina. Approximately 1,135 of them, mostly night, President Kennedy delivered an college and high school students, were arrested. address on national television. Jesse Jackson, who was then a local college student, said, “When a police dog bites us in Birmingham, It ought to be possible…for every American people of color bleed all over America.” to enjoy the privileges of being American with-

out regard to his race or his color. This is not • About one thousand marchers were tear-gassed a sectional issue. Difficulties over segregation and two hundred “juveniles” arrested in and discrimination exist in every city, in every Savannah, Georgia, filling the jails. state of the Union, producing in many cities a rising tide of discontent… • A total of ninety-seven juveniles, some as young as We are confronted primarily with a moral twelve years old, were arrested after they defied issue… The heart of the question is whether an order not to march in Athens, Georgia. all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities… One hundred years • A group of 220 black students was arrested of delay have passed since President Lincoln for trying to integrate a theater in Tallahassee, Florida. freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grand- sons, are not fully free… And this nation…will not be fully free until all its citizens are free. MW.WGAJ Chapter 14:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:42 PM Page 144

The events in Birmingham and else- James attended an integrated summer where have so increased the cries for equal- camp in Massachusetts in mid-august. at ity that no city or state or legislative body the end of the session, the campers—both can prudently choose to ignore them. black and white—went to Washington for the march. James was excited but the other a week later, he submitted to Congress campers were even more enthusiastic—they a civil rights bill that focused on voting had someone from Birmingham traveling rights, equal employment, and the desegre- with them. They arrived early in the morn- gation of public accommodations, facilities, ing, and James went searching for friends and schools. When he met with King and from home. after walking past fifty or sixty other Movement leaders at the White buses, he found several. They sat and talked house several days later, the president together near the reflecting Pool in front of acknowledged the impact of Birmingham’s the lincoln Memorial. When James turned children on the nation. around, he saw “people all the way back to

“THAT’S THE GUY WHO SPOKE TO US”

In early august, organizers in Birmingham scheduled salute to Freedom ’63, a concert to raise money for local activists to attend the March on Washington for Jobs and Free- dom. Famous musicians such as sammy davis Jr., ray Charles, and Marian ander- son were scheduled to appear. The univer- sity of alabama stadium was the largest public arena, but it still barred black per- formers. City officials also refused to house the event at Municipal auditorium. The con- 144 cert was held at Miles College instead and raised enough money for busloads of people to head to Washington for the august 28 mass march.

March on Washington, 1963 MW.WGAJ Chapter 14:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:42 PM Page 145

the [Washington] Monument. That was home. In response to that bombing, more shocking. I didn’t have any idea how many than a thousand blacks rioted until a. d. people were behind us. There were throngs.” King yet again persuaded them to disperse. The throngs numbered about 250,000. When school started on september 4, King called the event “the greatest demon- dwight and Floyd armstrong took the city stration for freedom in the history of our up on its desegregation plan. (The two broth- nation.” ers had previously tried to register at a white James listened along with the crowd to school when Mr. streeter wanted arnetta speeches by religious and civil rights lead- and her sister to do the same.) Though jeered ers and to musicians. One of the singers, by hundreds of angry white demonstrators, Odetta, was born in Birmingham. at the they entered the fifth and sixth grades of end of the program, King delivered his “I Graymont school. Three other black stu- have a dream” speech, parts of which he dents integrated two high schools. had rehearsed at a mass meeting at six- later that week, for the second time in teenth street Baptist Church the previous ten days, someone bombed the shores fam- april. applause and calls of “That’s right!” ily’s home. There was less damage this and “amen!” punctuated practically every time, but the ensuing riot was worse. Over sentence. James was especially exhilarated. twenty people were injured, and one black “We knew him,” he said. “That’s the guy who person was killed by police bullets, which spoke to us in the churches and the meet- police claimed fell out of the sky after being ings. and, now he’s on the national stage.” shot over rioters’ heads. Five days after school started, Governor SCHOOL INTEGRATION? Wallace signed an executive order stating, YES AND NO “no student shall be permitted to integrate the public schools of the City of Birmingham, after the march, James spent a week in alabama.” Washington with his grandmother before returning to Birmingham to start his senior THE WALLS OF THE CHURCH year at ullman high. While he was in dC, 145 a judge in Birmingham approved the city’s In early september, Carolyn Maull, a friend plan to desegregate public schools. In retal- of James’s who had been hosed during the iation, someone bombed arthur shores’s marches, asked him if he was available on

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Exterior damage to Sixteenth Street Baptist Church following the bombing, 1963

september 15 to teach a sunday school she walked out of the office and up the hall class at sixteenth street Baptist Church. toward the steps that led to the sanctuary, The minister, reverend John Cross, had which was filled with a couple of hundred designated the date Youth day, and Carolyn worshippers, nearly half of them youngsters. was looking for young people to come to the less than two minutes later, ten to fifteen church and describe their experiences with sticks of dynamite exploded. the Movement. James declined the invita- “One minute, a typical sunday school tion and stayed home that morning. day,” Mamie Greer, the sunday school’s arnetta was at home, too. “It was a superintendent said, “the next, window dark-looking day,” she said. “It should not glass and debris flying everywhere, people have been dark because it was so early in screaming and practically stampeding to the year but it was dark and gloomy.” get out.” at about 10:20, the telephone rang in The blast killed four girls and nearly 146 the church office. Carolyn lifted the blinded another, the sister of one of the receiver. “Two minutes,” she heard but she victims. Twenty other people were injured. didn’t understand what the caller meant. during the previous night, vigilantes MW.WGAJ Chapter 14:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:42 PM Page 147

had carefully placed dynamite under the “THE WAY TO WIN IS side steps that led to the basement near the TO NOW KILL THEIR CHILDREN” ladies’ restroom, where the girls were hur- riedly primping before service. These were Cynthia Wesley. denise Mcnair. Carole the same steps arnetta had marched up on robertson. addie Mae Collins. They were May 2, the same steps where shuttlesworth four girls—all of them fourteen years old, had been injured by the blast of water on except for addie Mae, who was eleven—four May 7. out of tens of thousands of school children. Cross picked his way to the front of his Yet, it seemed that just about every black shattered church. he didn’t yet know that person in Birmingham felt connected to one four small girls lay so crushed and muti- or another of them. lated in the basement that they were unrec- Cynthia was in arnetta’s sister’s class ognizable. echoing the lesson of the day, at ullman high and belonged to the Cav- “The love That Forgives,” he admonished alettes, the sister group to James’s social the furious crowd that gathered, “We should be forgiving, as Christ was forgiving…” reverend Billups added, “Go home and pray for the men who did this evil deed… We must have love in our hearts for these men.” But their homilies did not persuade everyone to go home and pray. “anything we could get our hands on owned by white folks, we destroyed it,” Wash said, describ- ing the riot that followed the bombing. “We got a big croker sack and just filled it with rocks. These people [a white couple] were in a red and white Impala convertible, and we dropped that whole sack of rocks” off the viaduct. “all we knew is that white folks 147 had bombed the church, and we were going

to get even.” Window damage to Sixteenth Street Baptist Church following the bombing, 1963 MW.WGAJ Chapter 14:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:42 PM Page 148

club. arnetta’s mother had graduated from bars of his brother’s bicycle when he was Tuskegee with denise’s father. denise’s shot by a sixteen-year-old white eagle scout mother taught at Center street elementary, on his way home from an anti-integration where both denise and audrey went to rally. The killer, larry Joe sims, said he school. Carole’s father taught music at pulled his gun on Virgil because he was Washington, the elementary school Wash, afraid the Wares might throw rocks at him. James, and arnetta had attended, and the a policeman also shot to death sixteen-year- robertsons were close to the stewarts. “Two old Johnnie robinson, who, like Wash, was of those girls,” James said, “were very close throwing rocks at whites’ cars. friends.” six young black people dead in one day. Carole’s funeral was held on september “To know that somebody hated us as a 17. her mother asked James to help carry people,” James said, “hated us so much that the casket. “I stepped up,” James said. they decided the way to win is to now kill When one of the other pallbearers nearly their children… That was very sobering. It dropped the casket, James steadied him. made me angrier, but it made me more “The funeral was something that I just determined.” walked through…,” James said. “It was like sobered. angry. determined. This is the being numb… It was horrible. Carole was a way many people in Birmingham, the coun- sweet girl… It was just horrible.” try, and the White house felt in september a combined funeral for Cynthia, 1963. denise, and addie Mae was held on sep- sobered by racism. tember 18. The service drew six thousand angry about violence. people, both black and white, and was cov- determined to gain civil rights. ered by reporters from around the world. King eulogized the children as “heroines of “THE POPULARTIY OF HATRED” a holy crusade.” arnetta, who attended with the Peace Ponies, said, “There was The day after the church bombing, a white not a dry eye.” lawyer named Charles Morgan gave a talk 148 Cynthia, denise, Carole, and addie Mae to a club for young white Birmingham busi- were not the only black children killed in nessmen. he told them, “The death of those Birmingham on september 15, 1963. Virgil four little girls was your fault as much as it Ware, thirteen, was riding on the handle- was the guy who made the bomb… Most of MW.WGAJ Chapter 14:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:42 PM Page 149

all, blame all who looked the other way. and increasingly secure equal opportunity every person in this community who has in for all of america’s citizens—opportunities any way contributed…to the popularity of to work, go to school, live, shop, and vote as hatred is at least as guilty, or more so, than they please. the demented fool who threw that bomb… The process to establish equal rights for We are a mass of intolerance and bigotry.” all cost many lives and took longer than Five weeks later, deluged by death threats everyone had hoped. Yet, beginning on the after these remarks, Morgan and his family morning that audrey Faye hendricks woke left Birmingham for good. up with freedom on her mind, she, Wash, Three men were ultimately charged in James, arnetta, and about four thousand the church bombing, though not until other young blacks freed more people than many years later. “dynamite Bob” Chamb- they could have imagined. They were only liss, who had also bombed shuttlesworth’s four individuals amid thousands, but every home in 1956, was convicted of murder in one had a job to do. 1977; Thomas Blanton Jr., in 2001; and as one of the youngest marchers, , in 2002. One of the audrey embodied the fearlessness of a child lead prosecutors in Blanton’s and Cherry’s determined to get what’s fair. as a leader cases was a white lawyer who had grown who became involved in the Movement up in Birmingham. he was a child at the early on, arnetta modeled the ideals of non- time of the church bombing, and, like many violent direct action. as the first protester young whites, was completely unaware of out the church door, James displayed the it at the time. risks teens were willing to take to be free. and, as a “bad boy” whose faith embold- ened him, Wash acted out of outrage but CIVIL RIGHTS also with redemption. The tragedy propelled President Kennedy In the battle for civil rights, each was a and his successor, President lyndon B. foot soldier. each is a war hero. Johnson, to push relentlessly for the Civil rights Bill, which became law the following 149 summer. In the years after that, more leg- islation, court decisions, marches, sit-ins, pickets, and pray-ins were required to seek MW.WGAJ Chapter15:Layout110/26/111:35PMPage150 Chapter FiFteen bombings, All Souls Church, Sixteenth Street, Washington, DC; (inset) Audrey Faye Hendricks, age 19 Congress of Racial Equality conducts a march in memory of Negro youngsters killed in Birmingham MW.WGAJ Chapter 15:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:35 PM Page 151

aFterWOrLD

AFTERWORD

Through The indigniTies they suffered, the risks they took, and the successes they achieved, Audrey, Wash, James, and Arnetta transformed Birmingham and America, as well as themselves. reverend Abraham Lin- coln Woods said that, as a result of the Children’s March, “The young people recognized their ‘somebody-ness.’” our four heroes grabbed hold of the rights they secured and continued to grow into somebodies.

AUDREY

When she graduated from Center street elementary, Audrey vol- unteered to join the first class to integrate ramsey high school. “For the first two weeks, we all sat in the auditorium,” she said, “because they didn’t quite 151 know what to do with us. i wasn’t Audrey. i was part of the ‘nigra’ children group. MW.WGAJ Chapter 15:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:35 PM Page 152

Teachers [said], ‘now, you nigra chil- Birmingham, where she worked for more dren, you go over there and sit down.’ There than twenty-five years with young children were fights; there was resentment. it took from low-income families. her sister, Jan, a while for whites and blacks to work described Audrey as “an advocate for chil- together. But it was what we fought for.” dren” and said that her career “gave her a Audrey’s mother also benefited from her sense of purpose.” schools around the coun- daughter’s and her own work for the Move- try invited the youngest marcher to talk ment. she was one of the first blacks hired about her experiences; one presented by the federal government in Birmingham. Audrey with a new board game. in 2007, Mrs. hendricks was elated when managers she earned a master’s degree. her thesis “warned the white [employees] that…if they focused on women—like herself, her participated in any way in opposing integra- mother, and Mrs. robey—who were active tion of the work force, they would be fired.” in the civil rights movement. Audrey Faye Audrey attended college and held her hendricks, known as the Civil rights first professional job in dallas, Texas. After Queen, died in Birmingham in 2009. eight years there, she was drawn back to WASH

Wash was kicked out of school for the last time during his senior year of high school, shortly before graduation but after his offi- cial photograph was taken. he joined the Marine Corps in 1968, and served as a combat soldier in Vietnam, where he once spent four days under artillery fire. A year later, after being recommended twice for a silver star and awarded a Bronze star with Combat-V, he says, he “came back militant.” he and his buddies assumed 152 that, while they were fighting, “America had become a fair and a more just place and that black people now shared equally Washington Booker III, age 17 in the American dream.” What he discov- MW.WGAJ Chapter 15:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:35 PM Page 153

ered when he returned, instead, was “ram- has a constitutional right to defend himself.’” pant police brutality.” even worse, “i didn’t Later, Wash earned a high school see…unity among black people.” diploma through the graduate equivalency in response, he helped found the Ala- degree program, joined the Birmingham bama Black Liberation Front, affiliated Fire department as one of its first black with the radical . his firemen, fought forest fires, directed a trav- organization started breakfast-for-kids pro- eling theater troupe called the Black Fire grams and followed the police on their Company, and won a state competition to patrols to be sure they provided due process teach poetry for a year in a suburban school to suspects. district. After teaching, he campaigned for “We would get in [our] car and get right richard Arrington, who was elected Birm- behind them,” he says. “And if they would ingham’s first black mayor in 1979. At cam- stop anybody, we’d get out and…say, ‘You paign headquarters, Wash explained, “i have to read him his rights…’ They [the started doing everything from taking out police] were really stunned because here was the trash to writing a radio spot…and i ain’t some black men in Birmingham, Alabama, been home since.” walking up to the police, saying ‘This man he remains active in politics, consulting on campaigns and working to be sure eligi- ble voters are registered and go to the polls. he is married and helped raise three chil- dren. Although he didn’t officially graduate from ullman high school, his classmates asked him to speak at their thirtieth class reunion. About the children’s marches, Wash says, “it’s just a blessing to have been there.”

JAMES 153 At the suggestion of members of the American Friends service Committee, a Quaker group Washington Booker III, 2010 that helped southern blacks go to college in the north, James attended Case Western MW.WGAJ Chapter 15:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:35 PM Page 154

reserve university in Cleveland, ohio, uate school in detroit, Michigan, but was after he graduated from ullman. “i wanted drafted. After two years in the army, he to get as far away from Birmingham as returned to Birmingham to work as health i possibly could,” he said. At first, he found director for head start’s health services. he the move shocking. he discovered that also cofounded the statewide sickle Cell Ane- white students there walked, talked, and mia Project for children with this disease. danced differently than he was used to. Later, he worked with the university of Ala- More important, in his first chemistry class, bama at Birmingham’s Project Black Aware- he was expected to use lab equipment that ness, which recruited and counseled black he’d never seen before; ullman hadn’t pro- students to go to college and graduate school. vided them. “i was an A student,” James in 1986, James began a career in pharmaceu- said about his high school years, “and took ticals in Atlanta, georgia, where he lives. advantage of everything that was given to James is married, and he and his wife me, and it was all substandard.” have four grown children. When he visits As he had at home, James quickly became Birmingham, he gets together with Wash and a leader, cofounding the university’s Black Arnetta. he still eats Three Musketeers student union Association. he entered grad- candy bars and owns the flag he waved on the day he was told he could go back to school.

James Stewart, 2010

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James Stewart in college MW.WGAJ Chapter 15:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:35 PM Page 155

ARNETTA

After graduating from ullman high school, Arnetta went to Miles College. she then earned a master’s degree in elementary education with an emphasis on mathemat- ics from the university of Alabama at Birm- ingham. she taught mathematics at white middle schools in the city for several years. Then, even though the classes were larger Arnetta Streeter Gary, 2010 and the equipment scarcer, she requested a transfer to a predominantly black school.

“i wanted to work with my own children,” she says. After thirty-two years, she retired from the Birmingham Public schools and until 2011, taught mathemat- ics at Miles College. “i feel like being an educator is a blessing the Lord gives you,” Arnetta says about her years working with young people. she and her husband, Walter, have one son. Arnetta also facilitates an after-school program at the Birmingham Civil rights institute (BCri) where she sometimes sees her favorite teacher, Miss Woolfolk. she also remains in touch with one of the other Peace Ponies. Looking back, Arnetta says, “We had no idea the change that was 155 going to come about. it was god’s time to make a change.”

Arnetta Streeter Gary, age 19 MW.WGAJ Chapter 15:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:35 PM Page 156

ONWARD Birmingham have been appointed to the police force and elected to city council and the Participation in the civil rights movement mayor’s office over the years; the city’s polit- changed the lives of Audrey, Wash, James, ical structure has become considerably more and Arnetta, and made them proud of what integrated. Today, Kelly ingram Park is ded- they achieved. Audrey said, “i see black peo- icated to the events that occurred there in ple walking down the street in their suits and 1963, which are depicted in statues scattered ties, [and i] say, ‘hmm. i had a part in that.’” around the park. Wash knows that “the Movement would The Birmingham Civil rights institute, have died…had it not been for us… We a resource and education organization that changed the course of history.” he believes promotes human rights, sits across the that “the most important benefit was the self- street from the park and sixteenth street esteem it gave black people, the feeling that Baptist Church. At the forty-fifth reunion of we can do something.” the foot soldiers in 2008, a marcher But Audrey, Wash, James, and Arnetta summed up the changes, saying “We’ve also have deep concerns. Young blacks today, come a long way… We have moved the [seg- they said, are not fulfilling the mission the regation] sign off the bus. We have moved demonstrators aimed for in 1963. Arnetta from the back of the bus to the front. We are says that some black children today, “don’t driving the bus.” realize how far they’ve come;” she worries that, “they’re not taking advantage of it.” FORWARD Their fellow marcher gwendolyn sanders fears that high dropout rates and high levels Audrey, Wash, James, and Arnetta showed of violence in black communities “abuse all that today’s problems need not be tomorrow’s. the things that we went to jail for and that “With commitment, things can change,” dr. King and so many others lost their lives Audrey said. for.” Audrey admitted, “When my own people Whose commitment? are not doing well, it grieves my heart. it Children, James said, “are not too young 156 grieves my heart.” to be involved in what’s going on around nevertheless, all agree with James, who them. We, as children, got involved in what said that President obama “stood on the would appear to be adult issues. one of the shoulders of civil rights” to attain his level primary reasons it worked was that we were of education and political office. Blacks in children. And god’s hand was upon us.” MW.WGAJ Chapter 16 backmatter:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:34 PM Page 157

author’s note

What happened? That’s the basic question about history, whether an event took place thousands of years or only minutes ago. And it’s one of the hardest questions in the world to answer, even when people who saw it happen are still around to tell the story. Sometimes witnesses and partic- ipants make it even harder to know! That’s because three people looking at the same event can see it from three different angles. Over time, as their memories shift and opinions harden, they might relate dramati- cally different accounts of what happened. This process is nearly inevitable, especially when the participants were frightened at the time of the event, as were most of the four thousand or so young marchers who lived in Birmingham during the civil rights movement. Occasionally, the recollections that Audrey, Wash, James, Arnetta, and others shared with me differed from the written record. In these cases, I asked more questions, read more books and newspapers, studied more maps and photographs. This work was also necessary because many original records of the events were destroyed. History is facts. History is also stories. In merging participants’ memories with many other sources, my guidepost was always to tell their stories as truly as possible. In doing so, I used my judgment but the stories remain theirs not mine. Why did I choose to tell them? Like Wash, James, and Arnetta (and even more like Charles, Susan, and Pam), I was a teenager in 1963, living in Ohio. Although I read news- paper articles about the marches, hoses, and dogs, it wasn’t until I was an adult, writing about music in the civil rights period for Cobblestone magazine, that I learned the heart of the story: all of the protesters assaulted and jailed that May were children. How could I not have known? I had even taught American history to junior-high and high 157 school students! My ignorance embarrassed me. Many people, I realized, needed to know how a Children’s March changed American history. So, I set out to learn what happened. MW.WGAJ Chapter 16 backmatter:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:34 PM Page 158

1944 1961 - 1962 Birmingham adopts first set of Segregation Ordinances. Civil rights campaign in Albany, Georgia fails. Activists question Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s leadership. 1956

JUNE: Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth founds the Alabama 1962 Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR). Commissioners close public parks. Audrey’s mother becomes Corresponding Secretary; the Hendricks family attends weekly meetings. College students begin Selective Buying Campaign.

Voters approve change in city government. Following desegregation of buses in Montgomery, Alabama, Shuttlesworth demands that Birmingham desegregate buses. Shuttlesworth’s home is bombed. He and Audrey’s father sit in the front of 1963

a bus and are arrested. King and Shuttlesworth plan to desegregate Birmingham by filling the jails. 1957 Albert Boutwell elected mayor. Commissioners When Shuttlesworth tries to enroll his refuse to leave office. Birmingham has two govern- children in a white high school, he is beaten. Arnetta’s ments. father tries to persuade her and her sister to enroll in a white school. They refuse. Project C begins. College students organize daily TIMELINE sit-ins, pickets, and marches, which James observes. 1959 Audrey’s mother asks Bull Connor for permit to march; he refuses. Audrey’s parents sue Birmingham to desegregate public parks. ACMHR issues “Points for Progress” and begins holding nightly mass meetings, which Audrey attends. 1961 Arnetta hears King’s sermon this week and she and Freedom Riders are severely beaten in Birming- Peace Ponies begin training in nonviolence. ham. Audrey’s father rescues other Freedom Riders in Anniston, Alabama. King and others march, defying an injunction, 158 and are jailed. Few other adults are jailed; Reverend Court desegregates public parks. City James Bevel encourages children to join protests. Commissioners appeal the decision; they are re-elected to four-year terms. Arnetta participates in her first demonstration. MW.WGAJ Chapter 16 backmatter:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:34 PM Page 159

1963 cont. King is released from jail. Arnetta pickets may 10: Negotiators announce compromise settlement, and is jailed. desegregating lunch counters and dressing rooms; status of students is unclear. Wash is released from jail. Arnetta is released from jail and testifies at a youth rally. may 11: Ku Klux Klan holds rally. A. D. King’s home and Gaston Motel are bombed. Wash joins ensuing Few adults are demonstrating. Jails are not riot, which Audrey and Arnetta observe. filled. Project C is about to collapse. may 20: James and over 1,000 other students are Audrey tells her mother she wants to march. expelled from school. The Movement sues.

D-Day. James and Audrey march and are jailed may 22: James learns that the students are re-admitted. with hundreds of other students may 23: Boutwell is declared mayor. Connor is ousted Double D-Day. Arnetta is hosed. Other students from office. are bitten by dogs, and hundreds more are jailed. Wash throws rocks at the police. JUNE 11: President Kennedy gives speech on civil rights and soon submits a civil rights bill to Congress. Riots break out. President Kennedy sends negotiator to Birmingham. JUly 23: Birmingham rescinds the Segregation Ordinances.

Miracle Sunday. Firemen refuse to hose marchers. SUmmEr: Arnetta desegregates restaurants and movie James is released from jail. theaters, and Wash eats ice cream at a lunch counter. Students around the country hold protests. may 6: Wash marches and is arrested. Jails are filled. James appears in court. aUgUSt 28: James attends March on Washington.

may 7: Operation Confusion/Jubilee Day. Protesters fill SEptEmbEr 15: Sixteenth Street Baptist Church is downtown. Shuttlesworth is hosed. Negotiators work bombed, killing four girls, and two boys are shot. Two all night. days later, James carries Carole Robertson’s casket.

may 8: ACMHR declares a 24-hour moratorium on protests, pending agreements. Audrey is released 159 from jail. 1964 JUly 2: President Johnson signs the Civil Rights may 9: Negotiators fail to reach agreement. Act of 1964. 22nd St. 22nd St. Birmingham Public Library Jefferson County Courthouse 21st St. 21st St. 1st Avenue N 1st Avenue

4th Avenue N 4th Avenue Audrey’s Route & Arrest, May 2 May Arrest, & Route Audrey’s James’s Route & Arrest, May 2 2 May Arrest, & Route James’s Parisian’s Dept. Store 20th St. 20th St. 6th Avenue N 6th Avenue 3rd Avenue N 3rd Avenue Kress 5 & 10 Woolworth’s Trailways Bus Depot RETAIL RETAIL DISTRICT DISTRICT City Hall 19th St. 19th St. 5th Avenue N 5th Avenue 2nd Avenue N 2nd Avenue s Alabama Theatre Bus Depot Greyhound

Pizitz Pizitz Wash’s Route, May 6 May Route, Wash’s 18th St. 18th St. —1960 Loveman’s Loveman’s Dept. Store Dept. Dept. Store Store Dept. Dept. Store Store Dept. May 3 s istrict Arnetta Hosed Newberry/Britt’s Arnetta’s First Route, April 20 20 April Route, First Arnetta’s SCLC Headquarters D

17th St. 17th Street A.O.H Church 17th St. 7th Avenue N 7th Avenue Park Park Kelly Kelly Ingram Ingram Carver 16th St. Theatre 16th St.

1st Avenue N 1st Avenue 4th Avenue N 4th Avenue 16th Street Motel

BLACK BUSINESS DISTRICT BUSINESS BLACK 15th St. Baptist Church 15th St. A.G. Gaston Birmingham Civil Birmingham owntown Metropolitan 6th Avenue N 6th Avenue 3rd Avenue N 3rd Avenue Rights Institute (1998) Institute Rights AME Zion Church D 1950 Alabama, Birmingham, Baptist Church 5th Avenue N 5th Avenue 14th St. N 2nd Avenue 14th St. 6th Ave. Zion Hill 160 MW.WGAJ Chapter 16 backmatter:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:34 PM Page 160 Page PM 1:34 10/26/11 1 backmatter:Layout 16 Chapter MW.WGAJ MW.WGAJ Chapter 16 backmatter:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:34 PM Page 161

tHAnK YoUs

HOW OFTeN DO yOu GeT to meet your heroes? And not just meet them but sit down and talk with them? Audrey Faye Hendricks, Washington Booker III, Arnetta Streeter Gary, and James W. Stewart are my heroes not only because of what they did when they were young but also because they want you to know their stories. Without the remarkably generous amounts of time, spirit, and candor they shared with me, this book would not exist. I am honored that they trusted me; I fervently hope they feel I have done them justice. Others I talked with at length— Ricky Shuttlesworth Bester, Richard Boone, Charles entrekin, Peter and Marian Wright edelman, Ben and ellen Cooper erdreich, Jan Hendricks Fuller, Cleopatra Goree, Stephen Grafman, Randy Kennedy, Bernard Lafayette, Hendry Lapedus, Robert and Faye Levin, Andrew Marrisett, Carolyn Maull McKinstry, Chris McNair, Diane McWhorter, Hobart McWhorter, earl Melton Jr., Pam Walbert Montanaro, , Robert Posey, Rickey Powell, Richard Rabinowitz, Bill Ricker, James Roberson, Dale Russakoff, Susan Levin Schlechter, Tish Oden Spaulding, Lamar Weaver, Gwendolyn Cook Webb, Tara White, Ruth Woods Williams, Abraham Lin- coln Woods, Odessa Woolfolk, Tommy Wrenn, among many—deepened the stories. Heroes come in many forms. Sometimes, they’re people who do their jobs exceedingly well. I am especially grateful to two archivists—Laura Anderson at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and Jim Baggett at the Birmingham Public Library. I cringe at the possibility that, despite their heroic efforts, errors might remain. Many thanks, too, to my agent-mates and critique partners in Austin— Lynn Brooks, Carole Buckman, Jean LeVitt, Mary Reilly, Polly Robertus—and in Boston—Hillary DeBaun, Joe Lawlor, Patrice Sherman—as well as to Jane Ann Baggett, a most astute young reader. I wish for everyone the great fortune of having a sister like mine, Judy Brachman, and friends like Joan Bailyn, Dinah Chenven, Dena Granof, Frances Hamermesh, Joan Hilgers, Frances Schenkkan, Dale Sonnenberg, and Roberta Wright, who literally cheered me through this process. To my family I am enduringly grateful; I wish blessings on them, just as their lives have blessed mine. each is an activist or activist-to-be of whom I am profoundly proud. 161 Finally, I extend deep gratitude to Chris Barton, who referred me to erin Murphy, who signed me on faith and led me to Kathy Landwehr, who taught me how to transform a manuscript into a book. MW.WGAJ Chapter 16 backmatter:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:34 PM Page 162

Abbreviations used JS: James Stewart, personal interview JS/BCRI James Stewart, BCRI oral history transcript in source notes Kasher: Steven Kasher, The Civil Rights Movement King: Martin Luther King Jr., Why We Can’t Wait AH: Audrey Hendricks, personal interview Lest: “Lest We Forget, I’m On My Way, Volume 2” AH/BCRI: Audrey Hendricks, BCRI oral history Levine: ellen Levine, Freedom’s Young Children transcript LH/BCRI: , BCRI oral history transcript ASG: Arnetta Streeter Gary, personal interview Manis: Andrew Manis, A Fire You Can’t Put Out ASG/BCRI: Arnetta Streeter Gary, BCRI oral history McWhorter: Diane McWhorter, Carry Me Home transcript Mighty: Mighty Times: The Children’s March AW: Abraham Woods, personal interview MLK: Martin Luther King Jr. BL: Bernard Lafayette, personal interview Nunnelley: William A. Nunnelley, Bull Connor. BN: Birmingham News NyT: New York Times Branch: , Parting the Waters Pacifica: Pacifica Radio Archive BW: Birmingham World PWM: Pam Walbert Montanaro, personal interview Ce: Charles entrekin, personal interview RBPC: Ruth Barefield-Pendleton Collection (refers to CM: Carolyn McKinstrey, personal interview papers available in the box with this name at the CM/BCRI: Carolyn McKinstrey, BCRI oral history BCRI.) transcript SLS: Susan Levin Schlechter, personal interview CP: Connor Papers, Main Branch, Birmingham Public Stanton: Mary Stanton, Freedom Walk Library. (Note: “Connor Papers” refers to the Birm- Sznajderman: Michael Sznajderman, A Dangerous ingham Police Department Inter-Office Communica- Business tion memoranda prepared by police officers who attended mass meetings.) Thornton: J. Mills Thornton, Dividing Lines DM: Diane McWhorter, personal interview ulrich: Joyce ulrich, We Were the Heart of the Struggle eskew: Glenn eskew, But for Birmingham Vaught: Seneca Vaught, Narrow Cells and Lost Keys eyes: Eyes on the Prize WB: Washington Booker, personal interview eF/BCRI: elizabeth Fitts, BCRI oral history transcript WB/BCRI: Washington Booker, BCRI oral history transcript eW/BCRI: eileen Walbert, BCRI oral history transcript West: Carroll Van West, The Civil Rights Movement Force: A Force More Powerful in Birmingham, Alabama, 1933–1979 GCW: Gwen Cook Webb, personal interview White: Marjorie White, Walk to Freedom GSG/BCRI: Gwendolyn Sanders Gamble, BCRI oral history transcript • “BCRI” refers to the Birmingham Civil Rights Harris: W. edward Harris, Miracle in Birmingham Institute. Citations notated “BCRI” refer to inter- 162 Hampton: Henry Hampton and Steve Fayer, views conducted under the auspices of and available Voices of Freedom through the Institute. Holt: Len Holt, Eyewitness Huntley: Horace Huntley, Foot Soldiers for Democracy JHF: Jan Hendricks Fuller, personal interview MW.WGAJ Chapter 16 backmatter:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:34 PM Page 163

notEs 16 “The police gonna get you”: WB/BCRI, p. 9 16 “everyone thought…to do”: earl Melton, Jr., per- sonal interview, Jan. 11, 2008 18 “If a call…hear it”: McWhorter, p. 205 19 “your fifteen…are coming”: McWhorter, p. 207 Prologue / “I Want To Go To Jail” 19 “It was…we couldn’t”: WB/BCRI, p. 5 PaGE 2 “I want…to jail”: AH, 1/12/2008 Chapter Three / James W. Stewart 2 “you’ll be fine”: AH, 1/12/2008 PaGE 22 “everyone lived…one another”: JS/BCRI, p. 3 Chapter One / audrey Faye Hendricks 22 “They expected…with them”: JS, 1/28/09 PaGE 22 “you and your…anybody else”: JS, 1/28/09 6 “We [are] comfortable…sitting”: Huntley, p. 48 22 “I really didn’t…to survive”: JS/BCRI, p. 4 6 “What we…nigger?”: Huntley, p. 48 22 “We went…straight As”: JS/BCRI, p. 4 6 “There [wasn’t]…wasn’t at”: AH, 1/12/08 22 “He was…our lives”: JS/BCRI, p. 4 6 “It was…part of it”: AH/BCRI, p. 6 22 “The fellows…accept that”: JS/BCRI, p. 4 8 separate accommodations…races: Plessy v. Fergu- 23 “As a…‘high yellow’”: JS 1/28/09 son, 163 u. S. 537 23 “you had to be a certain color”: JS/BCRI, p. 4 9 “We have…golf course”: Pacifica 23 “If you…stick around”: Colonel Stone Johnson, 10 Dollars and Sense: poem by C. Herbert Oliver, BCRI oral history transcript, p. 6 1962, in Lola Hendricks Box, BCRI 23 “If you…all right”: McWhorter, pp. 87–88 10 “There was…of giving”: AH, 1/12/08 23 “call someone…fighting words”: JS/BCRI, p. 3 11 “Mike (that’s)…cookin’, Lola?”: AH, 1/12/08 23 “make references…was acceptable”: JS/BCRI, p. 3 11 “I was…was unbelievable”: AH, 1/12/08 23 “middle-class blacks…losing everything”: JS, 12/16/10 Chapter Two / Washington Booker, III 23 “This means…else has”: eskew, p. 123 PaGE 24 helplessness and hopelessness: eskew, p. 124 13 “It was…no light”: WB/BCRI, p. 8 24 “Our citizens…here tonight”: eskew, p. 125 13 “We had…cowboy gun”: WB/BCRI, p. 7 24 “express publicly…class citizenship”: White, p. 3 14 “If you…my life”: WB/BCRI, p. 7 24 “the Wild Man of Birmingham”: “Rev. Fred L. 14 “Loveman’s Village…got cold”: WB/BCRI, p. 8 Shuttlesworth, 89, Dies; Fought on Front Lines for 14 “you’d walk…cool air”: WB, 6/12/10 Civil Rights”; NyT, 10/6/11 14 “There would…lived in”: WB/BCRI, p. 8 24 “Now just…me Himself”: eskew, p. 125 14 “More than…standing up”: WB/BCRI, p. 11 25 “Many of…with us”: eskew, p. 127 14 “you’re not…the door”: WB, 1/23/09 25 “The middle-class…patronizing them”: JS, 15 “My friends…railroad tracks”: WB, 5/12/08 and 12/16/10 4/12/10 25 “a white man…‘hell no’”: eskew, p. 124 15 “It was…adventure”: WB, 6/12/10 26 “No one…Jim Crow laws”: JS/BCRI, p. 4 15 “My mother…do it”: WB, 5/12/08 26 “I was…was alone”: JS/BCRI, p. 5 16 “the doctrine…and insolent”: Thornton, pp. 153– 26 “I heard…went by”: JS/BCRI, p. 5 54 26 “That is…be confined”: JS/BCRI, p. 6 163 16 “explosive, vindictive…he has”: Thornton, p. 181 27 “There was…to resist”: JS, 2/16/09 and p. 152 27 “I began…a change”: JS/BCRI, p. 7 16 “the ultimate terror”: WB/BCRI, p. 9 27 “I felt…it all!”: JS, 2/16/09 16 “you saw…was automatic”: WB, 6/11/10 16 “It was…to death”: WB/BCRI, p. 9 MW.WGAJ Chapter 16 backmatter:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:34 PM Page 164

Chapter Four / arnetta Streeter 41 “The Negroes…moving, Birmingham”: Ralph PaGE Abernathy in Lest 29 “very, very strict”: ASG/BCRI, p. 2 41 “We would…with you’”: Huntley, p. 48 29 “unless you…to tell”: ASG/BCRI, p. 6 41 “you all…are tomorrow”: LH/BCRI, p. 10 30 “When they…my feelings”: ASG/BCRI, p. 6 42 “To be…the Klan”: White, p. 20 30 “I was…to pass”: ASG/BCRI, p. 7 42 “There is…be it”: JS/BCRI, p. 8 30 “you are …God”: ASG, 6/11/10 42 “We knew…racial problem”: JS/BCRI, pp. 8–9 30 “We…been an issue”: ASG/BCRI, p. 6 42 “We just…be back outside”: WB/BCRI, p. 12 and 30 “We had a fit”: ASG/BCRI, p. 4 WB 1/23/09 30 “My father…to elyton”: ASG/BCRI, pp. 3–4 42 “We didn’t know anything about no Dr. King”: WB 30 “We were…part of it”: ASG, 4/28/10 1/23/09 31 “[M]y daddy…on our daddy”: ASG/BCRI, p. 6 43 “Without knowing…deliver you”: WB, 5/12/08 31 “you don’t…with you”: ASG/BCRI, p. 6 44 “bombastic and abusive”: Thornton, p. 259 31 “My daddy…have cried’”: ASG/BCRI, p. 6 44 “I never…my life”: Thornton, p. 259 32 “I remember…our club”: ASG/BCRI, pp. 8–9 44 “New Day Dawns for Birmingham”: Thornton, 32 “It was…the Movement”: ASG, 10/24/09 p. 290 32 “[W]hen we…right then”: ASG/BCRI, p. 8 32 “To retaliate…our lives”: eyes Chapter Six / Project C 32 “you hate…the person”: Richard Boone, personal PaGE interview, 5/10/08 47 “We are…in Birmingham”: MLK in CP, 4/5/63, 33 “was a…think hard”: Reverend Tony Cooper in p. 3. SPLC 48 “there comes…and justice”: McWhorter, p. 94 33 “They prepared…‘No comment’”: ASG, 10/24/09 49 “Tell Martin…the world”: Branch, pp. 271–73 33 “We practiced…as much”: ASG/BCRI, p. 17 and 49 “destined to…our time”: Branch, p. 276 ASG, 10/24/09 49 “Let us…the South”: Branch, p. 276 34 “They told…hitting us”: ASG, 10/24/09 50 “Don’t get…to suffer”: eskew, p. 44 34 “Catch me a nigger by the toe”: york 50 stunning defeat: Branch, p. 557 34 “We didn’t…they did”: BL, 6/4/08 50 “The next…leave you”: eskew, p. 47 34 “easier for…thing to do?”: BL, 6/4/08 51 “King was…own people”: eskew, p. 52 34 “Nonviolence means…were warriors”: Bernard 51 “Thank you”: ulrich Lafayette in york 51 Manifesto: McWhorter, p. 328 35 sing but not slay: King, p. 49 51 The Negro…thrust are: Press Release, Alabama 35 “They taught…be afraid”: ASG, 10/24/09 Christian Movement for Human Rights, April 8, 35 “We had…not use you”: ASG, 10/24/09 1963; RBPC 35 “We could…the demonstrations”: ASG/BCRI, p. 8 52 “an orderly walk”: eskew, p. 225 53 Integration Drive Slows: “4 Negroes Jailed in Chapter Five / Collision Course Birmingham As the Integration Drive Slows”; PaGE NyT, 4/5/63 38 “We could…with whites”: WB, 4/12/10 53 Mass Demonstrations Fail to Develop: “10 More 39 “the Negro Church…is won”: West, p. 30 Negroes Seized in Birmingham Sit-Ins”; NyT, 164 39 “I don’t…the meeting”: AH/BCRI, p. 6 4/6/63 39 “A typical…caring, and sharing”: GSG/BCRI, p. 6 53 “It stinks…go home?”: “Negroes uniting in Birm- 39 “every mass…the floors”: JS/BCRI, p. 8 ingham”; NyT, 4/11/63 40 “Being a…and inside”: GSG/BCRI, p. 9 54 much of…responsible citizens: BW, 4/10/63 40 “We saw…of town”: JS/BCRI, p. 8 54 “mass-action stunts”: BW, 4/10/63 and Thornton, 41 “numerous times”: ASG, 4/24/09 p. 298 MW.WGAJ Chapter 16 backmatter:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:34 PM Page 165

55 “ignoring the…the fight”: eskew, p. 229 63 “I lied…to jail”: ASG, 10/24/09 55 “the Klan…are not”: White, p. 2 63 “We were…in here?”: ASG, 10/31/09 55 the campaign…temporarily abandoned: “10 More 63 “I want my freedom”: ASG/BCRI, p. 11 Negroes Seized in Birmingham Sit-Ins”; NyT, 63 “She thought…smart-mouthed”: ASG, 10/31/09 4/6/63 63 “in a…to sit”: ASG, 10/24/09 55 “We are…in Birmingham”: eskew p. 230 63 “The food…extra duties”: ASG/BCRI, p. 12 55 “Can’t the…to jail”: Thomas T. Coley in the Birm- 63 “We sang…calmed down”: ASG, 6/11/10 ingham Post-Herald, April 18, 1963. 63 “I had…looked back”: ASG/BCRI, p. 13 www.pbs.rg/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/story/ 64 “What am…the demonstration?”: ASG, 10/31/09 07_c.html 64 “you tell…being hardheaded”: ASG, 10/31/09 55 “We recognize…and untimely”: Thornton, p. 303 64 “you’ve done…this alone”: ASG, 10/31/09 56 “Perhaps the…be reconsidered”: Robert F. 65 “They were…of us”: ASG, 6/11/10 Kennedy in eyes 65 “Keep on…on picketing”: Stanton, p. 99 56 “We’re tired…it now”: “The Birmingham Story: 66 End Segregation in America: Branch, p. 748 Segregation is Teetering under Fire”; NyT, 66 “run out…could go”: eskew, p. 261 5/26/63 66 “As a responsible…school hours”: Manis, p. 368 56 “There isn’t…Mr. Boutwell”: Thornton, p. 286 66 “Sometimes you…them enslaved”: Manis, p. 366 56 “monstrous legislation”: McWhorter, p. 313 68 “you are…to march”: Manis, p. 366 56 “to stir inter-racial discord”: eskew, p. 222 68 to walk…the law: “Petition for Permit”; RBPC 56 “We will…to Birmingham”, Thornton, p. 305 68 “lot of …do something”: Gwen Cook Webb in 56 “Boutwell’s not…’bout well”: Woods 5/11/08 Mighty 56 I have…man’s freedom: MLK, “Letter from Birm- 68 “How I…my business”: James Bevel in Mighty ingham Jail” 68 “We got…we got”: McWhorter, p. 363 56 “‘Wait’ has…meant ‘Never’”: eyes 69 “It will…we want”: eskew, p. 263 56 “The time…do right”: CP, 4/5/63, p. 4 69 “We are…to march”: eskew, p. 263 57 from engaging…the peace: eskew, p. 237 69 “Nobody stood…us kids”: Gwendolyn Sanders 57 Good Friday…is lost: King, p. 59 Gamble in Mighty 58 “if the…Constitutional Mandate”: “Ledger: Strat- 69 the utter…a dungeon: King, p. 61 egy Committee of The Alabama Christian Move- 69 “It was…let go”: ASG, 6/11/10 ment for Human Rights and Southern Christian 69 “just got…said, ‘OK’”: AH, 1/12/08 Leadership Conference”; RBPC 69 “When we…of this”: CM, 1/10/08 58 “Stop them”: eskew, pp. 241–42 69 “It was…started rolling”: CM, 1/10/08 59 “chicken-eating…Baptist preacher”: “James L. Bevel, 72, An Advisor To King”; NyT, 12/23/2008 Chapter Eight / May 2. D-Day 59 “He had…than us”: JS/BCRI, p. 7 PaGE 59 “Birmingham is sick…stop us”: eskew, p. 242 71 “Good goobly woobly!”: McWhorter, p. 360 59 “The Negro…and walked”: Branch, p. 735 71 “Timberrrr, let it fall!”: McWhorter, p. 360 59 “became the…young people”: JS, 1/28/09 71 “Kids, there’s…be served”: Mighty 59 “Some of…segregated school”: eskew, p. 242 72 “We never…the destination”: GSG/BCRI, p. 14 72 “It’s here…the movement”: ASG/BCRI, p. 15 Chapter Seven / The Foot Soldiers 72 “running around…cut off”: ASG/BCRI, p. 15 165 PaGE 72 “A number…in jeopardy”: ASG/BCRI, p. 15 61 “[y]ou are…with him”: Hampton, pp. 131–132 72 “And sitting…a stand”: Odessa Woolfolk, personal 62 “A boy…the job”: Hampton, p. 131 interview, 1/10/08 62 boy in high school: Hampton, p. 132 73 “I had…my left”: Andrew Marrisett, personal 63 “The next...first time”: ASG/BCRI, p. 10 interview, 5/10/08 MW.WGAJ Chapter 16 backmatter:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:34 PM Page 166

73 “The more…a waterfall”: Gwen Cook Webb in 86 “My people…help them”: McWhorter, p. 371 Mighty 87 “Nobody forced…you here”: AH, 1/12/08 73 “It was…pep rally”: Mighty 87 “My head…the keys”: JS, 1/28/09 73 “My girlfriend…wasn’t there”: AH, 1/12/08 87 “there’s nobody…set in”: JS, 1/28/09 73 “I didn’t have any fear”: AH, 1/12/08 88 “jumped up…slow down’”: JS/BCRI, p. 11 73 “freedom fighters…as soldiers”: Manis, p. 369 88 “they put...put them”: JS/BCRI, p. 11 73 “They asked…unanswered questions”: JS, 88 “When they…back up” JS, 6/10/10 12/15/08 88 “you had…not edible”: JS, 1/28/09 74 “We were…to do”: JS/BCRI, p. 10 88 “didn’t take…a doctor”: JS, 10/20/09 74 “When the…all around”: JS, 12/15/08 89 “We have…praise them”: Branch, p. 763 74 “We walked…were confronted”: JS, 12/15/08 89 “your daughters…better nation”: Branch, p. 763 75 “So, Gertrude…didn’t disperse”: JS/BCRI, p. 10 75 “Connor told…to jail”: JS, 1/28/09 Chapter Ten / Views From Other Sides 75 “Leaving out…just overwhelming”: ASG/BCRI, PaGE p. 16 91 “I was…know us”: JS/BCRI, p. 11 75 “The singing…radio is”: AH, 1/12/08 and 91 “The great…want integration”: Bull Connor in AH/BCRI, p. 9 Nunnelley, p. 112 75 “run out of niggers”: McWhorter, p. 365 92 “All of …the jungles”: Col. William S. Pritchard in 75 “God A’mighty”: McWhorter, p. 367 Harris, p. 76 76 “When is…stop this”: Fitts, p. 19 93 “To break…future generations”: Reverend Joseph 77 “I have…badly mistaken”: McWhorter, p. 368 ellwanger in Hampton, p. 127 77 “This is…so great”: CP, 5/3/63, p. 3 93 “We were…black race”: Ce, 6/16/10 77 “go to…to freedom”: CP, 5/3/63, p. 5 93 “the nigger…memory only”: McWhorter, p. 279 79 “you’ve done…this alone”: ASG, 10/31/09 93 “it was…of whites”: PWM 79 “They gave…one sheet”: AH, 1/12/08 94 “were enjoying…were impoverished”: AW, 1/13/08 79 “Isn’t that…would go”: JS/BCRI, p. 13 94 “They were…to blacks”: Ce, 6/16/10 79 “[W]e saw…vicious murderers” WB, 5/12/08 95 walked out…of demonstrators: “Demonstrations said suspended,” BN, May 4, 1963 Chapter Nine / May 3. Double D-Day 95 thousands of…department stores: BN 5/8/63a PaGE 95 “I cannot…younger children”: “Demonstrations 82 “If you…good cause”: eskew, p. 266 said suspended,” BN, May 4, 1963 82 “Disperse…get wet”: Branch, p. 758 95 “An injured…dangerous business”: “Demonstra- 82 “Let ’em have it!”: White, p. 59 tions said suspended,” BN, May 4, 1963 82 “the little…was piercing”: ASG/BCRI, p. 17 and 95 “We didn’t…fomenting problems”: Ce, 6/16/10 ASG, 10/31/09 95 “local Negro…their mischief”: “Boutwell warns 82 “Once that…breath away”: GSG/BCRI, p. 20 ‘outside agitators,’” BN, April 4, 1963 83 “you wondered…so cruel”: Rickey Powell, personal 96 “‘Why don’t…is satisfied’”: Myrna Carter in interview, 1/10/08 Levine, p. 87 83 “My daddy…father killed’”: ASG, 10/24/09 97 “Many white…the open”: CP, 4/5/63, p. 2 84 “stood on…the police”: WB, 10/7/08 97 “absolutely didn’t…like it”: Jamie Moore, BCRI 166 84 “We would…a blow”: WB, 1/23/09 oral history transcript, p. 14 84 “We were…to jail”: WB, 6/12/10 97 “Ten or…you be?’”: eskew, p. 268 84 “Somebody in…of myself”: WB, 5/12/08 97 The ultimate…good people: King, p. 36 84 “Don’t cry…they want”: McWhorter, p. 372 97 “A few…change things”: eW/BCRI, p. 5 84 “No one…was frightened”: GSG/BCRI, p. 20 98 “These people…news media”: Ce, 6/16/10 85 “an officer…on me”: JS, 10/20/09 98 “Culture is…lied to”: Ce, 7/8/08 MW.WGAJ Chapter 16 backmatter:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:35 PM Page 167

98 “It’s like…to you”: PWM 110 Fight for…our country: “Birmingham Jails 1,000 98 “nigger-knocking in nigger-town”: McWhorter More Negroes”; NyT, 5/7/63 12/3/09 111 “I knew…to jail”: WB, 6/12/10 99 “I don’t…against integration”: Mighty 111 “When we…was on!”: WB, 5/2/08 99 “I was…we didn’t”: SLS 111 “Gotta go…gotta go”: Huntley, p. xxx 99 “There’s trouble…go”: SLS 111 “The whole…watching you”: McWhorter, p. 392 99 “In Alabama…get out”: WB/BCRI, p. 18 111 “I should…at home”: WB, 6/12/10 99 “They weren’t…reading them”: Ce, 6/16/10 111 “Do you…under arrest”: Holt, p. 796 100 “The editors…go away”: BN 2/26/06 112 “I didn’t…of liberation”: WB, 5/12/08 100 “The teacher…into it”: PWM 112 “First they…nappy-headed children”: WB/BCRI, 100 “I was…it changing”: PWM p. 15 100 “I told…from heaven”: PWM 113 “maybe five hundred…to us”: WB, 5/12/08 101 “It was…Holy Spirit”: PWM 113 “We started…sang it”: WB, 5/12/08 113 “Some of…for us”: WB, 5/12/08 Chapter Eleven / May 4–6, 1963 113 “As the…rooms filled”: AH, 1/12/08 PaGE 113 “We would…filling up”: AH, 1/12/08 103 “He had…for me!”: JS, 10/20/09 113 “It was…wall us”: Vaught, p. 145 103 “[N]obody else…a group”: JS/BCRI, p. 13 114 “They were…and released”: ASG, 10/24/09 104 “He would…join in”: JS/BCRI, p. 13 114 “If you…movies downtown”: Coffey, p. 802 104 “when you’re…hearts out!”: Mighty, Teacher’s 114 “We all…steel coffin”: Miriam McClendon, BCRI Guide, p. 15 oral history transcript 104 “strolling Negroes”: Branch, p. 765 114 “The girls…this way”: Mary Hamilton in Pacifica 105 “Get off…the movement”: Hampton, p. 134 115 “This is…of mankind”: “Martin Luther King Jr. 105 “I’m with…like, wow”: eskew, p. 272 Speaking” on Lest 107 “there were…Martin King”: Burke Marshall in Manis, p. 374 Chapter Twelve / May 7–10, 1963 107 “I didn’t…basically there”: AH/BCRI, p. 10 and PaGE AH, 1/12/08 117 “[T]hose over…from school”: BN 5/8/63a 108 “We had…would sleep”: JS/BCRI p.11 117 “mark[ed] the…a dream”: “Negroes Routed At 108 “the toilet…four hundred people”: JS/BCRI, p. 11 Birmingham”; NyT, 5/8/63 108 “turned the…the day”: JS, 10/20/09 118 “They were…about it”: JS, 6/10/10 108 “I was at my wits’ end”: JS, 1/28/09 118 “It was…your budget”: WB, 5/12/08 108 “They…wanted…were Okay”: JS/BCRI, p. 13 118 “Once you…of you” Dick Gregory in Mighty 108 “No blacks…in Birmingham”: “Sing for Freedom,” 118 “Bull Connor…will be”: Manis, p. 377 Smithsonian Folkways, 1992 119 Negroes on…black faces: King, pp. 93–94 109 “We’re tired…just walk”: Branch, p. 766 119 “When they…I bathed”: Andrew Marrissett, per- 109 “you have…we can”: Manis, p. 374 sonal interview 109 “Turn on…we die”: McWhorter, p. 387 120 “What does…of things?”: eskew, p. 282 109 “Turn on…the hoses”: McWhorter, p. 387 120 “We want…want to”: CP, 5/9/63, p. 6 109 “you turn…do that”: West, p. 46 120 “After dinner…emancipation Proclamation”: CP, 109 “We’re here…not people”: McWhorter, p. 387 5/9/63, p. 5 167 109 “the parting of the Red Sea”: Manis, p. 375 120 outside agitators: McWhorter, p. 406 109 thirty seconds…Birmingham story: King, p. 90 120 “If we’re…of living”: eskew, p. 279 110 “The judge…get me”: JS, 1/28/09 and 10/20/09 121 “We’re not calling anything off”: McWhorter, p. 414 110 “Don’t you…down there”: WB, 5/12/08 121 “People have…their trouble”: Manis, p. 382 110 “When she…toward downtown”: WB, 5/12/08 122 “with what…the streets”: Manis, p. 383 MW.WGAJ Chapter 16 backmatter:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:35 PM Page 168

122 “Ain’t no…that hog”: Manis, p. 383 132 “We got out of there”: Sznajderman, p. 35 122 “A snake…bite you”: McWhorter, p. 415 132 “The battle…kill somebody”: JS, 2/10/10 122 “We got…have unity”: eskew, pp. 287–89 132 “Now if…not helping!”: Branch, p. 795 122 “We held…calm atmosphere”: eskew, p. 290 132 “Oh, God…this city”: Pacifica 123 “We are…be free”: CP, 5/9/63, p. 2 133 “We don’t…kill somebody”: “Statements by Wal- 123 “We came…your struggle”: CP, 5/9/63, p. 2 lace and Boutwell”; NyT, 5/13/63 123 “were sitting…the treatment”: CP, 5/9/63, p. 3 133 “fled in…the street”: “Statements by Wallace and 123 “[I]f the…want freedom”: CP, 5/9/63, pp. 4–5 Boutwell”; NyT, 5/13/63 124 “I was…big deal”: AH, 1/12/08 133 a Sabbath of sorrow: McWhorter, p. 437 124 “a bunch…of town”: “Birmingham Talks Reach an 133 “The Birmingham…just accord”: Branch, p. 800 Accord on ending Crisis”; NyT, 5/10/63 133 “There wasn’t…know of”: “Negro Leaders’ State- 124 “capitulation by…Negro, King”: Kasher, p. 97 ments on Birmingham Accord”; NyT, 5/11/63 124 “The white…in Birmingham”: “Birmingham Pact 134 “a group…his cohorts”: “Statements by Wallace Sets Timetable for Integration”; NyT, 5/11/63 and Boutwell”; NyT, 5/13/63 125 “The only…be dropped”: “Birmingham Pact Sets 134 “I do…at all”: eskew, p. 305 Timetable for Integration”; NyT, 5/11/63 134 “We must…gain it”: McWhorter, p. 440 125 “with their marching shoes on”: McWhorter, p. 421 134 “When the…hurt you”: McWhorter, p. 439 126 “The City…America”: “Negro Leaders’ Statements 134 “She gave…real proud:” ASG, 2/9/10 on Birmingham Accord”; NyT 5/11/63 134 “holy crusade…in America”: Philadelphia Tribune, 126 “The desegregation…been conducted”: “Negro May 14, 1963, p. 20 Leaders’ Statements on Birmingham Accord”; NyT 134 “I can…hate them”: Pacifica 5/11/63 135 “this is…and injustice”: Branch, p. 802 126 “[I]t is…to reconciliation”: “Negro Leaders’ State- 135 “We’re looking…and leave”: JS, 10/20/09 ments on Birmingham Accord”; NyT 5/11/63 135 “We were just shocked”: JS/BCRI, p. 14 127 “It is…destroy it”: eskew, p. 295 136 “a tragic…immoral move”: CP, 5/20/63, p. 2 127 “didn’t whip…was alright”: WB, 6/12/10 136 “The parents…he could”: ASG, 10/31/09 127 “Nothing was…of demonstrations”: “Ledger: Strat- 136 “with restraint…united calmness”: “Ledger: Strat- egy Committee of The Alabama Christian Move- egy Committee of The Alabama Christian Move- ment for Human Rights and Southern Christian ment for Human Rights and Southern Christian Leadership Conference”; RBPC Leadership Conference”; RBPC 137 “stay home and study”: eskew, p. 392, n 19 Chapter Thirteen / May 11–May 23 137 “spent the…to us”: JS/BCRI, p. 14 PaGE 137 “How do…to college?”: JS, 2/10/10 129 White Citizens…riding again: Pacifica 137 “We almost…the back”: JS, 1/28/09 130 “demands from…nigger race”: McWhorter, p. 425 137 “Constance Motley…the flags’” JS/BCRI, 130 “Martin Luther…in Birmingham”: Kasher, p. 97 pp. 14–15 130 “If you…call us”: “Birmingham Pact Sets 137 “There was…my faith”: JS/BCRI, pp. 14–15 Timetable for Integration”; NyT 5/11/63 137 “Tonight was their victory night”: McWhorter, 130 “Please put your bricks down!”: Branch, p. 794 p. 451 130 “That’s the motel”: McWhorter, p. 429 168 131 “Please do…your homes”: “Statements by Wallace Chapter Fourteen / Freedom and Fury and Boutwell”; NyT, 5/13/63 PaGE 131 “How come…start violence?”: McWhorter, p. 430 139 “how glorious…in Birmingham”: Fred Shut- 132 “We threw…folks owned”: WB, 6/12/10 tlesworth in White, p. 71 132 “I was…full riot”: ASG/BCRI, p. 19 and ASG, 140 “These white…was binding”: Thornton, p. 330 2/9/10 140 to conduct…same room: Thornton, p. 334 MW.WGAJ Chapter 16 backmatter:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:35 PM Page 169

141 “The first…on it”: ASG, 2/9/10 153 “We would…defend himself’”: WB/BCRI, 141 “The waitresses…quiet amazement”: eskew, p. pp. 20–21 317 153 “I started…home since”: WB, 4/12/10 141 “I went…the wall”: WB, 5/12/08 153 “It’s just…been there”: WB/BCRI, p. 16 142 “you could…the window”: AH, 1/12/08 154 “I wanted…possibly could”: JS/BCRI, p. 16 142 “We were…weird feeling”: JS, 2/10/10 154 “I was…all substandard”: JS, 12/16/10 142 “It gave…the system”: eW/BCRI, p. 17 155 “I wanted…own children”: ASG/BCRI, p. 21 142 “Birmingham put…the country” JS, 1/28/09 155 “I feel…gives you”: ASG, 6/11/10 143 “When a…over America”: eyes 155 “We had…a change”: ASG, 4/28/10 143 “It ought…ignore them”: Radio and Television 156 “I see…in that’” AH/BCRI, p. 16 Report to the American People on Civil Rights, 156 “the movement…do something” WB/BCRI, June 11, 1963, pp. 16–17 http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready- 156 “don’t realize…of it”: ASG/BCRI, p. 22 Reference/JFK-Speeches/Radio-and-Television- 156 “abuse all…lives for”: GSG/BCRI, p. 16 Report-to-the-American-People-on-Civil-Rights- 156 “When my…my heart” AH, 1/12/08 June-11-1963.aspx 156 “stood on…civil rights”: JS, 1/28/09 144 “people all…were throngs”: JS, 2/10/10 156 “We’ve come…the bus”: GCW 145 “the greatest…our nation”: MLK, “I Have a 156 “With commitment, things can change”: AH, Dream” 1/12/08 145 “We knew…national stage”: JS, 2/10/10 156 “are not…were children”: JS, 12/15/08 145 No student…Birmingham, Alabama: “executive Order Number Ten of the Governor of Alabama”: September 9, 1963 146 “It was…and gloomy”: ASG, 2/9/10 146 “Two minutes”: McKinstrey BCRI, p. 17 147 “We should…these men”: McWhorter, p. 525 147 “Anything we…of rocks”: WB, 6/12/10 147 “All we…get even”: WB, 6/23/09 148 “Two of…close friends”: JS/BCRI 148 “I stepped…just horrible”: JS, 1/28/09 148 “heroines of a holy crusade”: White, p. 74 148 “There was…dry eye”: ASG, 2/9/10 148 “To know…more determined”: JS/BCRI, July 15, 1999, p. 21 and JS, 10/20/09 148 “The death…that bomb”: BN, 1/15/09 149 “We are…and bigotry”: McWhorter, p. 535

Chapter Fifteen / afterworld PaGE 151 “The young…‘somebody-ness’”: AW, 5/11/08 151 “For the…fought for”: AH, 1/12/08 and AH/BCRI, 169 p. 2 152 “warned the…be fired”: LH/BCRI, p. 3 152 “an advocate…of purpose”: JHF 152 “came back militant”: WB/BCRI, p. 19 152 “America had…black people”: WB, 4/12/10 MW.WGAJ Chapter 16 backmatter:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:35 PM Page 170

BiBLioGrAphy

MANy FINe NONFICTION books, movies, and Music

other sources for young people focus on or Carawan, Guy and Candie (eds). Sing for Freedom: The include information about Birmingham, Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Its Songs. Montgomery, Alabama: NewSouth Books, Alabama, during the Civil Rights era. 2007. I recommend the following. Seeger, Pete, and Bob Reiser. Everybody Says Freedom: A History of the Civil Rights Movement in Songs and Books Pictures. New york: Norton, 1989. Brimner, Larry Dane. Birmingham Sunday. Honesdale, Various Artists. Sing for Freedom: The Story of the Civil Pennsylvania: Boyds Mills Press, 2010. Rights Movement Through Its Songs. Smithsonian Levine, ellen. Freedom’s Children: Young Civil Rights Folkways, 1992. Activists Tell Their Own Stories. New york: Puffin Books, 1993. Selected Websites Mayer, Robert H. When the Children Marched: The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Birmingham Civil Rights Movement. Berkeley www.bcri.org Heights, New Jersey: enslow Publishers, Inc. 2008. eyes on the Prize McWhorter, Diane. A Dream of Freedom: The Civil www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/about/fd.html Rights Movement from 1954 to 1968. New york: National Civil Rights Museum Scholastic, Inc., 2004. www.civilrightsmuseum.org Rochelle, Belinda. Witnesses to Freedom: Young People The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and education Who Fought for Civil Rights. New york: Dutton Institute Books, 1993. mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu Tougas, Shelley. Birmingham 1963: How a Photograph Rallied Civil Rights Support. Mankato, Minnesota: IN ADDITION TO INTeRVIeWS, newspapers, and Compass Point Books, 2011. other primary sources, I relied most heavily Films on the following books. Lee, Spike (Director). 4 Little Girls: The story of four young girls who paid the price for a nation’s igno- Branch, Taylor. Parting the Waters: America in the King rance. HBO Documentary, 2001. DVD. Years, 1954–1963. New york: Simon and Schuster, Eyes on the Prize: No Easy Walk (1961–1963). Blackside 1988. Productions, PBS-TV, 1986. DVD eskew, Glenn T. But for Birmingham: The Local and National Movements in the Civil Rights Struggle. Mighty Times: The Children’s March. Dir. Robert Hous- The university of North Carolina Press, 1997. 170 ton. HBO Family and Southern Poverty Law Center, 2004. DVD McWhorter, Diane. Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution. New york: Simon & Schuster, 2001. Thornton, J. Mills III. Dividing Lines: Municipal Politics and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Montgomery, Birmingham, and Selma. Tuscaloosa: The univer- sity of Alabama Press, 2006. MW.WGAJ Chapter 16 backmatter:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:35 PM Page 171

PHoto crEDits

eVeRy eFFORT has been made to trace the Jan Hendricks Fuller ownership of any copyrighted material in 5 (inset), 151

this book and to secure permission from Cynthia Levinson holders of the copyright. The publisher 153, 154, 155

would be happy to insert the appropriate Library of Congress acknowledgment in future editions of this 8 (LOT 13088, no. 94), 36–37 (LOT 13088, no. 17), 40 book. (LC–DIG–highsm–05091 DLC), 90–91 (LC–F81– 43556), 125 (LC–uSZ62–128478), 131 (DIG–ppmsca– 04293), 144 (LC–u9– 10363–5), 150–151 (LC–DIG– ppmsca–04298) associated Press 12–13, 60–61 Magnum Photo cover (, photographer); i (Bob Adelman, Birmingham, ala. Public Library archives photographer); 28–29 (eve Arnold, photographer); 78 4–5 (Martin Luther King Jr., File #1102.2.51.60); 10 (Bob Adelman, photographer); 112 (Bob Adelman, pho- (Fred Shuttlesworth, File #829.1.62); 11 (Selective tographer); 128–129 (, photographer) Buying Campaign File #1102.2.3); 15 (Bull Connor, File #827.1.14); 18 (riot in Trailways Bus Station, 827.2.57); James Stewart 20–21 (lunch counter sit–in, File #827.1.78); 43 (Sidney 21 (inset), 154 Smyer, Portrait Collection [Smyer]); 54 (A. D. Porter and A. D. King, File #827.1.70); 58 (Fred Shut- arnetta Streeter Gary tlesworth, Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King Jr., 29, 31, 155 File #1125.11.20); 92 (white protesters, File #827.2.21); 94 (postcard, File #1125.7.1), 105 (James Bevel with Odessa Woolfolk police, File #1125.11.5b); 146 (Sixteenth Street Baptist 26 church bombing exterior damage, File #85.1.18); 147 (Sixteenth Street Baptist church bombing window damage, File #85.1.17)

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute 67

Birmingham News 17, 46–47, 62, 70–71, 76–77, 80–81, 83, 85, 102–103, 116–117, 138–139

Washington Booker III 171 13, 152 MW.WGAJ Chapter 16 backmatter:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:35 PM Page 172

index Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Cavaliers, 22, 37 (BCRI), 155, 156, 160 Center Street elementary, 2, 5, Birmingham Council on Human 124, 148, 151 Relations, 38, 97, 100 Chambliss, Robert, 6, 49, 131, 149 a Birmingham Movement Choir, 1, Cherry, Bobby Frank, 149 Abernathy, Ralph, 58, 64, 121–22, 6, 40 115 City Hall, 45, 47, 48, 51, 62, 74, 134; and Biracial Subcommittee Birmingham News, 44, 53, 95, 99, 75, 76, 81, 104, 160 125, 127; and Good Friday 100, 106, 115, 117, 133, 140 City Jail, 48, 51, 59, 75, 112, march, 57, 58, 59; speech at Birmingham Post-Herald, 55, 99 113, 114 mass meeting, 41 Birmingham Public Library, 53, 160 Civil Rights Act of 1957, 56 Alabama Christian Movement for Birmingham World, 25, 51, 54, 99 civil rights movement: Arnetta Human Rights (ACMHR), 58, Blanton Jr., Thomas, 149 Streeter, introduction to, 32–34; 137, 158; and Fred Shuttles - Booker III, Washington, 3, 13, 152, Audrey Hendricks, introduction worth, 38, 139; involvement in 153; arrested and taken to jail, to, 6–7; in Birmingham, begin- desegregation agreement, 127, 110–14, 118, 124, 127, 159; and nings of, 38–39; early results of, 136; involvement in protests, 10, D-Day, 72, 79; and Double D- 126, 139–149, 144, 149; James 11, 30, 53, 56, 159; and mass Day, 84, 86, 101; growing up in Stewart, introduction to, 27; meetings, 6, 39; and Points for Birmingham, 12–16; involve- Martin Luther King Jr. as a Progress, 51, 52, 106, 110, 158; ment in demonstrations, 19, 42, leader of, 48–51, 55–56, 115, public opinion of, 24, 25 69, 104–5, 132; life and career, 134–36; Washington Booker, Alabama Theatre, 14, 141, 142 151, 152–53, 154, 159; and introduction to, 42–43; white Anderson, Marian, 144 media, 99; opinion on move- perspectives on, in Birmingham, Apostolic Overcoming Holiness ment’s impact, 156; reaction to 95–101; youth involvement, Church of God, 73, 104 bombing of Sixteenth Street beginnings of, in Birmingham, Armstrong, Dwight, 145 Baptist Church, 147–49; and 59, 61, 64, 65, 68. See also indi- Armstrong, Floyd, 145 segregation, 37, 38, 43, 44, 63, vidual participants and events. Arrington, Richard, 153 91, 139, 141, 142; and skin Collins, Addie Mae, 147, 148 color, 23; and Washington ele- Connor, Theophilus eugene “Bull”, mentary, 30, 148 15, 125; and Biracial Subcom- B Boutwell, Albert, 123; appointment mittee, 124; denial of permit Baez, Joan, 109 of biracial commission, 140; and requests, 51, 53, 57, 158; and Bailey, Melvin, 120, 130 Birmingham mayoral election, Freedom Riders 18, 19; and Baptist Ministers Conference, 24, 54 44, 45, 96, 107, 137, 158, 159; Good Friday march, 58, 122; Bell, George, 22, 72 directives for citizens of Birm- and law enforcement 41, 48, 75; Bevel, James, 60, 61–62, 69, 105, ingham, 95; involvement with Miracle Sunday, actions on, 136; and D-Day, 73, 74, 75, 78; Biracial Subcommittee, 121; 108, 109; and Project Confronta- and Double D-Day, 81, 86; and political perceptions of, 54, 56– tion, 75, 76, 82, 84, 86, 104, 110, Miracle Sunday, 109; and Proj- 57; and Shuttlesworth’s petition 111, 114, 119, 132; position in ect Confrontation, 63, 66, 68, to march, 67 city government, 38, 43, 44, 45, 105, 108, 111, 119, 120, 123, Brooke Hill School, 101 56, 96, 97, 107, 137, 159; public 172 124; public opinion of, 59, 95; opinion of, 16, 33, 54, 97, 118, and youth rallies, 129, 158 136; views on race, 15, 65, 91 Billups Jr., Charles, 109, 136, 146 C Cook, Gwen, 40, 68, 73 Birmingham Board of education, Carawan, Candie, 108 Cooper, ellen, 98 135, 137 Carawan, Guy, 108 Cooper, Tony, 33 Carver High School, 111, 160 Cross, John H., 55, 146, 147 Cavalettes, 37, 147 MW.WGAJ Chapter 16 backmatter:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:35 PM Page 173

D Goree, Cleopatra, 72 Jefferson County Courthouse, 99, D-Day, 68, 69, 71–79, 88, 97, 104, Grant, Gertrude, 26, 27, 74, 75, 87 160 159. See also Project Confron- Graymont School, 145 Jefferson County Jail, 48, 63, 114 tation Gregory, Dick, 111, 112, 113, 118 Jackson, Jesse, 41, 42, 143 Davis Jr., Sammy, 144 Jackson, emory, 25, 54 desegregation: in Albany, failure of James, Roy, 32, 33 efforts, 50; Biracial Agreement, H Jim Crow laws, 26, 27 126, 135, 136, 140; of Birming- Hamilton, Mary, 114 Johnson, Lyndon B., 149, 159 ham public facilities, 140, 158, Hanes, Art, 9, 44, 123, 124, 131 Johnson, R. C., 72, 111 159; of emil Hess’s department Hendricks, Audrey Faye, 5, 151; store, 97; of Greensboro lunch arrested and taken to jail, 75– counters, 49; of Montgomery 76, 79, 86–87, 101, 107, 113, K buses, 48, 49, 158; on a national 122–23, 159, 160; and civil Kelly Ingram Park, 39, 71, 73, 79, scale 142–45; in Points for rights leaders, 11; and D-Day, 99, 104, 110, 118, 131, 132, 133, Progress, 52, 121; political 72–74; death, 152; decision to 156, 160 acceptance of, 56, 110, 115, 129 march/go to jail, 2–3, 11, 69, Kennedy, John F., 56, 106, 120, direct action, 32, 33, 48, 51, 53, 159; family and home life, 5–7, 122, 123, 133,143, 149, 159 54, 149 142; and the Gaston Motel Kennedy, Robert F., 56, 95, 106, Dothard, William “Meatball”, 69 bombing, 132; later life and 123, Double D-Day, 81–89, 104, 159. career, 151–52; life in black King, A. D., 53, 54, 104, 119, 130, See also Project Confrontation community, 37; and Martin 132, 134, 145, 159 Drew, John, 121 Luther King Jr., 11; and mass King Jr., Martin Luther, 4; in Dynamite Hill, 16 meetings 6, 39, 41, 43, 158; par- Albany, Georgia, 50–51; ticipation in the battle for civil attacked by Roy James, 32–33; rights, 127, 149, 156, 160; reac- and Biracial Agreement, 125– E tion to bombing of Sixteenth 27; and Birmingham city gov- eisenhower, Dwight D., 56 Street Baptist Church, 148; ernment, 107, 121, 124, 131; in ellwanger, Joseph, 93, 97 release from jail and return to Birmingham Jail, 61, 158; and elyton elementary, 30 school, 124, 134, 159; and Selec- bombing of Gaston Motel, 130; entrekin, Charles, 93, 94, 95, 98, tive Buying Campaign, 10–11 death of, 156; and Double D- 99, 101 Hendricks, Jan, 5, 132, 158 Day, 82, 89; and Fred Shut- evans, Glenn V., 82, 97, 120 Hendricks, Joe (Audrey’s father), tlesworth, 11; and Good Friday 2, 5, 6, 10, 18, 41, 132, 158 march, 57–59, 58; and the Hen- Hendricks, Lola (Audrey’s mother), dricks family, 11; as inspiration F 2, 5, 6, 10, 11, 51, 122, 132, for Arnetta, 32; and James Fair Park, 114 152, 158 Bevel, 60, 68; and Jubilee Day, Farmer, James, 77 Hess, emil, 97 119; March on Washington for Freedom Riders, 17–19, 17, 18, Jobs and Freedom, 145, and 33, 43, 133, 158 mass meetings, 39–41, 115, 120, I 134; and media, 105, 117, 122; integration. See desegregation meeting with President 173 G Kennedy, 144; and Miracle Sun- Gadsden, Walter, 85 day, 109; nonviolent precepts, Gardner, ed, 97, 120, 123 J 32, 33, 35, 49, 134–35; at Six- Gaston Motel, 57, 125, 130, J. J. Newberry’s Department teenth Street Baptist Church, 131, 133, 135, 136, 159 Store, 14, 38, 63, 71, 141, 160 31, 79, 82, 111; and Project Con- Gaston, A. G., 25, 37, 66, 86, 122 frontation, 47, 48, 55–56, 65, 66, MW.WGAJ Chapter 16 backmatter:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:35 PM Page 174

68, 69, 105, 111, 122; public N Powell, Rickey, 83 opinion of, 50, 51, 54–56, 94, 95, National Association for the Project Confrontation (Project C), 98 107, 123, 124, 134, 158; reac- Advancement of Colored People 47–59, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 109, tion following school expulsions, (NAACP), 3, 24, 48 115, 158, 159. See also D-day; 136, 137; reaction to bombing of New Pilgrim Baptist Church, 108, Double D-Day; Operation Con- Sixteenth Baptist Church, 148; 109, 134, 137 fusion release from Birmingham jail, nonviolence: Arnetta Streeter and 64–65, 159 63–64, 69, 149; definition of, 32; Q King Sr., Martin Luther, 57 demonstrations using, 27, King, Thomas, 44 48–51, 62, 142, 143, 158–59; Ku Klux Klan, 16, 18, 42, 55, 56, and Double D-Day 82–84, 89; R 90, 91, 93, 97, 129, 130, 131, 159 failure of, 129, 131; Martin Racial Segregation Ordinances, 7, Luther King Jr. and, 33, 117; 8, 16, 25, 33, 44, 93, 97, 140, and Project Confrontation, 48– 141, 159 L 51, 54, 66, 69; training work- Ragland’s Drug Store, 14 Lafayette, Bernard, 34, 35 shops, 28, 33–35, 61, 68; and Ramsey High School, 151 Legion Field, 120 weapons, 74. See also sit-ins Reese, Carlton, 1, 6, 40 Levin, Susan, 99, 101 Robey, Lucinda, 33, 63, 104, 118, Lingo, Al, 133, 135 141, 152 Loveman’s Department Store, 63, O Robertson, Carole, 147, 148, 159 160 Oliver, C. Herbert, 10 Robinson, Jackie, 135 Loveman’s Village, 14, 22 Ollie’s (Bar-B-Q Restaurant), 141 Robinson, Johnnie, 148 Lyric Theatre, 141 Operation Confusion, 117–19, 159. See also Project Confrontation Our Lady of Fatima, 29 S M Salute to Freedom ’63, 144 March on Washington for Jobs and Sanders, Gwendolyn, 39, 69, 72, Freedom (1963), 144, 144–45, P 82, 84, 142, 156 159 Parker High School, 23, 72, 85, 111 segregation, 3, 8, 23–27, 37–39; Marrisett, Andrew, 73, 119 Parks, Rosa, 48 and Birmingham’s leaders, 43, Marshall, Burke, 106, 107, 109, Patterson, Floyd, 135 44; of buses, 6, 17, 31; and D- 115, 120, 121, 122 Peace Ponies: arrest, 108, 113; and Day, 72–73; demonstrations Maull, Carolyn, 69, 82, 145, 146 bombing of Sixteenth Street against, 142–43; end of 141, McNair, Denise, 147, 148 Baptist Church, 148; and D-Day, 156; and federal law, 106; ordi- McWhorter, Diane, 93, 94, 101 79; and Double D-Day, 82; in nances, 6, 7, 25, 33, 44, 140, Melba Theatre, 141 touch with Arnetta Streeter, 155; 141, 158; and Project Con- Metropolitan AMe Zion Church, at mass meetings, 31, 32; at non- frontation, 47, 48, 49, 51, 52, 73, 160 violence workshops, 33, 35, 158; 53, 59, 61, 65, 66, 68; in Ralph Miles College, 9, 10, 30, 35, 53, 62, and Project Confrontation, 59, Abernathy’s speech, 41; tactics 65, 109, 144, 155 62–65; as social club, 37 used to end, 9–11, 32–34; views 174 Miranda v. Arizona (1966), 87 Phillips High School, 31, 100 on, 23–27, 91, 93, 94, 96, 97, 99, , 48, 49, Plessy v Ferguson (1896), 8, 9 100, 143 66, 158 Points for Progress, 51, 52, 110, Selective Buying Campaign, 10, Moore, Jamie, 75, 97, 111, 133 115, 121, 124, 126, 140, 158 11, 32, 58, 97, 158 Moore, William, 66 Porter, John, 53, 54 Senior Citizens Committee, 107, Morgan, Charles, 148, 149 120, 124, 126, 127, 134, 135 MW.WGAJ Chapter 16 backmatter:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:35 PM Page 175

separate but equal, doctrine of, meetings at, 31, 59, 89, 120, participation in battle for 8, 9 123, 129, 136, 145; minister civil rights, 149, 158, 160; Shades Valley High School, 101 of, 55; and Miracle Sunday, and racism, 25–26; and reac- Shelton, Robert, 130 109, 113; nonviolence train tion to bombing of Sixteenth Shores, Arthur, 24, 25, 110, 121, ing workshops at, 33; and Street Baptist Church, 122, 136, 145 Operation Confusion, 117– 145–146, 148; release from Shuttlesworth, Fred, 10, 12, “A 119; and Project Confronta jail, 108, 124, 159; return to Little Closer to Freedom,” tion, 104, 111, 122 school, 127, 134–36, 159; and speech, 139; and ACMHR, 6, Sixth Avenue Baptist Church, segregation, 37; and skin 9, 24–25, 38; and Biracial 123, 135 color, 22–23; and social class, Agreement, 125, 127; and Southside Jail. See City Jail 22–23; on the struggle for Birmingham city government, Southern Christian Leadership integration, 127, 132, 139; 55–57, 107, 121–22; bombing Conference (SCLC), 11, 47, and Washington elementary, of home, 6, 49, 149, 158; con- 49, 50, 57, 58, 59, 86, 97, 106, 22, 30 victed and sentenced after 121, 127, 160 Stewart, Shelley, 71, 72 Freedom Riders protest, 19; St. James Missionary Baptist, 47 Streeter, Arnetta, 29, 31, 155; Good Friday march and arrest, St. Mary’s Catholic School, 29, and aftermath of Gaston 58, 58–59; integration efforts, 30, 33 Motel bombing, 132; arrest, 30–31, 49, 98, 100, 158; St. Paul’s (Methodist Church), jailing, and release, 63–64, marches 52, 75; and Martin 120 113–14, 124, 159; and Birm- Luther King Jr., 11, 51, 55; Stewart, Dr. and Mrs. [James’s ingham Civil Rights Insti- and Miracle Sunday, 109; and parents], 6, 22, 27, 37, 79, tute, 155; and D-Day, 72–75, NAACP, 24; and Operation 108 79; and desegregated Birm- Confusion, 118–19, 159; peti- Stewart, James, 21, 154; begins ingham, 141–42; and Double tions to government, 23–24, senior year at ullman High, D-Day, 81–83, 85–86; and the 67, 68; and police, 16, 41, 68, 145; and bomb threat expelling of student protest- 75; public opinion of, 54, 55, announced by Jesse Jackson, ers, 136; and fire hosing, 95; and youth movement, 65– 42; court hearing, 110, 122, 82–83, 101, 159, 160; first 66, 68, 69, 73, 101, 104, 158 159; and D-Day, 71–76; and demonstration, 62, 158, 160; sit-ins: in Birmingham 10, 11, decision to march, 69; and growing up in Birmingham, 20, 46, 52, 53, 54, 64, 65; in desegregated Birmingham, 29–32; and Hosea Williams, NC, 49, 66; in Jackson, MS, 142; growing up in Birming- 72; and James Bevel, 61; life 143; James’s opinion of, 27, 69; ham, 21–25, 37; and inte- and career, 155; and Martin legality of 57, 106; by Miles grated camp in Luther King Jr., 32, 41; and College students, 35; nation Massachusetts, 144; intro- mass meetings, 42–43, 55, wide 49, 149; and Operation duction to civil rights move- 64, 69; and nonviolence Confusion, 118 ment, 27; in jail, 79, 85, training, 33–35, 64; partici- Smyer Sr., Sidney, 43, 44, 97, 107, 87–88, 101, 103–104, 108; pation in battle for civil 120, 121, 122, 127, 134, 135 and James Bevel, 59; life and rights, 149, 151, 156, 159; Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, career, 151, 153–154, 156; and Peace Ponies, 32, 33, 35, 11, 40, 70; bombing of, 145– and March on Washington 59, 62, 64–65, 79, 82, 108, 175 49, 146, 147, 159; and D-Day for Jobs and Freedom, 144– 113, 148, 155; reaction to 70–71, 73–76, 77; and Double 145, 159; and Martin Luther bombing of Sixteenth Street D-Day, 81–86; as headquar- King Jr., 41; at mass meet- Baptist Church, 146–48; ters of the Movement, 39–40; ings, 39–43, 137; and Opera- return to school, 134; and location of, 156, 160; mass tion Confusion, 118; school integration, 145, 158; MW.WGAJ Chapter 16 backmatter:Layout 1 10/26/11 1:35 PM Page 176

and segregation, 37; on the Wesley, Cynthia, 147, 148 struggle for integration, 127, Williams, Hosea, 72 139; and the Ten Command- Woods, Abraham Lincoln, 94, ments of Nonviolence, 69 125, 151 Streeter, Joan, 30, 64, 141 Woods, Calvin, 52, 94, 136, 141 Streeter, Mr. and Mrs. (Arnetta’s Woods, Linda Cal, 136, 137 parents), 29, 30, 31, 37, 63, Woolfolk, Odessa, 26, 72, 134, 64, 69, 73, 79, 83, 104, 132, 155 141, 145 Woolworth’s (Department Store), Student Nonviolent Coordinating 20, 49, 65, 141, 143, 160 Committee (SNCC), 59 Wright, Theo, 72, 117

T X Ten Commandments of Nonviolence, 34, 69 Turnipseed, Minnie Martha, 65 Y Tuskegee university, 30, 148 young, Andrew, 11, 41, 89, 121 yWCA, 7, 30, 37

U ullman High School, 22, 31, 72, Z 110, 145, 147, 153, 154, 155 Zion Hill Baptist Church, 42, university of Alabama, 7, 24, 98, 134, 160 120, 143, 144, 154, 155

V Vann, David, 43, 44, 86, 97

W WeNN, 71, 74 Waggoner, J. T., 44 Walbert, Pam, 93, 97, 98, 100, 101, 142 Walker, Wyatt Tee, 47, 52, 66, 131, 133 Wallace, Governor George, 123, 135, 143, 145 176 Ware, J. L. 24 Ware, Virgil, 148 Washington elementary, 22, 30, 148 Weaver, Lamar, 98 Wenonah Junior High, 72