Misplaced Pages

James Bevel
Bevel in 1987
Born	James Luther Bevel October 19, 1936 Itta Bena, Mississippi, U.S.
Died	December 19, 2008(2008-12-19) (aged 72) Springfield, Virginia, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Minister and civil rights activist, SCLC Director of Direct Action
Known for	Strategist of the Birmingham Children's Crusade, Selma voting rights movement, Selma to Montgomery march, and Chicago Open Housing Movement during the Civil Rights Movement
Spouses	Diane Nash ​ ​(m. 1961; div. 1968)​ Helen Bevel Erica Henry
Children	16

James Luther Bevel (October 19, 1936 – December 19, 2008) was an American minister, leader of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement in the United States, and convicted child molester. As a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and then as its director of direct action and nonviolent education, Bevel initiated, strategized, 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. He suggested that SCLC call for and join a March on Washington in 1963 and strategized the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches which contributed to Congressional passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Prior to his time with SCLC, Bevel worked in the Nashville Student Movement, which conducted the 1960 Nashville Lunch-Counter Sit-Ins, the 1961 Open Theater Movement, and recruited students to continue the 1961 Freedom Rides after they were attacked. He helped with initiating and directing the 1961 and 1962 voting rights movement in Mississippi. In 1967, Bevel was chairman of the Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. He initiated the 1967 March on the United Nations as part of the anti-war movement. His last major action was as co-initiator of the 1995 Day of Atonement/Million Man March in Washington, D.C. For his work, Bevel has been called the strategist and architect of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and, with Dr. King, half of the first-tier team that formulated many of the strategies and actions to gain federal legislation and social changes during the 1960s civil rights era.

In 2005, Bevel was accused of incest by one of his daughters and abuse by three others. He was tried in April 2008, convicted of incest, sentenced to 15 years in prison, and fined $50,000. After serving seven months, he was freed awaiting an appeal; he died of pancreatic cancer in December 2008 and was buried in Eutaw, Alabama.

Early life and education (1936–1961)

Bevel was born in 1936 in Itta Bena, Mississippi, the son of Illie and Dennis Bevel. He was one of 17 children and grew up in rural LeFlore County of the Mississippi Delta and in Cleveland, Ohio. He worked on a cotton plantation for a time as a youth and later in a steel mill. He was educated at segregated local schools in both Mississippi and Cleveland. After high school he served in the U.S. Navy for a time and pursued a career as a singer.

Feeling an inner call to become a minister, he attended the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee from 1957 to 1961 and became a Baptist preacher. He joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. While at seminary, Bevel reread Leo Tolstoy's 1894 book The Kingdom of God Is Within You, which had previously inspired his decision to leave the military. Bevel also read several of Mohandas Gandhi's books and newspapers while taking off-campus workshops on Gandhi's philosophy and nonviolent techniques taught by James Lawson of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Bevel also attended workshops at the Highlander Folk School taught by its founder, Myles Horton, who emphasized grassroots organizing.

Leading the movements (1960s)

Nashville Student Movement (1960–1961) and SNCC

In 1960, along with James Lawson's and Myles Horton's students Bernard Lafayette, John Lewis, Diane Nash, C.T. Vivian and others, Bevel participated in the Nashville Sit-In Movement organized by Nash, whom he would later marry, to desegregate the city's lunch counters. After the success of this action, and with the aid of SCLC's Ella Baker, activist students from Nashville and across the South developed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). While working on SNCC's commitment to desegregate theaters, Bevel successfully directed the 1961 Nashville Open Theater Movement.

The Open Theater Movement, led by Bevel, had success in Nashville, the only city in the country where SCLC activists had organized such an action. In this same period, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) had organized the 1961 Freedom Rides through the Deep South to challenge southern state laws and practices that interstate buses and their facilities remain segregated despite federal laws for equal treatment. After buses and riders were severely attacked, including a firebombing of a bus and beatings with police complicity in Birmingham, Alabama, CORE suspended the rides. Diane Nash, the Nashville Student Movement's chairman, urged the group to continue the Freedom Rides, and called for college volunteers from Fisk and other universities across the South. Bevel selected the student teams for the buses. He and the others were arrested after they arrived in Jackson, Mississippi and tried to desegregate the waiting rooms in the bus terminal. Eventually, the Freedom Riders reached their goal of New Orleans, Louisiana, generating nationwide coverage of the violence to maintain Jim Crow and white supremacy in the South.

While in the Jackson jail, Bevel and Bernard Lafayette initiated the Mississippi Voting Rights Movement. They, Nash, and others stayed in Mississippi to work on grassroots organizing. Activists encountered severe violence at that time and retreated to regroup. Later efforts in Mississippi developed as Freedom Summer in 1964, when extensive voter education and registration efforts took place. Lafayette and his wife, Colia Lidell, also opened an SNCC project in Selma, Alabama, to assist the work of local organizers such as Amelia Boynton.

Bevel and King join forces (1962)

In 1962, Bevel was invited to meet in Atlanta with Martin Luther King Jr, a minister who was head of the SCLC. At that meeting, which had been suggested by James Lawson, Bevel and King agreed to work together on an equal basis, with neither having veto power over the other, on projects under the auspices of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). They agreed to work until they had ended segregation, obtained voting rights, and ensured that all American children had a quality education. They agreed to continue until they had achieved these goals, and to ask for funding from the 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 to augment King's positions as SCLC's Chairman and spokesperson.

Birmingham Children's Crusade (1963)

In 1963, SCLC agreed to assist its co-founder, Fred Shuttlesworth, and others in their work on desegregating retail businesses and jobs in Birmingham, Alabama, where discussion and negotiations with city officials had yielded few results. Weeks of demonstrations and marches resulted in King, Ralph Abernathy, and Shuttlesworth being arrested and jailed. King wanted to fill the jails with protesters, but it was becoming more difficult to find adults to march. They were severely penalized for missing work and were trying to support their families.

Bevel suggested recruiting students in the campaign. King was initially reluctant, but agreed. Bevel spent weeks developing strategy, recruiting and educating students in the philosophy and techniques of nonviolence. Their meetings occurred at Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church, and it was from there that Bevel directed the students, 50 at a time, to peacefully walk to Birmingham's City Hall to talk to Mayor Art Hanes about segregation in the city. Almost 1,000 students were arrested on the first day. The following day, when more students arrived at the church and started to walk to city hall, Eugene "Bull" Connor, City Commissioner of Public Safety, ordered that German Shepherd dogs and high-pressure fire hoses be used to stop them. The national and international media covered the story, and photographs of the force used against schoolchildren generated public outrage against the city and its officials.

Dispute with President John F. Kennedy and the March on Washington

During what was later called the Birmingham Children's Crusade, President John F. Kennedy asked King to stop using children in the campaign. King asked Bevel to refrain from recruiting students, and Bevel instead said that he would organize the children to march to Washington D.C. to meet with Kennedy about segregation, and King agreed. Bevel went to the children and asked them to prepare to take to the highways for a march on Washington, with the goal of questioning the President about his plans to end legal segregation in America. Hearing of this plan, and in response to the city's violent treatment of the students, the Kennedy administration asked SCLC's leaders what they wanted in a comprehensive civil rights bill. Kennedy's staff, who already were drafted one, came to an agreement on its contents with SCLC's leadership. Bevel then called off plans for the children's march.

On August 28, 1963, SCLC participated in what became known as the March on Washington, an event organized by labor leader A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin, who had planned an earlier 1941 March. Bevel and Nash did not attend, and instead watched Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech on television.

Three months after the March on Washington, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson became president.

Alabama Project and the Selma Voting Rights Movement (1965)

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

In September 1963, a bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham killed four young girls attending Sunday School and damaged the church. It was later proven that a Ku Klux Klan chapter was responsible. Bevel proposed organizing the Alabama Voting Rights Project, and co-wrote the project proposal with his wife Diane Nash. They moved to Alabama to implement the project along with Birmingham student activist James Orange.

At the turn of the 20th century, southern state legislatures had passed new constitutions and laws that effectively disenfranchised most blacks. Practices such as requiring payment of poll taxes and literacy tests administered in a discriminatory way by white officials maintained the exclusion of blacks from the political system in the 1960s. SNCC had been conducting a Voting Rights Project (headed by Prathia Hall and Worth Long) since the early 1960s, meeting with violence in Alabama. In late 1963 Bevel, Nash, and Orange also worked with local grassroots organizations to educate blacks and support them in trying to gain registration as voters, but made little progress. They invited King and other SCLC leaders to Selma to develop larger protests and actions, and work alongside Bevel's and Nash's Alabama Project. Together the groups became collectively known as the Selma Voting Rights Movement, with James Bevel as its director.

The Movement began to stage regular marches to the county courthouse, which had limited hours for blacks to register as voters. Some protesters were jailed, but the movement kept the pressure on. On February 16, 1965, Jimmie Lee Jackson, his mother, and grandfather took part in a nighttime march led by C. T. Vivian to protest the related jailing of activist James Orange in Marion, Alabama. The street lights were turned off by Alabama State Troopers who attacked the protesters. In the melee, Jackson was shot in the stomach while defending his mother from an attack. A young man, he died a few days later.

Bevel and others were grieved and outraged. He suggested a march from Selma to Montgomery, the capital, to protest Jackson's death and press Governor George Wallace to support voting rights for African Americans. As the first march reached the end of the Edmund Pettus Bridge and passed out of the city, they were attacked by county police and Alabama State Troopers. The large group were bludgeoned and tear-gassed in what became known as "Bloody Sunday". SNCC Chairman John Lewis and Amelia Boynton were both injured.

In March 1965 protesters made a symbolic march, inspired by a fiery speech by Bevel at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church, where much organizing was done. They were under an injunction by the state, so stayed within the city limits. Organizers appealed to the federal court against an injunction by the state against marching in order to complete their planned march to the capital. Judge Frank Johnson approved a public march. Following the nationwide publicity generated by Jackson's death and the previous attack on peaceful marchers, hundreds of religious, labor and civic leaders, many celebrities, and activists and citizens of many ethnicities traveled to Selma to join the march. By the time they entered Montgomery 54 miles away, the marchers were thousands strong. Even before the final march occurred, President Lyndon Johnson had gone on national television to address a joint session of Congress, appealing for passage of his administration-backed comprehensive Voting Rights Act.

In 1965 SCLC gave its highest honor, the Rosa Parks Award, to James Bevel and Diane Nash for their work on the Alabama Voting Rights Project.

Chicago Freedom Movement (1965–1966) and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement (1967)

In 1966, Bevel chose Chicago as the site of SCLC's long-awaited Northern Campaign. He worked to create tenant unions and build grassroots action to "end" slums. From previous discussions with King, and from work of American Friends Service Committee activist Bill Moyer, Bevel organized, and directed the Chicago open housing movement. Housing in the area was segregated in a de facto way, enforced by covenants and real estate practices. This movement ended within a Summit Conference that included Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley.

As the Chicago movement neared its conclusion A. J. Muste, David Dellinger, representatives of North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, and others asked Bevel to take over the directorship of the Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. Bevel was influential in gaining King's support for the anti-war movement, and with King agreeing to participate as a speaker, Bevel agreed to lead the antiwar effort.

He renamed the organization the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, recruited members of many diverse groups, and organized the April 15, 1967 march from Central Park to the United Nations Building in New York City. Originally planned as a rally in Central Park, the United Nations Anti-Vietnam War March 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 that evolved into the October 1967 March on the Pentagon. This rally was attended by tens of thousands of peace activists who followed the growing counterculture movement.

Memphis sanitation strike (1968)

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2023)

Although he opposed King's and SCLC's participation in it, Bevel, along with King and Ralph Abernathy, helped lead the Memphis sanitation strike by organizing the protest and work stoppage. Due to the violence that ensued during the strike in which 60 people were injured and one was killed, Bevel was among those whom the city of Memphis filed a formal complaint against in the District Court.

King assassination (April 4, 1968)

In 1968 Dr. King objected to Bevel and other SCLC organizers' opposition to proceeding with King's planned Poor People's Campaign. Historian Taylor Branch quotes King in At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965–1968 (2006) as saying that "Andrew Young had given in to doubt, Bevel to brains, and Jackson to ambition", and said that the movement had made them and now they were using the movement to promote themselves. "He confronted Bevel, who had been a mentor to Jackson and Young, as 'a genius who flummoxed his own heart'. 'You don't like to work on anything that isn't your own idea,' King said, 'Bevel, I think you owe me one.'"

Bevel was in the parking lot of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis and witnessed King's assassination on April 4, 1968. He reminded SCLC's executive board and staff that evening that King had left "marching orders" that, if anything should happen to him, he intended for Abernathy to take his place as SCLC's chairman. Bevel continued to oppose the Poor People's Campaign, but served as its director of nonviolent education. After King was assassinated, Bevel made a bizarre claim that James Earl Ray was not the killer and that he had evidence that Ray was innocent. Bevel would not reveal the evidence, and Ray was convicted of the crime. SCLC's remaining board of directors removed Bevel from his leadership positions in 1969.

Bevel in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s

After leaving the SCLC the year prior, Bevel created the Making of the Man Clinic in 1970.

In the 1980s, Bevel supported Ronald Reagan as president. In 1986, Bevel, Chicago alderman Danny K. Davis, singer-songwriter Kristin Lems, and others participated in an unsuccessful project of creating a summit in Chicago for Gorbachev and Reagan to bring peace and resolution to the ongoing Cold War.

In 1989, Bevel and Abernathy organized the National Committee Against Religious Bigotry and Racism. This was financially backed by the Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon, which appeared to be trying to improve its controversial image by allying with such respected leaders. A year earlier, Bevel had denounced the deprogramming of a Moon follower and called for the protection of religious freedom. He also supported Unification Church members in their protest against news media use of the word "Moonie", which they considered offensive.

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 commission was associated with conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche, and sought to persuade the state legislature to reopen its 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 on LaRouche's ticket as the vice presidential candidate. At the time, he was living and working in Leesburg, Virginia, near LaRouche's headquarters. LaRouche, characterized as a perennial candidate, was serving a prison sentence for mail fraud and tax evasion. He engaged in LaRouche seminars on issues including "Is the Anti Defamation League the new KKK?" When Bevel introduced LaRouche at a convention of the 1996 National African American Leadership Summit, both men were booed off the stage. A fight broke out between LaRouche supporters and black nationalists.

Criminal charges (2007–2008)

In May 2007, Bevel was arrested in Alabama on a charge of incest committed sometime between October 1992 and October 1994 in Loudoun County, Virginia. At the time, Bevel was living in Leesburg, Virginia, and working with LaRouche's group, whose international headquarters was a few blocks from Bevel's apartment.

The accuser was one of his daughters, who was 13–15 years old at the time and lived with him. At a family reunion, three other daughters had also alleged that Bevel sexually abused them. Virginia had no statute of limitations for the offense of incest. Bevel pleaded not guilty to the one count charged and maintained his innocence. During his four-day trial in 2008, the accusing daughter testified that she was repeatedly molested by him, beginning when she was six years old.

During the trial, prosecutors presented key evidence: a 2005 police-sting telephone call recorded by the Leesburg police without Bevel's 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 vaginal douche afterward. Bevel said that he had no interest in getting her pregnant. At trial, Bevel denied committing the sexual act and his recorded statement was used against him.

On April 10, 2008, after a three-hour deliberation, the jury convicted Bevel of incest. His bond was revoked and he was taken into custody. On October 15, 2008, the judge sentenced him, based on the jury's recommendation, 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, after a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Six weeks later he died of cancer, at the age of 72, in Springfield, Virginia.

Bevel's attorney requested that the Court of Appeals of Virginia abate the conviction on account of Bevel's 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 commonwealth's Supreme Court held that abatement of criminal convictions was not available in Virginia under the circumstances of Bevel's case. Because the executor of Bevel's estate had not sought to prosecute the appeal, the Court affirmed the dismissal of his appeal as moot.

Marriage and family

In 1961, Bevel married activist Diane Nash after he completed his seminary studies. They worked together on civil rights, and had a daughter and son together. They divorced after seven years. He married two other women in the following decades, and had told the court during his incest case that he had 16 children born of seven women.

Cultural impact

Actor and rapper Common portrays Bevel in the 2014 film Selma.

See also

• African American founding fathers of the United States
• List of civil rights leaders
• List of peace activists
• Pacifism
• Timeline of the civil rights movement

Notes

1. as described by the New York Times

References

1. Faithful to my Father's Dream, Enoch Bevel. dissentmagazine.org.
2. Martin, Michel (9 June 2008). "Incest Survivor Speaks Out". NPR. Retrieved 4 December 2024.
3. Kryn, Randall L. (1989). "James L. Bevel; The Strategist of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement". In Garrow, David (ed.). We Shall Overcome. Brooklyn, New York: Carlson Publishing Company. p. 325. ISBN 978-0926019027.
4. Kryn, Randy (October 2005). "Movement Revision Research Summary Regarding James Bevel". middlebury.edu. Middlebury, Vermont: Middlebury College. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2013-01-28.
5. Thomas Ricks, NPR interview, October 4, 2022
6. ^ Kryn in Garrow, 1989.
7. ^ Kryn in Garrow, 1989, p. 533.
8. Fager, Charles (July 1985). Selma, 1965: The March That Changed the South (2nd ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon Press. ISBN 0-8070-0405-7.
9. ^ Kryn in Garrow, 1989, pp. 517, 523–24.
10. ^ Kryn, 2005.
11. Kryn in Garrow, 1989, title & p. 532.
12. Barakat, Matthew (10 April 2008). "Civil Rights Leader Convicted of Incest". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 26 November 2018. Retrieved 26 November 2018.
13. Morton, Jason (29 December 2008). "Controversial civil rights leader buried in Eutaw". The Tuscaloosa News. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
14. ^ Halberstam, David (2012). The Children. Open Road Media. ISBN 978-1-4532-8613-5.
15. ^ Weber, Bruce (December 23, 2008). "James L. Bevel, 72, an Adviser to Dr. King, Is Dead". The New York Times. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
16. Zinn, Howard (2002). SNCC: The New Abolitionists. Cambridge, Massachusetts: South End Press.
17. Peck, Jim (May 1961). "Freedom Ride" (PDF). CORE-Lator.
18. Arsenault, Raymond (2007). Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
19. Hogan, Wesley (2013-12-01). "In peace and freedom: my journey in Selma". The Sixties. 6 (2): 240–242. doi:10.1080/17541328.2014.898510. ISSN 1754-1328. S2CID 143987916.
20. Krogstad, Jen Manuel (August 19, 2013). "Labor unions were key to march's success". USA Today. McLean, Virginia. Archived from the original on January 30, 2020. Retrieved January 29, 2020.
21. Civil rights teaching, Alabama Project
22. Kryn in Garrow, 1989, pp. 521–522.
23. Kryn in Garrow, 1989, pp. 533–534.
24. "The Day The Pentagon Was Supposed To Lift Off Into Space" Archived 2005-12-19 at the Wayback Machine, American Heritage magazine, 21 October 2005, Accessed September 15, 2014.
25. ^ Taylor Branch, At Canaan's Edge, 2006
26. "Memphis Sanitation Workers' Strike | the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute".
27. "Bevel, James Luther | the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute".
28. "Martin Luther King, Jr., and Memphis Sanitation Workers". 15 August 2016.
29. Kryn in Garrow, 1989, p. 524.
30. "Reverend James Bevel's Biography".
31. Lipinski, Ann Marie (25 November 1986), "Reykjavik's got nothing on us, Chicago informs world leaders", Chicago Tribune, pp. section 2, page 3
32. Leigh, Andrew (October 15, 1989). "Inside Moon's Washington; The Private Side of Public Relations: Improving the Image, Looking for Clout". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. p. b.01.
33. Sargent, Frederic O. (2004). The Civil Rights Revolution: Events and Leaders, 1955-1968. McFarland. p. 137. ISBN 978-0-7864-1914-2.
34. "Call Deprogramming 'Spiritual Rape' Church Chiefs Denounce Whelan Acquittal". Omaha World-Herald. Omaha, Nebraska. November 8, 1988. p. 23.
35. Hatch, Walter (February 13, 1989). "Big names lend luster to group's causes - Church leader gains legitimacy among U.S. conservatives". The Seattle Times. Seattle, Washington: The Seattle Times Company. p. A1.
36. Dorr, Robert (March 10, 1991). "Franklin Stories Called LaRouche 'Moneymaker'". Omaha World-Herald. Omaha, Nebraska: Berkshire Hathaway. p. 1B.
37. Dorr, Robert (September 20, 1992). "Activist in Franklin Probe Is LaRouche Running Mate". Omaha World-Herald. Omaha, Nebraska: Berkshire Hathaway. p. 7B.
38. Barakat, Matthew (April 10, 2008). "Civil rights leader convicted of incest". USA Today. Retrieved May 5, 2010.
39. LaRouche Connection Master List 1991-1995
40. Manning, Marable (Spring 1998). "Black fundamentalism". Dissent. New York. pp. 69–77.
41. "Allegations Pour In Against Civil Rights Leader Accused Of Incest". Washington, DC: NBC-WRC. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
42. Brubaker, Bill (April 11, 2008). "Civil Rights Leader Convicted of Incest". The Washington Post.
43. Brubaker, Bill (April 12, 2008). "Incest Verdict Is Bittersweet For Daughter Of Minister". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 18, 2012.
44. Remington, Alexander (December 24, 2008). "The Rev. James L. Bevel dies at 72; civil rights activist and top lieutenant to King". The Los Angeles Times.
45. "Bevel v. Commonwealth (Va.Ct.App., 14 Sept. 2010)". US Law. Justia. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
46. "Bevel v. Commonwealth (Va.S.Ct., 4 Nov. 2011)". U.S. Law. Justia. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
47. Hall, Heidi (April 21, 2013). "Years After Change, Activist Lives Her Conviction". USA Today. Retrieved August 2, 2013.
48. Fleming, Mike Jr. (9 May 2014). "Common Is James Bevel, Andre Holland Is Andrew Young In Ava DuVernay's Mlk Tale 'Selma'". Deadline. Archived from the original on May 11, 2014. Retrieved 5 June 2014.

External links

• James Bevel profile, The Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute
• Statements by Rev. James L. Bevel, The Freedom Rides (see request for download at bottom of page). From the Helen L. Bevel Archives.
• SNCC Digital Gateway: James Bevel, Documentary website created by the SNCC Legacy Project and Duke University, telling the story of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and grassroots organizing from the inside-out
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Washington Post "A Father's Shadow" Les Carpenter; May 25, 2008
• Eyes on the Prize; Interview with James Bevel, 1985-11-13, American Archive of Public Broadcasting
• Bevel's Last Sermon, YouTube video by Seth McClellan, filmed 10 days before Bevel's death

v t e Civil rights movement (1954–1968)
Events (timeline)	Prior to 1954 Journey of Reconciliation Executive Order 9981 Murders of Harry and Harriette Moore Sweatt v. Painter (1950) McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents (1950) Baton Rouge bus boycott 1954–1959 Brown v. Board of Education Bolling v. Sharpe Briggs v. Elliott Davis v. Prince Edward County Gebhart v. Belton Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company Emmett Till Montgomery bus boycott Browder v. Gayle Tallahassee bus boycott Mansfield school desegregation 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom "Give Us the Ballot" Royal Ice Cream sit-in Little Rock Nine Cooper v. Aaron Civil Rights Act of 1957 Ministers' Manifesto Katz Drug Store sit-in Kissing Case Biloxi wade-ins 1960–1963 New Year's Day March Sit-in movement Greensboro sit-ins Nashville sit-ins Sibley Commission Atlanta sit-ins Savannah Protest Movement Greenville Eight Civil Rights Act of 1960 Ax Handle Saturday Gomillion v. Lightfoot Boynton v. Virginia University of Georgia desegregation riot Rock Hill sit-ins Robert F. Kennedy's Law Day Address Freedom Rides Anniston bombing Birmingham attack Garner v. Louisiana Albany Movement Cambridge movement University of Chicago sit-ins "Second Emancipation Proclamation" Meredith enrollment, Ole Miss riot Atlanta's Berlin Wall "Segregation now, segregation forever" Stand in the Schoolhouse Door 1963 Birmingham campaign Letter from Birmingham Jail Children's Crusade Birmingham riot 16th Street Baptist Church bombing John F. Kennedy's speech to the nation on Civil Rights Detroit Walk to Freedom March on Washington "I Have a Dream" Big Six St. Augustine movement 1964–1968 Twenty-fourth Amendment Chester school protests Bloody Tuesday 1964 Monson Motor Lodge protests Freedom Summer workers' murders Civil Rights Act of 1964 Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States Katzenbach v. McClung 1964–1965 Scripto strike 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches "How Long, Not Long" Voting Rights Act of 1965 Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections March Against Fear White House Conference on Civil Rights Chicago Freedom Movement/Chicago open housing movement Loving v. Virginia Memphis sanitation strike King assassination funeral riots Civil Rights Act of 1968 Poor People's Campaign Green v. County School Board of New Kent County Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co. 1968 Olympics Black Power salute
Activist groups	Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights Atlanta Negro Voters League Atlanta Student Movement Black Panther Party Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) Committee for Freedom Now Committee on Appeal for Human Rights An Appeal for Human Rights Council for United Civil Rights Leadership Council of Federated Organizations Dallas County Voters League Deacons for Defense and Justice Georgia Council on Human Relations Highlander Folk School Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Lowndes County Freedom Organization Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party Montgomery Improvement Association NAACP Youth Council Nashville Student Movement Nation of Islam Northern Student Movement National Council of Negro Women National Urban League Operation Breadbasket Regional Council of Negro Leadership Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) Southern Regional Council Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) The Freedom Singers United Auto Workers (UAW) Wednesdays in Mississippi Women's Political Council
Activists	Ralph Abernathy Victoria Gray Adams Zev Aelony Mathew Ahmann Muhammad Ali William G. Anderson Gwendolyn Armstrong Arnold Aronson Ella Baker James Baldwin Marion Barry Daisy Bates Harry Belafonte James Bevel Claude Black Gloria Blackwell Randolph Blackwell Unita Blackwell Ezell Blair Jr. Joanne Bland Julian Bond Joseph E. Boone William Holmes Borders Amelia Boynton Bruce Boynton Raylawni Branch Stanley Branche Ruby Bridges Aurelia Browder H. Rap Brown Ralph Bunche John H. Calhoun Guy Carawan Stokely Carmichael Johnnie Carr James Chaney J. L. Chestnut Shirley Chisholm Colia Lafayette Clark Ramsey Clark Septima Clark Xernona Clayton Eldridge Cleaver Kathleen Cleaver Josephine Dobbs Clement Charles E. Cobb Jr. Annie Lee Cooper Dorothy Cotton Claudette Colvin Vernon Dahmer Jonathan Daniels Abraham Lincoln Davis Angela Davis Joseph DeLaine Dave Dennis Annie Bell Robinson Devine John Wesley Dobbs Patricia Stephens Due Joseph Ellwanger Charles Evers Medgar Evers Myrlie Evers-Williams Chuck Fager James Farmer Walter Fauntroy James Forman Marie Foster Golden Frinks Andrew Goodman Robert Graetz Fred Gray Jack Greenberg Dick Gregory Lawrence Guyot Prathia Hall Fannie Lou Hamer Fred Hampton William E. Harbour Vincent Harding Dorothy Height Audrey Faye Hendricks Lola Hendricks Aaron Henry Oliver Hill Donald L. Hollowell James Hood Myles Horton Zilphia Horton T. R. M. Howard Ruby Hurley Cecil Ivory Jesse Jackson Jimmie Lee Jackson Richie Jean Jackson T. J. Jemison Esau Jenkins Barbara Rose Johns Vernon Johns Frank Minis Johnson Clarence Jones J. Charles Jones Matthew Jones Vernon Jordan Tom Kahn Clyde Kennard A. D. King C.B. King Coretta Scott King Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Sr. Bernard Lafayette James Lawson Bernard Lee Sanford R. Leigh Jim Letherer Stanley Levison John Lewis Viola Liuzzo Z. Alexander Looby Joseph Lowery Clara Luper Danny Lyon Malcolm X Mae Mallory Vivian Malone Bob Mants Thurgood Marshall Benjamin Mays Franklin McCain Charles McDew Ralph McGill Floyd McKissick Joseph McNeil James Meredith William Ming Jack Minnis Amzie Moore Cecil B. Moore Douglas E. Moore Harriette Moore Harry T. Moore Queen Mother Moore William Lewis Moore Irene Morgan Bob Moses William Moyer Elijah Muhammad Diane Nash Charles Neblett Huey P. Newton Edgar Nixon Jack O'Dell James Orange Rosa Parks James Peck Charles Person Homer Plessy Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Fay Bellamy Powell Rodney N. Powell Al Raby Lincoln Ragsdale A. Philip Randolph George Raymond George Raymond Jr. Bernice Johnson Reagon Cordell Reagon James Reeb Frederick D. Reese Walter Reuther Gloria Richardson David Richmond Bernice Robinson Jo Ann Robinson Angela Russell Bayard Rustin Bernie Sanders Michael Schwerner Bobby Seale Pete Seeger Cleveland Sellers Charles Sherrod Alexander D. Shimkin Fred Shuttlesworth Modjeska Monteith Simkins Glenn E. Smiley A. Maceo Smith Kelly Miller Smith Mary Louise Smith Maxine Smith Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson Charles Kenzie Steele Hank Thomas Dorothy Tillman A. P. Tureaud Hartman Turnbow Albert Turner C. T. Vivian A. T. Walden Wyatt Tee Walker Hollis Watkins Walter Francis White Roy Wilkins Hosea Williams Kale Williams Robert F. Williams Q. V. Williamson Andrew Young Whitney Young Sammy Younge Jr. Bob Zellner James Zwerg
By region	Omaha, Nebraska South Carolina
Movement songs	"Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round" "If You Miss Me at the Back of the Bus" "Kumbaya" "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize" "Oh, Freedom" "This Little Light of Mine" "We Shall Not Be Moved" "We Shall Overcome" "Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind Stayed On Freedom)"
Influences	Nonviolence Padayatra Sermon on the Mount Mahatma Gandhi Ahimsa Satyagraha The Kingdom of God Is Within You Frederick Douglass W. E. B. Du Bois Mary McLeod Bethune
Related	Jim Crow laws Lynching in the United States Plessy v. Ferguson Separate but equal Buchanan v. Warley Hocutt v. Wilson Sweatt v. Painter Hernandez v. Texas Loving v. Virginia African-American women in the movement Jews in the civil rights movement Fifth Circuit Four 16th Street Baptist Church Kelly Ingram Park A.G. Gaston Motel Bethel Baptist Church Brown Chapel Dexter Avenue Baptist Church Holt Street Baptist Church Edmund Pettus Bridge March on Washington Movement African-American churches attacked List of lynching victims in the United States Freedom Schools Freedom songs Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" Voter Education Project 1960s counterculture African American founding fathers of the United States Eyes on the Prize
Legacy	In popular culture Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument Civil Rights Memorial Civil Rights Movement Archive Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument Freedom Rides Museum Freedom Riders National Monument King Center for Nonviolent Social Change Martin Luther King Jr. Day Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial other King memorials Mississippi Civil Rights Museum National Civil Rights Museum National Voting Rights Museum St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument Olympic Black Power Statue
Noted historians	Taylor Branch Clayborne Carson John Dittmer Michael Eric Dyson Chuck Fager Adam Fairclough David Garrow David Halberstam Vincent Harding Steven F. Lawson Doug McAdam Diane McWhorter Charles M. Payne Thomas E. Ricks Timothy Tyson Akinyele Umoja Movement photographers
Civil rights movement portal

v t e LaRouche movement
History	Lyndon LaRouche Views of Lyndon LaRouche Lyndon LaRouche U.S. presidential campaigns California Proposition 64 (1986) LaRouche criminal trials
Active organizations	Australian Citizens Party Bürgerrechtsbewegung Solidarität European Workers Party Executive Intelligence Review LaRouche movement National Caucus of Labor Committees Schiller Institute Worldwide LaRouche Youth Movement
Defunct organizations	Curtin Labor Alliance Fusion Energy Foundation North American Labour Party Party for the Commonwealth of Canada U.S. Labor Party
Members	Robert Beltran Adrian Bennett James Bevel Michael Billington Amelia Boynton Robinson Norbert Brainin Anton Chaitkin Jacques Cheminade Billy Davis Sergey Glazyev Paul Goldstein Janice Hart Hulan Jack Kenneth Kronberg Stanislav Menshikov Theo Mitchell Robert James Moon Kesha Rogers Nataliya Vitrenko William Warfield Frederick Wills Helga Zepp-LaRouche
Members who separated from the movement	Nicholas F. Benton Robert Dreyfuss F. William Engdahl David P. Goldman Laurent Murawiec Webster Tarpley
Critics	Chip Berlet Daniel Patrick Moynihan John Rees
Related persons	Jeremiah Duggan Daniel Estulin Erik R. Fleming Roy Frankhouser Victor Gunnarsson Zbigniew Jaworowski Gordon M. Johnson Karen Kwiatkowski Eric Lerner Fred Newman Friedwardt Winterberg J. L. Chestnut
Wikiquote Wikimedia Commons

• James Bevel
• 1936 births
• 2008 deaths
• 1992 United States vice-presidential candidates
• 20th-century American criminals
• 20th-century American politicians
• Activists for African-American civil rights
• American civil rights activists
• Activists from Chicago
• African-American activists
• American anti–Vietnam War activists
• American Christian pacifists
• American community activists
• American conscientious objectors
• American members of the clergy convicted of crimes
• American people convicted of child sexual abuse
• Deaths from pancreatic cancer in Virginia
• COINTELPRO targets
• Gandhians
• Freedom Riders
• LaRouche movement
• Nashville Student Movement
• American nonviolence advocates
• People convicted of incest
• People from Itta Bena, Mississippi
• People from Leesburg, Virginia
• Selma to Montgomery marches
• Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
• Tolstoyans
• Poor People's Campaign
• Birmingham campaign
• Chicago Freedom Movement
• Suffragists from Mississippi
• People involved with the civil rights movement