Birmingham, Alabama 1963 it was the most racist most segregated city in the south On April 12th 1963 Martin Luther King left his room at the Gaston motel and walked two blocks to the 16th Street Baptist Church where gathering of protesters joined him for a march on City Hall He had targeted Birmingham as the site for mass demonstrations against segregation But the masses had failed to materialize and King decided to go to jail himself The nation watched quietly as Kings placed in solitary confinement 1963 would mark. Dr. Keynes lowest point as leader of the civil rights movement It had been 8 long years since his only major victory with Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott When I first met dr. King the mission he was embarking on was completely unknown to him He hadn't the foggiest idea Where it would lead and certainly going to Birmingham Was a choice of enormous consequence It was a battlefield. We're moving sink or swim Birmingham To be perfectly honest was a grim place through the eyes of African Americans It was the most rigid the most violent the most vicious It was the biggest and baddest city in the south. We nicknamed it bombing in air Frankly compared to other places there's no way she'll unrest in Birmingham It'd been sixty unsolved bombings in Birmingham and the local police had never arrested a soul The Ku Klux Klan was big in Birmingham all through the police department and up into City Hall Life in Birmingham as far as I'm concerned is hell I Don't believe and the mixing of the races and I don't care what Anybody says I might be prejudiced. I don't know I probably Ain't no place As a kid always wanted to eat at Newberry's downtown and I always wanted to be hamburger plate Always We couldn't have that I went downtown through the Newberry's I was so happy because I could sit on the little black stools there Toro and Autumn. Yeah, I thought with everything on it. I'm not gonna integrate Instead of serving me they called him the police You've got to keep the white in the black second. I Never could understand why white people hated us As a kid I just felt like they thought some of the black would rub off on them, you know Well, Birmingham is the symbol for resistance to integration Wake down to this philosophy, you can never whip these boys If you don't keep you in them separate the good people of Birmingham had put Bull Connor in office seven times Bull Connor as a bull come with the master his title was Commissioner of Public Safety and his mission was to keep the streets safe for white people He had a tame Army tank white Under Bull Connor Birmingham was the closest thing in America to a police state So the theory was we need to bring all this out in the open And if they're gonna kill us let them kill us in the middle of the day not at night one at a time Most black people were afraid of the movement. My mom was scared. She would always say Don't make anyways see our parents. They couldn't go. Khlo They was working for the whites if they was seen on the picket line then they ended up losing that job I'm having that House foreclosed on having that car repossessed. So the parents couldn't do it as a kid we always wanted to think that these things would stop soon and That mom and dad since they fixed everything else that they would fix it. We thought that you could just Shame the white man into look how bad you tween your Negroes, you know But I found out that they were determined not to give Wooden's Dr. King had gone to jail in hopes that thousands of protesters who would follow his example and overwhelm the system But it didn't work out that way the blacks of Birmingham stayed home and the press quickly lost interest In solitary Just when he'll be coming out One of the last things King did before going to jail was to place an urgent call to Afar a young preacher in Mississippi by the name of james. Bevel bevel was a secret weapon He was the brain of the bunch. He was obnoxious as the devil, but that was his role Well, I knew that the Birmingham project was going very slow because they couldn't get many people to go to jail so What we got to do is go out and organize young people The first thing I thought who did this doctor they told me tall Paul was then telling the Playboy and they agreed with non-violence. I Was somewhat of a crazy guy I guess chatter Stuart he was the DJ for real back during the day and he had a red car and Had shared the paper. I read no Good Selling the Playboy was the mouth of the south No one had a closer relationship with the kids in Birmingham Music which is the date But each time you have an opportunity you talk about Freedom you talk about rights? Didn't take very much to get the kids to kids knew they use We started with the football players and the cheerleaders and the beauty queen I was an 88 pound Majorette I got involved because I was talking to a pretty girl. Oh I can see myself wearing long skirts donuts I We broke it down very simply look you can get hit by baseball bat played baseball, but Segregation destroys the inside of your mind and your soul and it doesn't heal that easily. I Play football on football team. I played defensive tackle. Devin bevel asked Have you ever wondered why your helmets are always blue and white but school colors of green and gray He said you get the equipment at the white schools. Discard I'm glad I told the movement and not athletic Bevell would turn down the lights and show a movie from the city and movement in Nashville. I Saw a bunch of college setting on the stews. They look like you're just trying to egg on a fight The stark reality of Non-violence being met with violence was shocking and scary and it drew kids in by the hundreds Bevel would tell us ms. Cotton would tell us if you cannot restrain from being violent Maybe the movement was not for you well That was a beautiful concept after you think about it later, but when you get your head knocked on You really got to think real hard in place Because the fellas down on 15th Street those fellows with fight back they came to fight but because of dr. King and them girls They would say y'all come on cooperate. We need a peaceful protest on Saturday, April 20th Dr. King bonded out of jail his release caused barely a ripple We were defeated here in Burma. They had dad beating us down into the ground. Dr King in our strategy session said that the only way to break Birmingham we're going to have to Feel the jails so I say I agree I Absolutely agree with you on that now how I feel the jail is my business. I Remember that night dr. King speaking He was crying like mad to get somebody to go to jail and they just didn't stand I remember king inviting any volunteers to go to jail the next day and Nobody stood up by those kids That was it nobody bought there but those kids, dr. King said no Module shallot level here on W be any D-day was the day I tell you This was the day where every student in Birmingham knew that it was going to happen But you've got to remember that all of the planning was a secret good The DJ's were talking code and used songs from the hip array that signals for action. I remember that morning I woke up with my mind on freedom Special pain We're putting a little starch in my blouse get my toothbrush. I got the toothpaste So because I had a feeling that I wouldn't be coming home Push d-day early in the month, but it would amuse detail. It was they use all that My mother okay Gwen Don't go to that Marge Don't you go to school? I? Told my mother I hear you. We were raised not to lie So I didn't tell our lives I wasn't going I say I hear you We would have people picked out your job is to turn this pile on turn that fire long get the football team basketball Team get the cheerleaders get the band It was right at 11 o'clock when they arrived They came up to the fan with a sign that just said it's time When we said let's go both of the windows Then I told awesome. Come on, let's go and I looked around and you know, I like a smile they almost you know, I Look back up at those kids, but you said you were gonna go You know You promised and that's when kids start coming They'll be coming out of windows coming out of doors It's so beautiful you would believe Mr. Stone we turned her back as we got it up and we took it from there I wanted to walk out with him, but it was bad job There was nothing you could do once the students start moving the principal the teachers in their batter had to step aside My boyfriend tried to stop me from going and I walk around a ble I came right back I didn't well, that's it. You have about two children up in the class maybe Everybody's going I'm sure that morning bevel was nervous about who was going to show up at first There were a few then there were hundreds then there were thousands we heard that kids were coming in from all over the city and What we heard that they were coming in from out of town We got more exciting. I had a cool card. They said ok. We need you to grab the Fairfield There's some students outside the classroom. They won't go back in Knowing the whole when I got out to South field the whole campus was outside of the building and they all said we go into bed with him 20 kids climbed on the car and 800 followed behind The more we walk the more we gathered and Every every once in a while you look back and you saw it was more kids coming from somewhere from another direction You said why all these kids got it from? You had never seen that many people in your life. It's like a football game kids walk as far as 80 miles to get to Birmingham in Order to be arrested and the purpose was to go to jail The gathering place was 16th Street Baptist Church We poured into those six teams feed like a waterfall they're coming in all doors from all directions from the basement from the back It was just like one big pep rally peers parked on in the house a Western. Are you in the house? The children were ready they were ready to hit the streets Kelly Ingram Park was the big green buffer between black Birmingham and the white downtown 16th Street Baptist Church was on one corner and by noon Birmingham's finest were on the other. It was all laid out like a battlefield To think about it now I get the shakes what could have happened Martin Luther King spent the day at his motel wrestling with his conscience a Lot of people about the kids were going to get hurt But the reality of it was that we were born black in Alabama and we were going to get hurt if we didn't do something When noon came and went without a public appearance by King bevel opened the floodgates They came out in waves of 50 The first 50 came out. He peacefully arrested lemon That does it The next 50 shows up in the next 50 we go get some old fat. Oh They would cram the paddy wagons full of people and then they were jammed into a ship Within an hour the police had abandoned wagons and started to bring in school buses Fill up a bus pull up another bus fill it up we arrested those kids and wholesale numbers Bevell timed it so that each group of fifty seemed like the last And what they didn't know We're going out of the front door more kids were coming in the back door 5050 When a girl stopped I think when the police arrested us, they thought that we would be afraid and start to cry They are strange to see that we were happy and singing and glad to be arrested Except about 12 o'clock - maybe we got five six. I'm a students in jail now. I told boy economy We have to take a break and he walked out in the middle of the street for the police work Don't you think we ought to take a break? You need to let your being cool. I will cool out take a lunch break He said yeah. Well, we need to break us my office's I've been out here and haven't had anything to eat in the side He says here come the lunch truck. The next thing I knew they passed in our coca-cola's - it Bob all kind of saw me necessary Soon as the rest period ended He come back over where we were They go back over for that one. They start back to take it back About three o clock almost a thousand black kids were under arrest for parading without a permit There were so many kids in jail. The school's couldn't each. I remember that so where because my class one was in jail We were told to stay we were 15 and that would keep us out of the bigs here Didn't work in Mackey. I can remember some of them thinking that we're gonna kill him dead Tell me I know you gonna kill me, but I wanna Call my mama first When the children were in jail, the people were pulling in on dr. King my daughter did not to keep my son in jail Dr. Key what we gonna do any parents just all around him talking about their children in jail just as calm Just as nice Don't worry about your children. They're gonna be all right Don't hold them back if they want to go to jail for They are doing a job for all of America and for all mankind My father told me I could not be part of that movement I had better not go back downtown He didn't tell me I couldn't go back to church which is where it all started in the first place, right? Birmingham the stick Well, we had a microphone we didn't tell them that you've got to know what the other guys doing if you don't whip Listen up brothers and sisters today was d-day Tomorrow will be double D day by day - the word was out at more than 3,000 spectators Converged on the church to watch it, but no one could have imagined what they were about to see And we got to the park police was lined up They were marching got ready Not ready. Oh Good lord. I scared there and Then the officers gave the order to open up The end for you hear the knock me down And then water had pressure behind it it hurt During the meeting the day before they had told us the policemen might hit you the policemen might have dolls They might spit on you. They might kick you but I remember thinking that no one said anything about water hoses you Can see that the first blast of water dispersed the crowd but when the water subsided There were ten key is still standing and they were singing one word over and over The crowd surged back behind him the firemen were certainly faced with 200 then 500 Protesters Bull Connor standing there with his hands on a field shoot the water on those niggers The water was so powerful poor men couldn't hold it steady We could hear the firemen yelling knock the niggers down Now host rather than me right down the street like a sheet of paper and look it was stings so bad Suddenly you could see against the sky these bricks and stones They were calling us sob bastards and they started to the rocks bottles They were risking them as fast as they could Bo came through with that damn tank and black vocal thorn and hitting that tangle balls rocks Willow carnival tell them Most of the dogs were only Sh, but if you reach out that I was gonna bite you That was this vicious vicious bigger dog They turned the loose and just smaller child and the dog lunged at his throat and he'd hit him and beat him Holy the name is black dog. Nigger was a great term except they had nigga trained nigga with bite and nigga would bite anybody black or white it'd make Firemen journalists and teenagers all went to the hospital. I saw a fair man get smashed in the face He was hurt and of course Bull Connor just shipped him out How the police and sheriff's officers have missed the first test with flying Colors, they destroyed great phrase as they maintain the peace When President Kennedy saw his Saturday papers. He said the photos made him sick The embarrassment for us around the world That's when Kennedy called Birmingham Trinity had sent word down that if children got involved that his administration couldn't support that kind of stuff Well the Kennedys knew nothing about the south why would they rich I believe He thought we were crazy he was talking with dr King in them about giving these kids out the movement, but it was out of doctors hands hanging Kids from all over you're going to jail today. Jimmy is going yesterday. Why can't I go D Gregory came out to March with the kids and he was the most famous person we had ever seen I've got there 20 minutes before I got arrested he was already moved out He rushed me out to the front of the line all of the policemen started running after them on the motor side Some children got out of jail and they were so excited about it. They would turn around and go right back My mother said why are you in jail again? She said boy, you better stay out of that jail, those people are gonna hurt you I said no, they're not because we got God. I'm outside And once they were in jail, it was kind of depressing It had rats and it was nasty and filthy They fed us bologna sandwiches with nothing on it just dry bread one sandwich now Bull Connor demanded that every child be interrogated They were asking me a lot of questions about why did you March who told you to March? They force you to March? After you sit and ask the same ten questions of hundreds of kids you begin to say What am I doing here? What what is the end of this madness? We were there now about two weeks Right two weeks and we were saying oh my god would be saying When they put us in jail, the gas were in one side and a girlfriend on the other side and you could hear them And they were saying songs then the girls would sing a song to answer them back I'm in jail that night thereby singing and laughing it and then join they said and I see this little four-year-old boy Two o'clock tomorrow As here was your name? Oh You fool. What are you here for? He said tea dumb. He couldn't even say freedom man The demonstrations continued every day and every day the movement struggled to head off violence from whites and blacks I Call upon all the citizens of Birmingham both Negro and white to realize that violence only breeds more violence See once you arrest 2,000 people Especially when they're scared of you By Saturday some kids were coming downtown in their bathing suits. It was fun Yes, then just to get cranked it down with the whole beautiful Splish smash jump back in the bath without a know there was a party going on they was efficient anis, man The children will be idea chickens I hear behind a girl Some win up to the water put the water on me you bad and this young guy was standing in there They were calling the main talk about their mama and all counselor It was funny, but it was stupid. The Cureton was saying I want to go to jail. I want to go to day Everything Why does she have those? Good in jail There were 800 kids in the hog pens at the fairgrounds a crowd of parents gathered at the fence Tossing food sweaters blankets when it started to rain the cops walked to their cause and sat inside I Was wet and I was cold. I wanted my mom and I wanted my daddy and I was scared. I Want my mama, I want to go home They treated us like they did the livestock and you know, really smell like that - and then you're wet Children were released at random sometimes in the middle of the night I got out on Sunday and I wasn't ready to go because there were a lot of people stealing jr My mom when I got home the first thing she did naturally she smelled me coming, haha So she's the old girl. You can't go in that house I need to wash you down need to let's take the holes in it. I said not any more water when she came home, I remember my mama Hugging her and I said bless your heart babe bless your heart Although many have been arrested We have already worn a victory here in Birmingham because yesterday we filled up deer and Today we filled up the Junior And on Namara, I don't know what they're gonna do By Tuesday May 7th the city of Birmingham faced a state of collapse 3,000 students were stampeding through downtown in a victory. The police had been made helpless Kids was everywhere. You're lame All downtown we couldn't stop it. We couldn't contain it. The white people were in panic Do you know what they do get their turn your moves? While the seventh day of demonstrations It became obvious there was no end of children in sight I sitting there in a jail and I said no way the whole lid on this the fears go There were 72 hours of intense negotiations Movement leaders and white officials who were up until dawn with an open mind to the White House We have come today to the climax of the long struggle for justice freedom and human dignity in the city of Birmingham after more than 5,000 arrests the white people of Birmingham had finally agreed to Integrate and the state coats were moved to Bull Connor after seven terms and office Beat by the young people of the city of Birmingham well what really surprised us was when Kennedy came on television and addressed the nation and Said this is the end of segregation We are confronted primarily with a moral issue it is as old as the scriptures and it is clear is the American Constitution a part of the question is Whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities Whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated I remember watching the President on TV and I knew he was talking about me if an American because His skin is dark 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 standing plain and once he made that statement, it's like he'll stop smiling It's like oh man, this guy's gonna preach and he went on at home now The time has come for this nation to fulfill its promise The children's March broke the back of Birmingham Birmingham led to the march on Washington Birmingham changed the South in an incredible way That would be retaliations riots and fatal bombing and the church where it all began But in the year of 1963 and the month of May in the city of Birmingham As never before I plant earlier In It's really funny to think about it that the police The fire department and the KKK were beaten by us kids You know why because they were not looking for us They were never looking for the children the secret weapon. I Felt like I was a giant at 15, yes the unsung heroes the children You can travel crosses in Thailand, there ain't no place in here No, please You You