But For Birmingham

"It's bad not to know; but it's worse to not want to know."--African proverb
One of our two foot soldier speakers, Myrna Jackson, shared that with us today. Today's sessions were incredibly powerful--so much so that my processing will need some time. But the two highlights were a walking tour of Kelly Ingram Park and the presentation by the foot soldiers.
Kelly Ingram Park is the park in which the children converged in May, 1963 as the civil rights movement, which was sputtering, got new life from teenagers who left school on May 2 (D-Day) and several days following, walked as much as 2 miles to 16th St. Baptist Church, entered the church to sing and pray, and then marched out of the church singing "We Shall Overcome" on their way to confrontations with police, police dogs, and firemen with fire hoses shooting water at full blast. And then, of course, arrest and jail. The park today is quiet and beautiful (see photos below), and you have to work to see the horrors of those days in May.
The two foot soldiers, Janice Wesley Kelsey and Myrna Jackson, are called foot soldiers because they were participants in the 1963 campaign. Ms. Kelsey was 16, and arrested the first day. Singing "We Shall Overcome" as she walked down the steps of the church helped her overcome her fear. She said that when they got put on school busses to be taken to jail, they cheered because blacks didn't ever get free rides on school busses. And then, when they transferred the kids to the State Fairgrounds because over 1000 had been arrested, they cheered again since blacks were not allowed to go the the fair! Ms. Jackson described the jail as smelling like a "chicken coop." She also said that they were trained to pray 3 times a day while in jail. So the kids prayed and sang 3 times each day. The police tried to drown them out by singing "Dixie", but the kids would not be stopped. Both women emphasized that this was a spiritual movement, and that's what the police did not understand. Ms. Jackson left us with two other African proverbs:
"Every generation is responsible for the next generation."
"If you can't save a hundred, save one."
Below are photos from today. So much more to talk about --but you'll have to ask.

16th Street Baptist Church--picture hundreds of children coming down those steps.

Kelly Ingram Park

The brick colors--red, yellow, black--representing the diversity of races

MLK statue in the park

Praying ministers--represents a Palm Sunday march during which these ministers prayed while being threatened by Bull Connor. You can ask me about the miracle of the fire hoses.