MLK Bonus: The Civil Rights Children's Crusade

Summary

HISTORY This Week: MLK Bonus - The Civil Rights Children's Crusade

Episode Overview

In the January 23, 2025 episode of HISTORY This Week, titled "MLK Bonus: The Civil Rights Children's Crusade," the History® Channel delves into a pivotal yet often overlooked chapter of the Civil Rights Movement. Hosted by Sally Helm and produced by Back Pocket Studios, this episode explores how the courageous involvement of young activists reshaped American society and propelled the movement toward significant legislative victories.

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1. Setting the Scene: Birmingham, Alabama in 1963

The episode opens by painting a vivid picture of Birmingham, Alabama, in the early 1960s—a city entrenched in segregation and marred by racial violence. Janice Wesley Kelsey, a young activist, recounts her experiences growing up in this tumultuous environment.

Janice Wesley Kelsey (07:56): "Growing up in Birmingham, I lived in a segregated society. I really did not encounter people of a different race because the communities were completely separate."

Birmingham was notorious for its ruthless enforcement of Jim Crow laws, with areas like Dynamite Hill experiencing frequent bombings by the Ku Klux Klan. This constant state of tension set the stage for the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement within the city.

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2. Dr. King's Release and the Letter from Birmingham Jail

On April 20, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was released from Birmingham jail on bond, just as momentum was building for a new strategy within the Civil Rights Movement. Behind bars, King had authored the influential Letter from Birmingham Jail, passionately defending the use of nonviolent protest against segregation.

Sally Helm (03:13): "For years now, he writes, I have heard the word wait, and this wait has almost always meant never. So he says, we're not waiting any longer."

Despite the fervor, the movement was struggling under relentless opposition from authorities enforcing segregation laws and dwindling numbers of active participants willing to endure imprisonment and violence.

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3. The Proposal: Involving Youth in Protests

As the movement faced stagnation, suggestions emerged to involve school children in the protests—a controversial and risky tactic. Leaders debated the merits and dangers of placing young activists on the front lines.

Jesse Shepard (11:06): "They should use the children. And the reason for that is because of the adults would do anything like that. They would lose their jobs, probably be beaten or whatever."

While some, including Malcolm X and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, vehemently opposed the idea, deeming it too dangerous, others saw the potential in harnessing the unwavering courage of youth to invigorate the movement.

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4. Launching the Children's Crusade

After extensive deliberation, Dr. King conceded to the strategy, recognizing the urgent need to reignite the movement's momentum despite the inherent risks. On May 2, 1963, the Children's Crusade commenced, with thousands of students from Birmingham's schools taking to the streets.

Jesse Shepard (12:01): "I was just one fed up little black girl, I really was. So I was ready to go."

Participants like Janice Wesley Kelsey prepared through nonviolent training sessions, emphasizing resilience in the face of aggression.

Janice Wesley Kelsey (13:26): "If somebody calls you a name, they hit you. Even if they spit on you, you cannot respond except to pray or sing a freedom song."

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5. Confrontation and Brutality

The children's peaceful march was met with brutal resistance from Birmingham authorities led by Commissioner of Public Safety Eugene "Bull" Connor. The protesters were swiftly arrested, leading to overcrowded jails and harsh conditions.

Jesse Shepard (22:06): "We were faced with the dogs and they put the water on us and I'd be lying if I didn't say I was afraid."

Connor orchestrated severe tactics, including high-pressure water hoses and police dogs, to disperse the crowds. These violent confrontations were starkly documented by national media.

Charles Avery (17:14): "And this cell block had over 1500 people in it."

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6. Media Exposure and National Impact

The graphic images and reports of brutality were broadcast across the nation, galvanizing public opinion against segregation. Iconic photographs, such as those featured in Life magazine, captured the harsh reality of the protests and the inhumane treatment by authorities.

Ahmad Ward (24:50): "Mr. Connor did not have a good grasp on how important television had become. And so in a backhanded kind of way, he did more for the movement in that one day than anybody could have thought."

Bull Connor's underestimation of media influence inadvertently amplified the Civil Rights Movement's message, forcing both local and national figures to acknowledge the depth of racial tensions in the United States.

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7. Legislative and Social Shifts

The widespread outrage and international attention pressured political leaders to take concrete action. In June 1963, President John F. Kennedy publicly supported federal civil rights legislation, a direct response to the escalating crisis in Birmingham.

President John F. Kennedy (26:10): While not a direct quote from the transcript, his announced support aligns with the episode’s narrative on legislative progress.

This period marked a significant victory for the movement, demonstrating the power of strategic nonviolent resistance and the pivotal role of youth activism.

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8. Tragedy Strikes: The 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing

The triumph was marred by tragedy when, in September 1963, a bomb exploded at the 16th Street Baptist Church, killing four young girls: Denise McNair, Addie Mae Collins, Carol Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley.

Janice Wesley Kelsey (27:39): "I know one girl who reported some of her hair was sheared off her head."

This heinous act underscored the dangers faced by activists and further fueled the resolve of the movement, highlighting the extreme resistance to desegregation.

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9. Enduring Legacy and Nonviolent Resolve

At the funeral of the slain girls, Dr. King delivered a poignant eulogy, reinforcing the commitment to nonviolence despite the suffering endured.

Dr. King (28:13): "In spite of the darkness of this hour, we must not despair. We must not become bitter, nor must we harbor the desire to retaliate with violence."

King's words encapsulated the movement's enduring philosophy, emphasizing resilience and peaceful protest as the means to achieve lasting change.

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Conclusion

The Children's Crusade was a watershed moment in American history, illustrating the profound impact of youth activism and media in the Civil Rights Movement. By putting the harsh realities of segregation on national and international stages, the courageous actions of young protestors like Janice Wesley Kelsey, Jesse Shepard, and Charles Avery catalyzed significant legislative and social advancements. Despite facing unimaginable brutality, their unwavering commitment to nonviolence left an indelible mark on the struggle for equality and justice in the United States.

For more detailed accounts and personal stories from the participants, visit historythisweekpodcast.com.

Transcript

[Sally Helm]

Hello, History this Week listeners. It is Sally here. We cover stories from all around the world on this show. And today's episode is sponsored by the language learning program Rosetta Stone. Our producer Ben is here to tell you all about them.

[Ben]

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[Sally Helm]

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[Ben]

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[Sally Helm]

Original Podcast History this week, April 20th, 1963 I'm Sally Helm. At 12:30 in the afternoon, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Steps out of the Birmingham jail. He was arrested just over a week ago for peacefully protesting racial segregation. And though the public doesn't know it yet, King has spent much of his time behind bars writing a letter to the world, to everyone watching what's happening in Birmingham, the letter from Birmingham Jail. It is an impassioned defense of the movement's tactics. Sit ins, boycotts, peaceful marches. He's responding in part to a full page newspaper ad from eight white clergymen who say that he is demanding too much, too soon. Put this campaign in Birmingham on pause, they say. Just wait. But it's been almost a decade since the civil rights movement began, and still black citizens in Birmingham don't have equal access to basic things buses, restrooms, offices and department stores. For years now, he writes, I have heard the word wait, and this wait has almost always meant never. So he says, we're not waiting any longer. Now on this April day, King is released from jail on bond so he can get back to leading the protests in Birmingham. But the truth is, despite the urgency of his letter, despite his fervent belief that the time is now, King and the civil rights movement are at a low point. It even feels like a dead end. They've been absorbing blow after blow from Jim Crow law enforcement, and they're running low on activists willing to lay their bodies on the line. That's why soon after King's release, some people start to suggest a new tack. They say a good number of students in Birmingham have begun to join the protests. We need troops. Why not rally thousands more? King says definitely not. We can't have kids taking those risks. Today, the Children's Crusade. Why did Dr. King change his mind about putting kids on the front lines? And how did this children's march change many Americans minds about civil rights? Many of the kids involved told their stories in a History Channel documentary. Now we bring those stories to you.

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[Sally Helm]

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[Charles Avery]

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[Sally Helm]

Janice Wesley Kelsey grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, the heart of the Jim Crow South.

[Janice Wesley Kelsey]

Growing up in Birmingham, I lived in a segregated society. I really did not encounter people of a different race because the communities were completely separate.

[Sally Helm]

Birmingham was one of the most separate segregated cities in the entire United States. There is fierce resistance to integration, and there's often violence. One neighborhood has seen 40 bombings by the Ku Klux Klan in 20 years, so many that it's become known as Dynamite Hill. Janice remembers that. Of course she knew all this was wrong, but it also just felt inevitable.

[Janice Wesley Kelsey]

I was bothered by it, but I did not realize I could really do something about it.

[Sally Helm]

By the time Janice is 16 in 1963, the civil rights movement has come to Birmingham, and the city is seething. An Alabama state court has handed down an injunction against the protests, one of many efforts to stop marches led by Dr. King. You will not be allowed to march without a permit. Is that clear to everyone? Janice hasn't been involved with the movement, but one day a friend suggests that they drop by a meeting at a Birmingham church. And remember, these are teens. Janice says the main selling point at first was not a sober discussion of important political issues.

[Janice Wesley Kelsey]

We didn't talk about civil rights. She talked about the meetings, the music, the ministers, the crowds, the cute boys. And I thought, yeah, I want to go to one of those.

[Sally Helm]

The conversation at the church surprises her. It turns on the injustices that she and her friends face every day. Like how at Janice's high school there's only one electric typewriter while the white school has three rooms full of them. Or how her brother's high school football team has to paint their helmets to match the school's colors because they're hand me downs from a white school. So they decide to do something about it. These students, kids really decide to take to the streets, Join the Birmingham campaign. It's a bold idea and not everyone agrees with it. Some movement leaders and parents say that young people don't belong on the front lines of this battle where there's so much volatility and violence. But other leaders see it differently. They say, look, it's actually harder for adults to risk arrest. That could mean separation from the people who depend on them.

[Janice Wesley Kelsey]

Your parents can't, but you really don't have anything to lose.

[Sally Helm]

In 1963, Jesse Shepard is also 16. She knows about the debate within the civil rights movement in Birmingham about whether.

[Jesse Shepard]

They should use the children. And the reason for that is because of the adults would do anything like that. They would lose their jobs, probably be beaten or whatever. You know, I was told Ramain Luther King at first didn't want to do that.

[Sally Helm]

He's not the only one. Malcolm x dismisses the idea, saying real men don't put their children on the firing line. U.S. attorney General Robert F. Kennedy says in a statement. School children participating in street demonstrations is a dangerous business. An injured, maimed or dead child is a price that none of us can afford to pay. But the idea will not go away. Young people start attending nonviolence workshops. A plan is emerging for them to take to the streets en masse to bring energy and to help shed light on the realities of segregation.

[Jesse Shepard]

Birmingham walls and just such a racous place. I mean a lot of people that comes here, they say that they could never imagine somebody being treated like that because of the color of their skin.

[Sally Helm]

Martin Luther King gets out of jail on April 20 to find that momentum is building for this youth movement. But King still isn't sure. Like others, he's worried about the young protesters safety. He's also worried that if kids get hurt or spend too much time in jail, others adults could turn against the whole civil rights movement. But King feels the pressure of time and fears that the campaign is losing momentum. So this new plan is starting to sound better. It sounded good to Jesse Shepard too.

[Jesse Shepard]

At that particular time I was just one fed up little black girl, I really was. So I was ready to go.

[Sally Helm]

Finally, after much deliberation King agrees. On May 2, the next wave of protests will begin. It'll come to be called the Children's Crusade. Janice Wesley Kelsey attends a non violence training to prepare. She says the main lesson was no violence, no matter what.

[Janice Wesley Kelsey]

If somebody calls you a name, they hit you. Even if they spit on you, you cannot respond except to pray or sing a freedom song. You can bow your head, cover your head, but do not strike back.

[Sally Helm]

Finally, the day arrives. Thursday, May 2, 1963.

[Janice Wesley Kelsey]

I woke up that morning with my mind on freedom. I was so excited.

[Sally Helm]

Janice's mother is not as excited. She doesn't want her daughter arrested.

[Janice Wesley Kelsey]

She cautioned me before I left home and said, don't you go and get yourself in any trouble. I don't have the money to get you out. And I said, yes, ma'am, but I went anyway.

[Sally Helm]

On her way to school, Janice meets up with some friends.

[Janice Wesley Kelsey]

We were singing freedom songs as we walked to school and going to let nobody turn me around and before I be a slave, I'll be buried in my grave and just singing and thinking about, we're going to make this thing happen.

[Sally Helm]

The school day starts off just like normal. But when the bell rings for a class change, instead of going to class, Janice and the other student protesters march off the school grounds. They go to the chosen gathering point, the 16th Street Baptist Church in the heart of Birmingham. College kids show up, too, and more high schoolers and even children as young as eight. When everyone is ready, they leave the church, heading towards city hall and the segregated downtown shopping district, singing as they go. But on the streets of Birmingham, they don't make it far.

[Janice Wesley Kelsey]

We got maybe a block from the church before we were stopped by the police.

[Sally Helm]

An officer tells the kids they need a permit and that gathering without one is illegal.

[Janice Wesley Kelsey]

He said, get out of the line. Nothing's going to happen. Stay in the line, you're going to jail.

[Sally Helm]

The kids stay in line.

[Janice Wesley Kelsey]

So they called for paddy wagons, which were these little jail like trucks.

[Sally Helm]

There are so many kids under arrest that the trucks are soon full. So the police call in county school. Those are usually reserved for white students. Now they carry black students away from this peaceful protest.

[Janice Wesley Kelsey]

That's how we spent the night there. At county jail.

[Sally Helm]

More than 600 children and teens are arrested that day, the first day of the Children's crusade. Other black students in Birmingham now face a decision. Join the protest and risk jail or do what many adults are urging them to. Stay put. One of those students is Charles Avery, who goes to a high school on the outskirts of Birmingham. He's senior class president, a role model. So some adults at his school encourage him to protest, while others tell him not to associate with these troublemaking kids who are getting themselves locked up or.

[Charles Avery]

But we had a very strict principal. He dared any of us to go.

[Sally Helm]

It's a Monday. As students are milling around getting off the school buses, Charles decides to get everyone's attention.

[Charles Avery]

I took my jacket off and I swirled it around my head and I said, let's go. And we went out about three blocks from the school and looked back and as far as we could see were students.

[Sally Helm]

They head towards the 16th Street Baptist Church, but police officers are waiting to arrest them. The jails are full, so they bring the protesters to the local fairground. Some they put into livestock pens.

[Charles Avery]

And here we are in Fair park and it's about to rain. It was a ferocious thunderstorm that day and we were wet and cold and the lightning was so fierce it bounced off of about one.

[Sally Helm]

That evening, they're transferred to the Birmingham City Jail.

[Charles Avery]

We were put in a cell block I understand holds 650 people. And this cell block had over 1500 people in it.

[Sally Helm]

The students are crammed together so tightly they can barely move. Charles squeezes into a corner with his friends. They're getting ready to spend the night, trying to get some sleep, but then.

[Charles Avery]

They turned the ventilator fans on over in the night and we was already wet, mind you, and it got so cold that you could just shiver.

[Sally Helm]

Charles and many other protesters spend several nights in jail. And all these arrests are making news in and outside of Birmingham. But it's not yet enough to create what Martin Luther King is really after. He describes it in his letter from Birmingham Jail. A sense of crisis. Such a crisis, he writes, that the majority of Americans will finally be forced to confront the issue of segregation. For too long, the cruelties that prop up segregation have happened out of sight, in the shadows. A beating in an alleyway, shots fired in the night. But now a local official is about to provoke that sense of crisis. He's the Birmingham Commissioner of Public Safety, a man everyone knows as Bull Connor. She stole $6 million from the award winning podcast. I'm Lacy Mosley. A new true crime series. They call me Scam Goddess. Yes, I'm going on a journey across America to dive into small town swindles.

[Bull Connor]

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[Sally Helm]

Farm girl and big city cons?

[Janice Wesley Kelsey]

He was pimping the congregation. People say that would never happen to me. Never say never.

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Scam goddess.

[Sally Helm]

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[Janice Wesley Kelsey]

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[Sally Helm]

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[Janice Wesley Kelsey]

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[Sally Helm]

Janice Wesley Kelsey is familiar with Birmingham's infamous Commissioner of Public Safety. Bull Connor was really a bully and a proud segregationist.

[Janice Wesley Kelsey]

He would spew out a lot of negative statements over the air, you know, on the radio and tv.

[Bull Connor]

You can never whip these bullies if you don't keep you and them separate. You've got to keep the white and the black separate.

[Sally Helm]

Bull Connor was bent on getting his way.

[Bull Connor]

Let the law enforcement agencies, that's what you got them hired for. And the governor of the state of Alabama handled this thing.

[Sally Helm]

Birmingham preacher Fred Shuttlesworth has told Martin Luther King all about Bull Connor. He's the symbol of police brutality in the south, shuttlesworth says. But he also has this feeling that Bull Connor could actually do something to help the cause. If he overplays his hand, which Bull Connor seems ready and willing to do. He is warned that further protests will cause incidents of violence and bloodshed and irreparable injury to persons and property. These are the threats that hang in the air as another wave of student marchers takes to the streets of Birmingham. Jesse Shepard is among them. She goes out to protest one day and finds that the authorities have escalated things.

[Jesse Shepard]

We were faced with the dogs and they put the water on us and I'd be lying if I didn't say I was afraid.

[Sally Helm]

City firemen corner groups of protesters and pound them with high pressure streams from their hoses. Water strong enough to break ribs to knock people off their feet.

[Jesse Shepard]

The water was so strong it just rolled some people around on the ground and we were all trying to get away from the water. Now I still was determined to march or whatever, but I didn't expect the.

[Janice Wesley Kelsey]

Water was 100 pounds per square inch.

[Sally Helm]

Janice Wesley Kelsey wasn't struck herself, but she heard stories from people who were.

[Janice Wesley Kelsey]

I know one girl who reported some of her hair was sheared off her head. I know the bark of the trees. It was taken off. People were pushed against buildings. They had bruised skins and torn blouses and people were would push down the street just like tumbleweeds.

[Sally Helm]

And if you escaped the water, you might run into the dogs. Police used trained German shepherds to attack the protesters.

[Janice Wesley Kelsey]

There were some kids who went to the hospital with dog bites. It was a maddening scene. And it was Bull Connor who was orchestrating all of that. He was the person who instructed the firemen to turn hoses on the kids to disperse the crowds.

[Sally Helm]

Connor knows how to break up a crowd. He has done this before. But this time what he doesn't fully grasp is that photographers and camera crews from across the country are on the scene recording this protest as it unfolds. Soon, Life magazine runs a full, full page photo of three young people desperately grabbing the edge of a building while a blast of water bends their backs. Headline the spectacle of racial turbulence in Birmingham. Millions of Americans have been hearing from Martin Luther King and others that segregation is a national crisis. Now they're seeing it on their TV screens and in magazines. Time runs a photo of marchers pinned down by fire hoses next to a photo of Bull Connor in a hard hat. The caption says, unwittingly, he and his city brought millions of people to the negro's side. Ahmad Ward, former head of education at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, told us Bull Connor did not see this coming.

[Unknown]

Mr. Connor did not have a good grasp on how important television had become. And so in a backhanded kind of way, he did more for the movement in that one day than anybody could have thought.

[Bull Connor]

These are the front lines of the battle between Dr. Martin Luther King's Negro disciples of Non violence and the uniformed forces of Birmingham, led by Commissioner Eugene Bull Connor, who says, we were trapped trying to be nice to them, but they won't let us be.

[Unknown]

He made the miscalculation of thinking that he could do this with all this national media here in town and it wouldn't have a negative effect.

[Sally Helm]

Bull Connor was wrong. Coverage of the children's crusade leads to a huge outcry so huge that city business owners are forced to sit down with civil rights leaders and commit to what they have resisted for so long, desegregating the city. But the repercussions are still unfolding when.

[Unknown]

This becomes international news. It becomes a black eye not just for the state of Alabama, but also for the United States of America.

[Sally Helm]

The crisis spreads all the way to the White House.

[Unknown]

Kennedy had to get involved, and he was pushing his civil rights action after what will happen in May.

[Sally Helm]

In June 1963, President John F. Kennedy announces his support for federal civil rights legislation.

[Bull Connor]

If an American, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch in a restaurant open to the public, if he cannot send his children to the best public school available, if he cannot vote for the public officials who represent him, if, in short, he cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place?

[Sally Helm]

This is a clear victory for the civil rights movement. And the Children's march was the catalyst because it put the horrors of segregation on front pages across the world and helped deliver this breakthrough political moment. In the story of civil rights, there's always this horrible pendulum swing victory and then backlash. In September of 1963, there is a bombing at the same church where the children's marchers had gathered and sung freedom songs before setting out to protest the 16th Street Baptist Church. Four young choir girls are killed. Their names are Denise McNair, Addie Mae Collins, Carol Robertson and Cynthia Wesley.

[Janice Wesley Kelsey]

It was just so painful to know that these girls were killed at church.

[Sally Helm]

Because church is supposed to be safe.

[Janice Wesley Kelsey]

For a long time I wondered if the persons who planted those bombs, if they were doing that in retaliation for the children's march. So I carried around a weight of guilt for a while for that.

[Sally Helm]

A crowd of around 8,000 people attend the funeral for the girls. Dr. King delivers the eulogy.

[Bull Connor]

In spite of the darkness of this hour, we must not despair. We must not become bitter, nor must we harbor the desire to retaliate with violence.

[Sally Helm]

King was reminding the crowd, even in the face of this horrible violence, that nonviolence is powerful too. The children of Birmingham had proved that. And King was saying, we have to keep going. There's no other choice. Thanks for listening to history this week. For moments throughout history that are also worth watching, check your local TV listings to find out what's on the History channel today. Watch the enhanced version of Can't Turn us Around, Alabama's foot Soldiers, with an additional 20 minutes of never before seen footage available. Commercial free June 16th only on History Vault. If you want to get in touch, please shoot us an email at our email address historythisweekistory.com or you can leave us a voicemail 212-351-0410. Special thanks to our guests, Children's Crusade participants Jesse Shepard, Janice Wesley Kelsey and Charles Avery and to Ahmad Ward, former head of education at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and current executive director at historic Mitchellville Freedom Park. This episode was produced by Corinne Wallace. It was sound designed by Dan Rosado and story edited by Jim O'Grady. Our senior producer is Ben Dickstein. History this Week is also produced by Julia Press and me, Sally Helm. Our associate producer is Emma Fredericks, our supervising producer is McKamey Lin and our executive producer producer is Jesse Katz. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review History this Week, wherever you get your podcasts, and we'll see you next week. Copyright 2023Ane Television Networks, LLC. All rights reserved.