This year, several events of the civil right movement, both wonderful and terrible, mark their 50th anniversaries. May 3, 2013 was the 50th anniversary of Double D Day, the day eleven-year-old Nicey, the protagonist in my book, Fearless Freedom, marched in the historic Children’s Crusade protests in Birmingham, Alabama, as part of the civil rights campaign, Project C (confrontation.) Birmingham’s police chief Bull Connor made the march infamous when he used police dogs and fire hoses with 700 pounds of pressure to attack the protestors. Children and teens were viciously assaulted by water hoses and German Shepherds, and then thrown in jail. The whole thing was televised live, and people around the world reacted in horror to the cruel treatment of young African Americans. The children who marched helped to end segregation in downtown Birmingham. On May 10, Birmingham’s prominent businessmen reached an agreement with civil rights leaders to desegregate the downtown facilities and hire African Americans as clerks and salespeople, thanks to kid power!
June 12, 1963, was the anniversary of both happy and sad events. Just hours after President Kennedy gave an important speech calling for civil rights legislation, Medgar Evers, Mississippi activist and civil rights leader was assassinated in the driveway of his home. Two trials with all-white juries ended in deadlock and Medgar Evers’ murderer, Byron De La Beckwith, lived as a free man for almost thirty years. In 1994, based on new evidence, De La Beckwith was brought to trial and convicted.
June 23, was the 50th anniversary of the Detroit Walk to Freedom with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which was organized in support of the protesters in Birmingham. At that march, Dr. King previewed his famous I Have a Dream speech.
August 28 is the 50th anniversary of The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, one of the largest political gatherings for civil rights in the history of the United States. Over 200,000 people came by bus, train, plane, car, and foot power, to attend the famous march.
Many of the people who took part in these events are alive and well. Do you know anyone who attended the March on Washington? Do you know anyone who remembers watching the television reports of the Children’s Campaign in Birmingham? Why not ask the elders in your family and community?
For more information check out: www.50thanniversarymarchonwashington.com.
Read accounts from people who were there and learn more about events to commemorate the March on Washington’s anniversary taking place all over the country. There might be something happening in your town. Surf the web for articles and reports about civil rights movement.