

King was arrested and wrote his famed “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” One of the activists, James Bevel of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, suggested getting the youth involved in the protests. It was during this time, April 12 to be exact, that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., met in Birmingham, Alabama to conduct protests against segregated facilities throughout the city. In April 1963, civil rights activists including Dr. This event became one of the major factors in the success of the Civil Rights Movement, one that directly affected change. Seeing children treated this way, however, brought national attention to what was happening in Birmingham, and how Black people were being treated across the South.

Despite these reactions these young people bravely continued their protests.Įven though they were children, these kids were still met with brute force.

They were met with anger by white Birmingham citizens, hostility by the police, and many of them were thrown in jail. They were organized by activist James Bevel, and their purpose was to draw attention to the Civil Rights Movement. In May of 1963, thousands of Black children ages 7-18, conducted peaceful protests around the city of Birmingham, Alabama.
