The legacy of the 1963 Children’s Crusade

Post Reports

The Washington Post

Daily News, Politics, News

4.4 • 5.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 May 2021

⏱️ ? minutes

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Summary

The key role children played in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and why it matters today.

Janice Wesley Kelsey was 16 when she faced White police officers in the Children’s Crusade of 1963 in Birmingham, Ala. The Black youths ages 7 to 17, marching peacefully in the name of civil rights, were met with billy clubs, German shepherds and fire hoses.

News crews flocked to the place nicknamed “Bombingham,” and the footage helped prompt President John F. Kennedy to urge Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

On the 58th anniversary of the Children’s Crusade, Post Reports producer Jordan-Marie Smith reports on the impact of the march and how its tactics are reflected in the modern civil rights movement.

You can find more resources on the Children’s Crusade at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, at the National Civil Rights Museum and in the archives at Alabama Public Radio.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports.
0:06.7	I'm our team powers.
0:08.8	It's Monday, May 3rd.
0:16.5	That one time 5,000 black kids went to jail in Birmingham.
0:20.5	5,000 black kids?
0:22.5	Yeah, you ain't no?
0:25.5	Hell no!
0:28.5	So, the first time I heard about the children's crusade was back in February on my favorite
0:37.3	app, TikTok.
0:39.3	And I do know that it is your favorite app.
0:43.4	You are like the TikTok ambassador on our team.
0:47.1	That's Jordan Marie Smith.
0:48.6	She is a producer with Post Reports.
0:50.9	I was scrolling on TikTok for like an hour as one does.
0:55.5	I came across this one video that caught my attention because it immediately started
1:01.8	out with this claim that all of these kids, thousands of kids, protested in Birmingham,
1:10.6	Alabama.
1:11.6	And we're like attacked by dogs.
1:14.2	She shows images, the creator, Lenae Boges of like German shepherds attacking these kids,
1:20.6	these black teenagers and elementary school kids.
1:23.5	Are those pictures with the houses?
1:26.0	And the dogs?
	...

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