James Bevel Civil Disobedience

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James Bevel once said, “ I guess by ’63 we were pretty confident that we had developed a science that would allow us to eradicate segregation in that it was incongruent, you know with the basic tenant of our Constitution” (James Bio). Bevel was a civil rights activist who committed many acts of civil disobedience. Civil disobedience is where protesters disobey the law. They are protesting something (Suber) to try to get the government to change a law that is unfair to a minority (Brownlee). James Bevel was a strong leader during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s. His leadership and teaching of non-violence inspired people to do what was right but do it peacefully. Bevel was born in Itta Bena, Mississippi on 19 October 1936 (Bevel Encyclopedia). When he was growing up, he worked in mills in Cleveland, Ohio; and in 1954, he served a short time in the U.S Naval Reserve for one year. When he came …show more content…

That protest gained worldwide attention and it made its mark by telling the world that equality is for everyone. The city officials could not pretend that the Civil Rights Movement isn’t a big deal (Gilmore). The U.S. Department of Justice had to step in and help end the protest on May 10. The SCLC and the local government reached a deal where the city would desegregate and release the children from jail, only if the SCLC would stop the protests and boycotts (Children’s Crusade). The whole protest was a turning point in favor of the Civi Rights Movement (Gilmore), and it inspired the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom campaign and the Civil Rights act of 1964 (Children’s Crusade). After King’s death, left the SCLC and turned more towards a political approach. He was a big supporter of Ronald Reagan and he worked with Lyndon LaRouche and joined him being the Vice Presidential candidate in 1992. He also worked with the Nation of Islam’s leader Louis Farrakhan with the 1995 Million Man March (James