James Bevel
James Bevel | |
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Civil Rights Movement | |
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Children | 16[1] |
James Luther Bevel (October 19, 1936 – December 19, 2008) was an American minister and leader of the 1960s
Prior to his time with SCLC, Bevel worked in the
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,[11] 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.[12]
Early life and education (1936–1961)
Bevel was born in 1936 in
Feeling an inner call to become a minister, he attended the
Leading the movements (1960s)
Nashville Student Movement (1960–1961) and SNCC
In 1960, along with James Lawson's and Myles Horton's students
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
While in the Jackson jail, Bevel and
Bevel and King join forces (1962)
In 1962, Bevel was invited to meet in
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.[citation needed]
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.[14] 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
On August 28, 1963, SCLC participated in what became known as the
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. (September 2019) |
In September 1963, a
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.[5] 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,
Bevel and others were grieved and outraged. He suggested a march from
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.
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.[21] 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
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
Memphis sanitation strike (1968)
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Although he opposed King's and SCLC's participation in it,[24] Bevel, along with King and Ralph Abernathy, helped lead the Memphis sanitation strike by organizing the protest and work stoppage.[25][26] 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.[27]
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.'"[24]
Bevel was in the parking lot of the
Bevel in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s
After leaving the SCLC the year prior, Bevel created the Making of the Man Clinic in 1970.[29]
In the 1980s, Bevel supported
In 1989, Bevel and Abernathy organized the National Committee Against Religious Bigotry and Racism. This was financially backed by the
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.[35] 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.[36]
In 1992, Bevel ran on LaRouche's ticket as the
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.[14] 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.[40]
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.[41]
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.[42] 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.[14] Six weeks later he died of cancer, at the age of 72, in Springfield, Virginia.[43]
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.[44] 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.[45]
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.[46] 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.[14]
Cultural impact
Actor and rapper Common portrays Bevel in the 2014 film Selma.[47]
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
- New York Times
References
- ^ Faithful to my Father's Dream, Enoch Bevel. dissentmagazine.org.
- ISBN 978-0926019027.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Thomas Ricks, NPR interview, October 4, 2022
- ^ a b Kryn in Garrow, 1989.
- ^ a b c Kryn in Garrow, 1989, p. 533.
- ISBN 0-8070-0405-7.
- ^ a b c Kryn in Garrow, 1989, pp. 517, 523–24.
- ^ a b c d Kryn, 2005.
- ^ Kryn in Garrow, 1989, title & p. 532.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Morton, Jason (29 December 2008). "Controversial civil rights leader buried in Eutaw". The Tuscaloosa News. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4532-8613-5.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Weber, Bruce (December 23, 2008). "James L. Bevel, 72, an Adviser to Dr. King, Is Dead". The New York Times. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
- ^ Zinn, Howard (2002). SNCC: The New Abolitionists. Cambridge, Massachusetts: South End Press.
- ^ Peck, Jim (May 1961). "Freedom Ride" (PDF). CORE-Lator.
- ^ Arsenault, Raymond (2007). Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
- S2CID 143987916.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Civil rights teaching, Alabama Project
- ^ Kryn in Garrow, 1989, pp. 521–522.
- ^ Kryn in Garrow, 1989, pp. 533–534.
- ^ "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.
- ^ a b Taylor Branch, At Canaan's Edge, 2006
- ^ "Memphis Sanitation Workers' Strike | the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute".
- ^ "Bevel, James Luther | the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute".
- ^ "Martin Luther King, Jr., and Memphis Sanitation Workers". 15 August 2016.
- ^ Kryn in Garrow, 1989, p. 524.
- ^ "Reverend James Bevel's Biography".
- ^ Lipinski, Ann Marie (25 November 1986), "Reykjavik's got nothing on us, Chicago informs world leaders", Chicago Tribune, pp. section 2, page 3
- ^ 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.
- ISBN 978-0-7864-1914-2.
- ^ "Call Deprogramming 'Spiritual Rape' Church Chiefs Denounce Whelan Acquittal". Omaha World-Herald. Omaha, Nebraska. November 8, 1988. p. 23.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Dorr, Robert (March 10, 1991). "Franklin Stories Called LaRouche 'Moneymaker'". Omaha World-Herald. Omaha, Nebraska: Berkshire Hathaway. p. 1B.
- ^ Dorr, Robert (September 20, 1992). "Activist in Franklin Probe Is LaRouche Running Mate". Omaha World-Herald. Omaha, Nebraska: Berkshire Hathaway. p. 7B.
- ^ Barakat, Matthew (April 10, 2008). "Civil rights leader convicted of incest". USA Today. Retrieved May 5, 2010.
- ^ LaRouche Connection Master List 1991-1995
- ^ Manning, Marable (Spring 1998). "Black fundamentalism". Dissent. New York. pp. 69–77.
- ^ "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.
- ^ Brubaker, Bill (April 11, 2008). "Civil Rights Leader Convicted of Incest". The Washington Post.
- ^ Brubaker, Bill (April 12, 2008). "Incest Verdict Is Bittersweet For Daughter Of Minister". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 18, 2012.
- The Los Angeles Times.
- ^ "Bevel v. Commonwealth (Va.Ct.App., 14 Sept. 2010)". US Law. Justia. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
- ^ "Bevel v. Commonwealth (Va.S.Ct., 4 Nov. 2011)". U.S. Law. Justia. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
- ^ Hall, Heidi (April 21, 2013). "Years After Change, Activist Lives Her Conviction". USA Today. Retrieved August 2, 2013.
- Deadline. 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