Consider This from NPR - Remembering The Children's Crusade On Juneteenth

Episode Date: June 19, 2023

While Black people in this country have been celebrating Juneteenth for decades, what is sometimes referred to as Emancipation Day or America's "second Independence Day" is only being celebrated as a national holiday this year for the third time.June 19th marks the date in 1865 when the last enslaved people in the U.S. learned they were free. on that day, Major General Gordon Granger of the Union Army delivered the news to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas.But for African Americans, the fight for freedom began long before the Civil War. And it didn't end with the Emancipation Proclamation. So to mark the day we're looking at a turning point in the fight for civil rights — The Children's Crusade. NPR's Debbie Elliot traveled to Birmingham, Alabama, which is marking the 60th anniversary of the movement, when leaders like Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. looked to children to join the struggle for equal rights. The vicious response from white segregationists shocked the world and galvanized support for the Civil Rights Act.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University is committed to moving the world forward, working to tackle some of society's biggest challenges. Nine campuses, one purpose. Creating tomorrow, today. More at iu.edu. Juneteenth is one of the oldest celebrations marking the end of slavery in the U.S. It's been celebrated by Black people in this country for decades, since the late 1800s. It's time to celebrate life, love, and culture, and neighborhood, and connecting back to the community. Juneteenth party! Juneteenth celebration, Juneteenth party. But federal recognition took more than 100 years longer.

The U.S. has only recognized Juneteenth as a federal holiday since 2021. President Biden marked the occasion last week with a massive concert on the South Lawn of the White House. America is a promise. A promise of freedom, liberty, and justice. The story of Juneteenth, as we celebrate it, is the story of our ongoing fight to realize that promise. That was Vice President Kamala Harris. The holiday marks the date in 1865 when the last enslaved people in the U.S. learned that they were free, when Major General Gordon Granger of the Union Army delivered the news of their freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston. But for African Americans,

the fight for freedom began long before the Civil War, and it didn't end with the Emancipation Proclamation. So we wanted to look back at a place and a time that marked a turning point in modern American history in the battle for civil rights. 1963, Birmingham, Alabama. Civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called Birmingham, Alabama, the most segregated city in the United States. And in 1963, Dr. King and other leaders brought the battle there. To dramatize this blatant injustice and to demand that the federal government not put a cent in this city unless it decides to face the realities of desegregation. And the thousands of peaceful protesters that marched, their skin flayed by fire hoses, torn away by police dogs. They were kids, children

who were willing to put their lives on the line for freedom. As a nation watched the violence unleashed on children, the brutal realities of segregation became harder to deny. The events in Birmingham and elsewhere have so increased the cries for equality that no city or state or legislative body can prudently choose to ignore them. Coming up, we look back at the Birmingham Children's Campaign and talk to the people who helped make history. From NPR, I'm Juana Summers. It's Monday, June 19th. Support comes from our 2023 lead sponsor of Consider This, Capital One. With the Capital One Quicksilver Card. Details at CapitalOne.com.

What's in your wallet? Credit approval required. Capital One Bank USA NA. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today, or visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply. Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations, and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all. On the web at theschmidt.org.

It's Consider This from NPR. Birmingham, Alabama is celebrating the 60th anniversary of a moment in the civil rights movement that marked a turning point when leaders like Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. looked to children to join the struggle for equal rights. The vicious response from white segregationists shocked the world and galvanized support for the Civil Rights Act. NPR's Debbie Elliott took a look back to what's known as the Children's Crusade. Paulette Roby walks along historic 4th Avenue in downtown Birmingham. All of these are black-owned businesses along here, the barbershop. Roby chairs an association of the so-called foot soldiers, dedicated to documenting the stories of people like Roby, who as children spent the spring of 1963 peacefully marching for human rights. Roby heads to where it happened, Kelly Ingram Park. This is a very sacred place for me. It's catty-cornered to 16th Street Baptist

Church. Demonstrators deployed from there, but police were waiting with dogs and fire hoses and yellow school buses turned paddy wagons. Several times I had to run to keep from either being arrested or the dogs being let loose on me. She eventually was arrested. Robie, now 73, was 13 years old at the time. Her memories are raw when she passes a particular magnolia tree. I get an eerie feeling when I come around that tree because of the time that they put the water hose on us. And I remember how Dr. King had us to lock our arms so that the pressure of the water hose would not take us halfway down the street. Sometimes it just gets hard for you to talk about it. And it was hard for the nation and the world to see back in 1963.

This scene, officers turning attack dogs and fire hoses on the young protesters, was pivotal in the civil rights movement. The images sparked outrage and drew new attention to the struggle to end Jim Crow laws that relegated black people to second-class citizenship. Taking the fight to Birmingham was a deliberate strategy to crack the hardcore segregated South. Activists here had met fierce resistance trying to desegregate schools, buses, and retail businesses. There were beatings and bombings, so many that the city was known as Bombingham. Although there was resistance to change, this 1963 campaign actually won. I think that's what people need to remember. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin. In commemorating 60 years later, there's an opportunity to say, here is the blueprint on how to affect change,

how to make change. Here's the strategy of how it got done and won. My name is Terry Collins, and I was one of the thousands that participated in the Children's March. Birmingham at that time was in constant turmoil. We were in a state of siege. Fear and intimidation, Collins says, were part of daily life, so much that kids were willing to rise up in ways that their parents could not. People had economic concerns and the children were not subject to that. They didn't have a job. They didn't have to be concerned about their careers being ruined and all that. We had nothing to lose. Collins was

15. His younger brother marched alongside him. He recalls the meticulous organization behind the Children's Crusade, including classes in nonviolence. If you could not refrain from retaliation when faced with force, he says, they would find another role for you, perhaps making signs. The demonstrators would divide up and depart from different directions to multiple destinations. He says they were prepared for attacks and even jail. Normally people run away from being arrested, but we ran to it. Even though we might have to suffer brutality, we were going through that anyway. The threat of jailing us, so what? We were already in jail even in our neighborhoods. There was just no fence. After months of mass meetings and training,

the foot soldiers got their cue that it was time to deploy on local radio. There was a signal, and that was good googly-woobly. That was the signal that that day, at a certain time, we would walk out of school and all converge downtown. Good googly-woobly. What's up, everybody? I woke up that morning with my mind on freedom. I was so excited. I woke up this morning with my mind on freedom. Janice Wesley Kelsey was 16. I marched on May 2nd, 1963. It was a Thursday, and I remember it like yesterday. She, too, was tuned in to DJ Shelly Stewart on WENNAM for instructions, all in code.

He was saying we're going to have a party in the park. I knew what that meant, Kelly England Park. We're going to jump and shout. We're going to turn it out. We were going to school, but we weren't going to stay. Don't forget kids, there's going to be a party in the park and don't forget your toothbrushes because luncheon will be served. She slipped a toothbrush and change of underwear in her purse, prepared for jail. She was arrested and held for four days. Kelsey says participating in the Children's Crusade taught her to question a system that left black students with outdated hand-me-downs from all white schools

and barred them from eating at a lunch counter. And that was my first indication that something was wrong. I knew about segregation, but my thought was it's just separation. I didn't get the idea of inequality. Violence against activists continued that year, leading up to the Ku Klux Klan bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church that killed four black girls. Kelsey says talking about what happened in 1963 didn't come easily. She was silent for decades. But unless the foot soldiers tell their stories, she says, the legacy of the Birmingham movement could be in jeopardy. She's worried now, 60 years later, conservative politicians are trying to curtail the teaching of such history.

It concerns me that some people in leadership positions like governors and some legislators are trying to turn back the hands of time. They are putting legislation forward that would say we should not study black history. And this is a part of American history, and it should not be shut out. Back in Kelly Ingram Park, Paulette Roby says it was their faith and the music that kept the foot soldiers pressing forward. Those songs, those freedom songs, they really, really, really did a lot for me and got me over. I woke up this morning with my mind set on freedom. I woke up this morning with my mind sit on freedom. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Roby says the fight for equal rights isn't over and wonders if the struggle will ever end.

Oh, we shall overcome. That was Debbie Elliott reporting from Birmingham, Alabama. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Juana Summers. Support for NPR and the following message come from the Kauffman Foundation, providing access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity,

regardless of race, gender, or geography. Kauffman.org Support for NPR and the following message come from Carnegie Corporation of New York, working to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for education, democracy and peace. More information at carnegie.org.