James Bevel
Encyclopedia
James L. Bevel was an American
minister and leader of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement who, as the Director of Direct Action and Director of Nonviolent Education of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC) initiated, strategized, directed, and developed SCLC's three major successes of the era: the 1963 Birmingham Children's Crusade
, the 1965 Selma Voting Rights Movement
, and the 1966 Chicago Open Housing Movement
. James Bevel also called for and initially organized the 1963 March on Washington
and initiated and strategized the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches
, SCLC's two main public gatherings of the era. For his work in the 1960s he has been referred to as the "Father of Voting Rights", the "Strategist and Architect of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement", and as half of the Bevel/King team that formulated and communicated the actions, issues, and dialogues which created the historical changes of the era.
Prior to his time with SCLC, Bevel worked in the Nashville Student Movement, where he participated in the 1960 Nashville Sit-In
movement, directed the 1961 Open Theater Movement, chose the riders for the 1961 Nashville Student Movement continuation of the Freedom Rides, and initiated and directed the Mississippi
Voting Rights Movement. Later, in 1967, he took a leave from SCLC to direct the Anti-Vietnam War Movement, and in 1995 co-initiated the Day of Atonement/Million Man March
.
Having been accused of incest
by one of his daughters and denying the charge, Bevel was convicted of unlawful fornication in April 2008 and sentenced to 15 years in prison. After serving seven months, he was freed on bail to appeal, and died of pancreatic cancer
in December 2008. He was buried in a 17-foot canoe in a small country cemetery in Eutaw, Alabama
. Bevel was married four times and had 16 children.
, Bevel grew up and worked on a plantation, received schooling in Mississippi and Cleveland, Ohio
, and served in the Navy for a time. He attended the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee
from 1957 to 1961, and while attending college re-read Leo Tolstoy
's The Kingdom of God is Within You
(he had first read it while in the Navy and which directly led to his decision to leave the military). Bevel also read several of Mohandas Gandhi's books and newspapers while taking workshops on Gandhian nonviolence taught by Rev. James Lawson. Bevel also attended workshops at the Highlander Folk School taught by its founder, Myles Horton
.
, John Lewis
, Diane Nash
and others — Bevel participated in the 1960 Nashville Sit-In Movement
, which desegregated the city's lunch counters. After the success of this early movement action, James Bevel strategized and directed the 1961 Nashville Open Theater Movement, and then coordinating the Nashville students continuation of the 1961 Freedom Rides, organized and led by Nash.
While in jail in Mississippi at the end of the Freedom Rides, Bevel and Lafayette initiated the Mississippi Voting Rights Movement, and they, Nash, and others stayed in Mississippi to work on what soon became known as the Mississippi Freedom Movement. Earlier, the Nashville students and others developed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC), and Bevel, Nash, Lafayette, and Lafayette's wife, Colia Lidell, opened a project in Selma, Alabama
, to assist the work of local organizers like Amelia Boynton.
in Atlanta
. At that meeting, which had been suggested by James Lawson, Bevel and King agreed to work together, on an equal basis, on projects under the auspices of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC) which would end segregation
, obtain voting rights, and assure quality education for all American children. They agreed to not stop until these steps occurred, and also to ask for funding for SCLC only if the group was involved in organizing a movement.
Bevel soon became SCLC's Director of Direct Action and Director of Nonviolent Education, and King remained SCLC's chairman and spokesperson.
In 1963, after SCLC agreed to assist one of its founders, Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth
, and others in their work on a movement in Birmingham, Alabama, James Bevel came up with the idea of using children in the campaign. He spent weeks strategizing, organizing and educating Birmingham's elementary and high school students in the philosophy and techniques of nonviolence, and then directed them to meet at and march from Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church to Birmingham's City Hall to talk to its Mayor about segregation in the city. This action culminated in international public outrage over the cities use of fire hoses and dogs to stop the children from marching to City Hall.
During the Birmingham Children's Crusade, President John F. Kennedy
asked King to stop involving children in the campaign. King told Bevel to not use the students anymore, but instead, Bevel told King he would not stop the action, went directly to the children, and asked them to prepare to take to the highways on a march to Washington to question Kennedy about correcting the problem of segregation
in America. The Kennedy administration, hearing of this plan, asked SCLC's leaders what they would want to see in a comprehensive civil rights bill, which was then written-up and agreed to by SCLC's leadership, thus ending the need for the children of Birmingham to march the highways to Washington.
Shortly thereafter, in August 1963, SCLC participated in what has become known as the March on Washington, an event organized by labor leader A. Philip Randolph
and Bayard Rustin
, who had been the original planners (with A. J. Muste
) of the 1941 March on Washington. Just as the "threat" of the children marching along the highway from Birmingham to Washington led directly to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the threat of the 1941 march led President Franklin Roosevelt to sign the Fair Employment Act, and neither march was actually held.
Weeks after the March On Washington, in September 1963, a bomb at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham
killed four young girls attending Sunday School
. Bevel responded by proposing the Alabama Voting Rights Project, co-wrote the project proposal with his then wife, Diane Nash, and the two soon moved to Alabama and began to implement the project along with Birmingham student activist James Orange
. Starting in late 1963 Bevel, Nash and Orange organized the voting rights movement in Alabama until, in late 1964, SCLC and Dr. King (SCLC's Board and King had opposed and did not work on the Alabama Project) came to Selma to work alongside their Alabama Voting Rights Project, and SNCC's
Voting Rights Project (headed at that time by Reverend Prathia Hall
and Worth Long - Bernard Lafayette had been its first chairman). The Bevel/Nash Alabama Project and its SNCC counterpart then became collectively known as the Selma Voting Rights Movement.
The Selma Voting Rights Movement officially began in early January, 1965, grew, and had some successes. Then, on February 16, 1965, a young man, Jimmie Lee Jackson
, went with his mother and grandfather to participate in a nighttime march led by Reverend C. T. Vivian
to free James Orange, who was being held in jail in Marion, Alabama
. After the street lights were turned off Jackson was shot in the stomach while defending his mother from an attack by the Alabama State Troopers, and he died a few days later.
When Bevel heard of Jackson's death he called for a march from Selma to Montgomery
to talk to Governor George Wallace
about the attack in which Jackson was shot. During the first march a large group of marchers — including SNCC Chairman John Lewis and Amelia Boynton
— were bludgeoned and tear-gassed on the Edmund Pettus Bridge
on what then became known as "Bloody Sunday". After a court order by Judge Frank Johnson
cleared the way for the march, hundreds of religious, labor and civic leaders, and many celebrities and citizens alike, walked the 54 miles from Selma to Montgomery. Before this final march occurred, President Lyndon Johnson had gone on national television to address a joint session of Congress and demanded that it pass a comprehensive Voting Rights Act
.
Because of the unprecedented success of the 1963-1965 Alabama Project, in 1965 SCLC gave its highest honor—the Rosa Parks Award
—to James Bevel and Diane Nash.
as the site of SCLC's long-awaited Northern Campaign. There he at first worked on "ending" slums, and created tenent unions, and then, choosing the main theme of the action—from previous discussions and agreements with Dr. King and from the ideas and work of American Friends Service Committee
activist Bill Moyer
--strategized, organized, and directed the Chicago Open Housing Movement. This movement ended within a Summit Conference which included Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley
.
As the Chicago movement neared its conclusion A.J. Muste, David Dellinger
, representatives of North Vietnam
ese leader Ho Chi Minh
, and others asked Rev. Bevel to take over the directorship of the Spring Mobilization Committee Against the War in Vietnam. After researching the war, and after getting Dr. King's agreement to work with him on this project, Bevel agreed to lead the antiwar effort. He renamed the organization the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam
, brought many diverse groups into the movement, and strategized and organized the April 15, 1967 march from Central Park
to the United Nations Building
. It became the largest demonstration in American history to that date. During his speech to the crowd that day, Bevel called for a larger march in Washington D.C., a plan which evolved into the October 1967 March on the Pentagon.
Bevel, who witnessed King's assassination on April 4, 1968, reminded SCLC's executive board and staff that evening that Dr. King had left "marching orders" that if anything should happen to him Rev. Ralph Abernathy
should take his place as SCLC's Chairman. Bevel opposed SCLC's next action, the 1969 Poor People's Campaign
, but in order to handle any problems which may have occurred he took on the role of its Director of Nonviolent Education.
' 7th Congressional District in 1984.
, organized the National Committee Against Religious Bigotry and Racism, a group backed by the Unification Church
of Sun Myung Moon
. Bevel denounced the deprogramming
of a Moon follower as reminiscent of the "pre-civil rights mentality" and called for the protection of religious rights. In 1987 Bevel had taken part in a public protest against the Chicago Tribune
because of that newspaper's use of the word "Moonies
" when referring to Unification Church members. Bevel handed out fliers at the protest which said: "Are the Moonies our new niggers?"
Bevel moved to Omaha, Nebraska
, in November 1990 as the leader of the "Citizens Fact-Finding Commission to Investigate Human Rights Violations of Children in Nebraska", a group organized by the Schiller Institute
. The group, associated with economist and conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche
, distributed petitions seeking to reopen the state legislature's two-year investigation into the Franklin child prostitution ring allegations
. Bevel never submitted the collected petitions and left the state the following summer. In 1992, Bevel ran as the vice presidential candidate
on LaRouche's ticket while that perennial candidate was serving a prison sentence for mail fraud and tax evasion
. He engaged in LaRouche seminars on issues like "Is the Anti Defamation League the new KKK?" When he introduced LaRouche to a convention of the National African American Leadership Summit in 1996, both men were booed off the stage and a fight broke out between LaRouche supporters and black nationalists.
in Washington, D.C. Its main sponsor was the Nation of Islam
.
committed sometime between October 1992 and October 1994 in Loudoun County, Virginia
; Bevel was living in Leesburg, Virginia
at the time and working with LaRouche's group, whose international headquarters was a few blocks from Bevel's apartment.
The accuser, one of his daughters, was 13–15 years old at the time, and lived with him in the Leesburg apartment. Three of his other daughters have also alleged that Bevel sexually abused them, although not with intercourse. Charged with one-count of unlawful fornication in Virginia
, which has no statute of limitations
for incest, Bevel pleaded innocent and continued to deny the main accusation. His four-day trial in April, 2008, included "testimony about Bevel's philosophies for eradicating lust, and parents' duties to sexually orient their children". During the trial, the accusing daughter testified that she was repeatedly molested
beginning when she was six years old.
During the trial, prosecutors used as key evidence against Bevel a 2005 police-sting telephone call recorded by the Leesburg, Virginia
police without his knowledge. During that 90-minute call, Bevel's daughter asked him why he had sex with her the one time in 1993, and she asked him why he wanted her to use a vagina
l douche
afterward. Bevel's response to his daughter was that he had no interest in getting her pregnant. Bevel's statement was used against him during the trial after he denied committing the sexual act.
On April 10, 2008, after a three-hour deliberation, the jury found Bevel guilty, his bond was revoked, and he was taken into custody. The judge sentenced him on October 15, 2008, to 15 years in prison and fined him $
50,000. After the verdict, Bevel claimed that the charges were part of a conspiracy
to destroy his reputation, and said that he might appeal
. He received an appeal bond on November 4, 2008 and was released from jail three days later, six weeks before his death from pancreatic cancer, at age 72, in a hospice home in Springfield, Virginia
manned by his wife Erica and his daughter Sherri.
Bevel's attorney requested that the Court of Appeals of Virginia
abate the conviction (effectively clearing Bevel's name) on account of his death. The Court of Appeals remanded the case to the trial court to determine whether there was good cause not to abate the conviction. The trial court found that abating the conviction would deny the victim the closure that she sought and denied the motion to abate. The Court of Appeals affirmed this judgment. Bevel's attorney appealed the denial of the abatement motion to the Supreme Court of Virginia
. In an opinion issued November 4, 2011, the Supreme Court held that abatement of criminal convictions was not available in Virginia under the circumstances of Bevel's case and, because the executor of Bevel's estate had not sought to prosecute the appeal, the Court affirmed the conviction.
People of the United States
The people of the United States, also known as simply Americans or American people, are the inhabitants or citizens of the United States. The United States is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...
minister and leader of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement who, as the Director of Direct Action and Director of Nonviolent Education of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is an African-American civil rights organization. SCLC was closely associated with its first president, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr...
(SCLC) initiated, strategized, directed, and developed SCLC's three major successes of the era: the 1963 Birmingham Children's Crusade
Birmingham campaign
The Birmingham campaign was a strategic movement organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to bring attention to the unequal treatment that black Americans endured in Birmingham, Alabama...
, the 1965 Selma Voting Rights Movement
Selma to Montgomery marches
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three marches in 1965 that marked the political and emotional peak of the American civil rights movement. They grew out of the voting rights movement in Selma, Alabama, launched by local African-Americans who formed the Dallas County Voters League...
, and the 1966 Chicago Open Housing Movement
Chicago Freedom Movement
The Chicago Freedom Movement, also known as the Chicago Open Housing Movement, was led by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and Al Raby. The movement included a large rally, marches, and demands to the City of Chicago...
. James Bevel also called for and initially organized the 1963 March on Washington
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was the largest political rally for human rights in United States history and called for civil and economic rights for African Americans. It took place in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, August 28, 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr...
and initiated and strategized the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches
Selma to Montgomery marches
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three marches in 1965 that marked the political and emotional peak of the American civil rights movement. They grew out of the voting rights movement in Selma, Alabama, launched by local African-Americans who formed the Dallas County Voters League...
, SCLC's two main public gatherings of the era. For his work in the 1960s he has been referred to as the "Father of Voting Rights", the "Strategist and Architect of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement", and as half of the Bevel/King team that formulated and communicated the actions, issues, and dialogues which created the historical changes of the era.
Prior to his time with SCLC, Bevel worked in the Nashville Student Movement, where he participated in the 1960 Nashville Sit-In
Nashville sit-ins
The Nashville sit-ins, which lasted from February 13 to May 10, 1960, were part of a nonviolent direct action campaign to end racial segregation at lunch counters in downtown Nashville, Tennessee...
movement, directed the 1961 Open Theater Movement, chose the riders for the 1961 Nashville Student Movement continuation of the Freedom Rides, and initiated and directed the Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
Voting Rights Movement. Later, in 1967, he took a leave from SCLC to direct the Anti-Vietnam War Movement, and in 1995 co-initiated the Day of Atonement/Million Man March
Million Man March
The Million Man March was a gathering of social activists, en masse, held on and around the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on October 16, 1995...
.
Having been accused of incest
Incest
Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...
by one of his daughters and denying the charge, Bevel was convicted of unlawful fornication in April 2008 and sentenced to 15 years in prison. After serving seven months, he was freed on bail to appeal, and died of pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer refers to a malignant neoplasm of the pancreas. The most common type of pancreatic cancer, accounting for 95% of these tumors is adenocarcinoma, which arises within the exocrine component of the pancreas. A minority arises from the islet cells and is classified as a...
in December 2008. He was buried in a 17-foot canoe in a small country cemetery in Eutaw, Alabama
Eutaw, Alabama
Eutaw is a city in Greene County, Alabama, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 1,878. The city is the county seat of Greene County and was named in honor of the Battle of Eutaw Springs, the last engagement of the American Revolutionary War in the Carolinas...
. Bevel was married four times and had 16 children.
Early life and education
Born in Itta Bena, MississippiItta Bena, Mississippi
Itta Bena is a city in Leflore County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 2,208 at the 2000 census. The town's name is derived from the Choctaw phrase iti bina, meaning "forest camp"...
, Bevel grew up and worked on a plantation, received schooling in Mississippi and Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
, and served in the Navy for a time. He attended the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
from 1957 to 1961, and while attending college re-read Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
's The Kingdom of God is Within You
The Kingdom of God Is Within You
The Kingdom of God Is Within You is the non-fiction magnum opus of Leo Tolstoy and was first published in Germany in 1894, after being banned in his home country of Russia...
(he had first read it while in the Navy and which directly led to his decision to leave the military). Bevel also read several of Mohandas Gandhi's books and newspapers while taking workshops on Gandhian nonviolence taught by Rev. James Lawson. Bevel also attended workshops at the Highlander Folk School taught by its founder, Myles Horton
Myles Horton
Myles Horton was an American educator, socialist and cofounder of the Highlander Folk School, famous for its role in the Civil Rights Movement . Horton taught and heavily influenced most of the era's leaders. They included Dr...
.
Nashville Student Movement, SNCC involvement in Selma
In 1960, with several of James Lawson's and Myles Horton's other students — Bernard LafayetteBernard Lafayette
Bernard Lafayette Jr. is a longtime civil rights activist and organizer, who was a leader in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement...
, John Lewis
John Lewis (politician)
John Robert Lewis is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1987. He was a leader in the American Civil Rights Movement and chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee , playing a key role in the struggle to end segregation...
, Diane Nash
Diane Nash
Diane Judith Nash was a leader and strategist of the student wing of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. A historian described her as: "…bright, focused, utterly fearless, with an unerring instinct for the correct tactical move at each increment of the crisis; as a leader, her instincts had been...
and others — Bevel participated in the 1960 Nashville Sit-In Movement
Nashville sit-ins
The Nashville sit-ins, which lasted from February 13 to May 10, 1960, were part of a nonviolent direct action campaign to end racial segregation at lunch counters in downtown Nashville, Tennessee...
, which desegregated the city's lunch counters. After the success of this early movement action, James Bevel strategized and directed the 1961 Nashville Open Theater Movement, and then coordinating the Nashville students continuation of the 1961 Freedom Rides, organized and led by Nash.
While in jail in Mississippi at the end of the Freedom Rides, Bevel and Lafayette initiated the Mississippi Voting Rights Movement, and they, Nash, and others stayed in Mississippi to work on what soon became known as the Mississippi Freedom Movement. Earlier, the Nashville students and others developed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ' was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a series of student meetings led by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1960...
(SNCC), and Bevel, Nash, Lafayette, and Lafayette's wife, Colia Lidell, opened a project in Selma, Alabama
Selma, Alabama
Selma is a city in and the county seat of Dallas County, Alabama, United States, located on the banks of the Alabama River. The population was 20,512 at the 2000 census....
, to assist the work of local organizers like Amelia Boynton.
1962 Bevel/King Agreement
In 1962, after several successful years working on and organizing within the Nashville Student Movement, James Bevel was invited to meet with Martin Luther King, Jr.Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
in Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
. At that meeting, which had been suggested by James Lawson, Bevel and King agreed to work together, on an equal basis, on projects under the auspices of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is an African-American civil rights organization. SCLC was closely associated with its first president, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr...
(SCLC) which would end segregation
Racial segregation in the United States
Racial segregation in the United States, as a general term, included the racial segregation or hypersegregation of facilities, services, and opportunities such as housing, medical care, education, employment, and transportation along racial lines...
, obtain voting rights, and assure quality education for all American children. They agreed to not stop until these steps occurred, and also to ask for funding for SCLC only if the group was involved in organizing a movement.
Bevel soon became SCLC's Director of Direct Action and Director of Nonviolent Education, and King remained SCLC's chairman and spokesperson.
1963 Birmingham Children's Crusade and its planned March on Washington
Fred Shuttlesworth
Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, born Freddie Lee Robinson, was a U.S. civil rights activist who led the fight against segregation and other forms of racism as a minister in Birmingham, Alabama...
, and others in their work on a movement in Birmingham, Alabama, James Bevel came up with the idea of using children in the campaign. He spent weeks strategizing, organizing and educating Birmingham's elementary and high school students in the philosophy and techniques of nonviolence, and then directed them to meet at and march from Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church to Birmingham's City Hall to talk to its Mayor about segregation in the city. This action culminated in international public outrage over the cities use of fire hoses and dogs to stop the children from marching to City Hall.
During the Birmingham Children's Crusade, President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
asked King to stop involving children in the campaign. King told Bevel to not use the students anymore, but instead, Bevel told King he would not stop the action, went directly to the children, and asked them to prepare to take to the highways on a march to Washington to question Kennedy about correcting the problem of segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
in America. The Kennedy administration, hearing of this plan, asked SCLC's leaders what they would want to see in a comprehensive civil rights bill, which was then written-up and agreed to by SCLC's leadership, thus ending the need for the children of Birmingham to march the highways to Washington.
Shortly thereafter, in August 1963, SCLC participated in what has become known as the March on Washington, an event organized by labor leader A. Philip Randolph
A. Philip Randolph
Asa Philip Randolph was a leader in the African American civil-rights movement and the American labor movement. He organized and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first predominantly Negro labor union. In the early civil-rights movement, Randolph led the March on Washington...
and Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustin was an American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, pacifism and non-violence, and gay rights.In the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation , Rustin practiced nonviolence...
, who had been the original planners (with A. J. Muste
A. J. Muste
The Reverend Abraham Johannes "A.J." Muste was a Dutch-born American clergyman and political activist. Muste is best remembered for his work in the labor movement, pacifist movement, and the US civil rights movement.-Early years:...
) of the 1941 March on Washington. Just as the "threat" of the children marching along the highway from Birmingham to Washington led directly to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the threat of the 1941 march led President Franklin Roosevelt to sign the Fair Employment Act, and neither march was actually held.
The Alabama Project and the 1965 Selma Voting Rights Movement
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
killed four young girls attending Sunday School
Sunday school
Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...
. Bevel responded by proposing the Alabama Voting Rights Project, co-wrote the project proposal with his then wife, Diane Nash, and the two soon moved to Alabama and began to implement the project along with Birmingham student activist James Orange
James Orange
James Edward Orange, MLK March website biography. Accessed 2008-02-17. was a pastor and a leading civil rights activist in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement in America.-Personal life:...
. Starting in late 1963 Bevel, Nash and Orange organized the voting rights movement in Alabama until, in late 1964, SCLC and Dr. King (SCLC's Board and King had opposed and did not work on the Alabama Project) came to Selma to work alongside their Alabama Voting Rights Project, and SNCC's
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ' was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a series of student meetings led by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1960...
Voting Rights Project (headed at that time by Reverend Prathia Hall
Prathia Hall
Prathia Hall was a leader and activist in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. She did her main work while a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee , and was particularly active in Southwest Georgia, in the Albany Movement, and as a speaker at movement events.-See also:*Timeline of...
and Worth Long - Bernard Lafayette had been its first chairman). The Bevel/Nash Alabama Project and its SNCC counterpart then became collectively known as the Selma Voting Rights Movement.
The Selma Voting Rights Movement officially began in early January, 1965, grew, and had some successes. Then, on February 16, 1965, a young man, Jimmie Lee Jackson
Jimmie Lee Jackson
Jimmie Lee Jackson was a civil rights protestor who was shot and killed by Alabama State Trooper James Bonard Fowler in 1965. Jackson was unarmed. His death inspired the Selma to Montgomery marches, an important event in the American Civil Rights movement. He was 26 years old.-Personal...
, went with his mother and grandfather to participate in a nighttime march led by Reverend C. T. Vivian
C. T. Vivian
Cordy Tindell Vivian is a minister, author, and was a close friend and lieutenant of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. during the American Civil Rights Movement. Vivian continues to reside in Atlanta, Georgia and most recently founded the C. T. Vivian Leadership Institute, Inc. Rev...
to free James Orange, who was being held in jail in Marion, Alabama
Marion, Alabama
Marion is the county seat of Perry County, Alabama. As of the 2000 census, the population of the city is 3,511. First called Muckle Ridge, the city was renamed after a hero of the American Revolution, Francis Marion.-Geography:...
. After the street lights were turned off Jackson was shot in the stomach while defending his mother from an attack by the Alabama State Troopers, and he died a few days later.
When Bevel heard of Jackson's death he called for a march from Selma to Montgomery
Selma to Montgomery marches
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three marches in 1965 that marked the political and emotional peak of the American civil rights movement. They grew out of the voting rights movement in Selma, Alabama, launched by local African-Americans who formed the Dallas County Voters League...
to talk to Governor George Wallace
George Wallace
George Corley Wallace, Jr. was the 45th Governor of Alabama, serving four terms: 1963–1967, 1971–1979 and 1983–1987. "The most influential loser" in 20th-century U.S. politics, according to biographers Dan T. Carter and Stephan Lesher, he ran for U.S...
about the attack in which Jackson was shot. During the first march a large group of marchers — including SNCC Chairman John Lewis and Amelia Boynton
Amelia Boynton Robinson
Amelia Platts Boynton Robinson was a leader of the American Civil Rights Movement in Selma, Alabama. A key figure in the 1965 march that became known as Bloody Sunday, she later became vice-president of the Schiller Institute affiliated with Lyndon LaRouche. She was awarded the Martin Luther King,...
— were bludgeoned and tear-gassed on the Edmund Pettus Bridge
Edmund Pettus Bridge
The Edmund Pettus Bridge is a bridge that carries U.S. Highway 80 across the Alabama River in Selma, Alabama. Built in 1940, it is named for Edmund Winston Pettus, a former Confederate brigadier general and U.S. Senator from Alabama. The bridge is a steel through arch bridge with a central span of...
on what then became known as "Bloody Sunday". After a court order by Judge Frank Johnson
Frank Minis Johnson
Frank Minis Johnson, Jr. was a United States Federal judge, made a number of landmark civil rights rulings that helped end segregation in the South...
cleared the way for the march, hundreds of religious, labor and civic leaders, and many celebrities and citizens alike, walked the 54 miles from Selma to Montgomery. Before this final march occurred, President Lyndon Johnson had gone on national television to address a joint session of Congress and demanded that it pass a comprehensive Voting Rights Act
Voting Rights Act
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of national legislation in the United States that outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S....
.
Because of the unprecedented success of the 1963-1965 Alabama Project, in 1965 SCLC gave its highest honor—the Rosa Parks Award
Rosa Parks
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the U.S. Congress called "the first lady of civil rights", and "the mother of the freedom movement"....
—to James Bevel and Diane Nash.
The 1966 Chicago Open Housing Movement and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement
In 1966, Bevel chose ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
as the site of SCLC's long-awaited Northern Campaign. There he at first worked on "ending" slums, and created tenent unions, and then, choosing the main theme of the action—from previous discussions and agreements with Dr. King and from the ideas and work of American Friends Service Committee
American Friends Service Committee
The American Friends Service Committee is a Religious Society of Friends affiliated organization which works for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world...
activist Bill Moyer
William Moyer
Bill Moyer , was a United States social change activist who was a principal organizer in the 1966 Chicago Open Housing Movement...
--strategized, organized, and directed the Chicago Open Housing Movement. This movement ended within a Summit Conference which included Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley
Richard J. Daley
Richard Joseph Daley served for 21 years as the mayor and undisputed Democratic boss of Chicago and is considered by historians to be the "last of the big city bosses." He played a major role in the history of the Democratic Party, especially with his support of John F...
.
As the Chicago movement neared its conclusion A.J. Muste, David Dellinger
David Dellinger
David T. Dellinger , was an influential American radical, a pacifist and activist for nonviolent social change.-Chicago Seven:...
, representatives of North Vietnam
North Vietnam
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam , was a communist state that ruled the northern half of Vietnam from 1954 until 1976 following the Geneva Conference and laid claim to all of Vietnam from 1945 to 1954 during the First Indochina War, during which they controlled pockets of territory throughout...
ese leader Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh
Hồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam...
, and others asked Rev. Bevel to take over the directorship of the Spring Mobilization Committee Against the War in Vietnam. After researching the war, and after getting Dr. King's agreement to work with him on this project, Bevel agreed to lead the antiwar effort. He renamed the organization the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam
National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam
The National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam was a relatively short-lived coalition of antiwar activists formed in 1967 to organize large demonstrations in opposition to the Vietnam War. The organization was informally known as "the Mobe"....
, brought many diverse groups into the movement, and strategized and organized the April 15, 1967 march from Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
to the United Nations Building
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
. It became the largest demonstration in American history to that date. During his speech to the crowd that day, Bevel called for a larger march in Washington D.C., a plan which evolved into the October 1967 March on the Pentagon.
Bevel, who witnessed King's assassination on April 4, 1968, reminded SCLC's executive board and staff that evening that Dr. King had left "marching orders" that if anything should happen to him Rev. Ralph Abernathy
Ralph Abernathy
Ralph David Abernathy, Sr. was a leader of the American Civil Rights Movement, a minister, and a close associate of Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Following King's assassination, Dr. Abernathy took up the leadership of the SCLC Poor People's Campaign and...
should take his place as SCLC's Chairman. Bevel opposed SCLC's next action, the 1969 Poor People's Campaign
Poor People's Campaign
Organized by Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Poor People's Campaign addressed the issues of economic justice and housing for the poor in the United States King said, “We believe the highest patriotism demands the ending of the war and the opening of a...
, but in order to handle any problems which may have occurred he took on the role of its Director of Nonviolent Education.
1984 Congressional bid
Bevel ran as the Republican candidate for IllinoisIllinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
' 7th Congressional District in 1984.
Moon and LaRouche involvements
In 1989 Bevel, together with Ralph AbernathyRalph Abernathy
Ralph David Abernathy, Sr. was a leader of the American Civil Rights Movement, a minister, and a close associate of Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Following King's assassination, Dr. Abernathy took up the leadership of the SCLC Poor People's Campaign and...
, organized the National Committee Against Religious Bigotry and Racism, a group backed by the Unification Church
Unification Church
The Unification Church is a new religious movement founded by Korean religious leader Sun Myung Moon. In 1954, the Unification Church was formally and legally established in Seoul, South Korea, as The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity . In 1994, Moon gave the church...
of Sun Myung Moon
Sun Myung Moon
Sun Myung Moon is the Korean founder and leader of the worldwide Unification Church. He is also the founder of many other organizations and projects...
. Bevel denounced the deprogramming
Deprogramming
Deprogramming refers to actions that attempt to force a person to abandon allegiance to a religious, political, economic, or social group. Methods and practices may involve kidnapping and coercion...
of a Moon follower as reminiscent of the "pre-civil rights mentality" and called for the protection of religious rights. In 1987 Bevel had taken part in a public protest against the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
because of that newspaper's use of the word "Moonies
Moonies
Moonie is a nickname sometimes used to refer to members of the Unification Church. This is derived from the name of the church's founder Sun Myung Moon, and was first used in 1974 by the American media. Church members have used the word "Moonie", including Sun Myung Moon, President of the...
" when referring to Unification Church members. Bevel handed out fliers at the protest which said: "Are the Moonies our new niggers?"
Bevel moved to Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
, in November 1990 as the leader of the "Citizens Fact-Finding Commission to Investigate Human Rights Violations of Children in Nebraska", a group organized by the Schiller Institute
Schiller Institute
The Schiller Institute is an international political and economic thinktank, one of the primary organizations of the LaRouche movement, with headquarters in Germany and the United States, and supporters in Australia, Canada, Russia, and South America, among others, according to its website.The...
. The group, associated with economist and conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche
Lyndon LaRouche
Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche, Jr. is an American political activist and founder of a network of political committees, parties, and publications known collectively as the LaRouche movement...
, distributed petitions seeking to reopen the state legislature's two-year investigation into the Franklin child prostitution ring allegations
Franklin child prostitution ring allegations
The Franklin child prostitution ring allegations were a series of high-profile accusations and legal actions between 1988 and 1991 surrounding an alleged child sex ring serving prominent citizens of Omaha, Nebraska, as well as high-level U.S. politicians. The allegations centered around the actions...
. Bevel never submitted the collected petitions and left the state the following summer. In 1992, Bevel ran as the vice presidential candidate
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
on LaRouche's ticket while that perennial candidate was serving a prison sentence for mail fraud and tax evasion
Tax evasion
Tax evasion is the general term for efforts by individuals, corporations, trusts and other entities to evade taxes by illegal means. Tax evasion usually entails taxpayers deliberately misrepresenting or concealing the true state of their affairs to the tax authorities to reduce their tax liability,...
. He engaged in LaRouche seminars on issues like "Is the Anti Defamation League the new KKK?" When he introduced LaRouche to a convention of the National African American Leadership Summit in 1996, both men were booed off the stage and a fight broke out between LaRouche supporters and black nationalists.
1995 Day of Atonement/Million Man March
Louis Farakhan credits Bevel with helping to formulate the 1995 Day of Atonement/Million Man MarchMillion Man March
The Million Man March was a gathering of social activists, en masse, held on and around the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on October 16, 1995...
in Washington, D.C. Its main sponsor was the Nation of Islam
Nation of Islam
The Nation of Islam is a mainly African-American new religious movement founded in Detroit, Michigan by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad in July 1930 to improve the spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition of African-Americans in the United States of America. The movement teaches black pride and...
.
Criminal charges
In May 2007, Bevel was arrested in Alabama on charges of incestIncest
Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...
committed sometime between October 1992 and October 1994 in Loudoun County, Virginia
Loudoun County, Virginia
Loudoun County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and is part of the Washington Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the county is estimated to be home to 312,311 people, an 84 percent increase over the 2000 figure of 169,599. That increase makes the county the fourth...
; Bevel was living in Leesburg, Virginia
Leesburg, Virginia
Leesburg is a historic town in, and county seat of, Loudoun County, Virginia, United States of America. Leesburg is located west-northwest of Washington, D.C. along the base of the Catoctin Mountain and adjacent to the Potomac River. Its population according the 2010 Census is 42,616...
at the time and working with LaRouche's group, whose international headquarters was a few blocks from Bevel's apartment.
The accuser, one of his daughters, was 13–15 years old at the time, and lived with him in the Leesburg apartment. Three of his other daughters have also alleged that Bevel sexually abused them, although not with intercourse. Charged with one-count of unlawful fornication in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, which has no statute of limitations
Statute of limitations
A statute of limitations is an enactment in a common law legal system that sets the maximum time after an event that legal proceedings based on that event may be initiated...
for incest, Bevel pleaded innocent and continued to deny the main accusation. His four-day trial in April, 2008, included "testimony about Bevel's philosophies for eradicating lust, and parents' duties to sexually orient their children". During the trial, the accusing daughter testified that she was repeatedly molested
Child sexual abuse
Child sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include asking or pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities , indecent exposure with intent to gratify their own sexual desires or to...
beginning when she was six years old.
During the trial, prosecutors used as key evidence against Bevel a 2005 police-sting telephone call recorded by the Leesburg, Virginia
Leesburg, Virginia
Leesburg is a historic town in, and county seat of, Loudoun County, Virginia, United States of America. Leesburg is located west-northwest of Washington, D.C. along the base of the Catoctin Mountain and adjacent to the Potomac River. Its population according the 2010 Census is 42,616...
police without his knowledge. During that 90-minute call, Bevel's daughter asked him why he had sex with her the one time in 1993, and she asked him why he wanted her to use a vagina
Vagina
The vagina is a fibromuscular tubular tract leading from the uterus to the exterior of the body in female placental mammals and marsupials, or to the cloaca in female birds, monotremes, and some reptiles. Female insects and other invertebrates also have a vagina, which is the terminal part of the...
l douche
Douche
A douche is a device used to introduce a stream of water into the body for medical or hygienic reasons, or the stream of water itself.Douche usually refers to vaginal irrigation, the rinsing of the vagina, but it can also refer to the rinsing of any body cavity. A douche bag is a piece of...
afterward. Bevel's response to his daughter was that he had no interest in getting her pregnant. Bevel's statement was used against him during the trial after he denied committing the sexual act.
On April 10, 2008, after a three-hour deliberation, the jury found Bevel guilty, his bond was revoked, and he was taken into custody. The judge sentenced him on October 15, 2008, to 15 years in prison and fined him $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
50,000. After the verdict, Bevel claimed that the charges were part of a conspiracy
Conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
to destroy his reputation, and said that he might appeal
Appeal
An appeal is a petition for review of a case that has been decided by a court of law. The petition is made to a higher court for the purpose of overturning the lower court's decision....
. He received an appeal bond on November 4, 2008 and was released from jail three days later, six weeks before his death from pancreatic cancer, at age 72, in a hospice home in Springfield, Virginia
Springfield, Virginia
Springfield is a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States and a suburb of Washington, D.C. The Springfield CDP is recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau with a population of 30,484 as of the 2010 census. Homes and businesses in bordering CDPs including North Springfield,...
manned by his wife Erica and his daughter Sherri.
Bevel's attorney requested that the Court of Appeals of Virginia
Court of Appeals of Virginia
The Court of Appeals of Virginia, established January 1, 1985, is an eleven-judge body that hears appeals from decisions of Virginia's circuit courts and the Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission. The Court sits in panels of at least three judges, and sometimes hears cases en banc...
abate the conviction (effectively clearing Bevel's name) on account of his death. The Court of Appeals remanded the case to the trial court to determine whether there was good cause not to abate the conviction. The trial court found that abating the conviction would deny the victim the closure that she sought and denied the motion to abate. The Court of Appeals affirmed this judgment. Bevel's attorney appealed the denial of the abatement motion to the Supreme Court of Virginia
Supreme Court of Virginia
The Supreme Court of Virginia is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It primarily hears appeals from the trial-level city and county Circuit Courts, as well as the criminal law, family law and administrative law cases that go through the Court of Appeals of Virginia. It is one of...
. In an opinion issued November 4, 2011, the Supreme Court held that abatement of criminal convictions was not available in Virginia under the circumstances of Bevel's case and, because the executor of Bevel's estate had not sought to prosecute the appeal, the Court affirmed the conviction.
See also
- List of civil rights leaders
- Timeline of the African-American Civil Rights Movement
External links
- The History Makers: Rev. James Bevel
- James Bevel's website
- James Bevel profile The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute
- James Bevel and the Right To Vote Movement
- Statements by Rev. James L. Bevel, The Freedom Rides http://ifile.it/l4kib13 (see request for download at bottom of page). From the Helen L. Bevel Archives.
- Rev. James Bevel speaks about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s commitment in Birmingham, AL, http://ifile.it/24kvt8d. From the Helen L. Bevel Archives.