May 2 …

The Childrens Crusade — Children’s Crusade — was a significant event in the Civil Rights Movement that took place in Birmingham, AL, from May 2, 1963 to May 10, 1963.

More than 1,000 Black children participated in these peaceful protests against racial segregation. The protest is credited with causing a major shift in attitudes against segregation among Americans and with convincing President John F. Kennedy to publicly support federal civil rights legislation.

Toward the end of April 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and fellow leaders in the Civil Rights Movement faced a grim reality in Birmingham, AL. With diminished support and fewer volunteers, their campaign was teetering on failure. But then Rev. James Bevel of the SCLC, proposed an unorthodox plan to recruit Black students to join in the nonviolent protest movement, by marching in downtown Birmingham against segregation in their city.

The Children’s Crusade, as it was later dubbed, began on May 2 shortly after one o’clock at the 16th Street Baptist Church. Fifty singing students emerged from the church and marched two by two toward city hall and the downtown business district.

More than 1,000 students marched on May 2. Most of them were teenagers, but some were as young as six years old. The police took at least 600 children into custody, and the city’s Commissioner of Public Safety, Bull Connor, commandeered school buses to transport all of them to Birmingham’s jails. Some of the children were held at juvenile detention facilities and even at a local fairground.

The following day hundreds more young people showed up to march. With the city’s jails now overflowing, Connor ordered his officers to disperse instead of arresting the young protestors. The police proceeded to break up the demonstrators’ lines with nightsticks, dogs, and high-powered fire hoses. The violence was captured by news photographers and television crews and the images of police committing acts of brutality against schoolchildren were disseminated worldwide, horrifying most Americans.

The campaign drew condemnation from many public figures, including then Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and Black nationalist leader Malcolm X, who accused organizers of endangering children. But it had the intended effect of breaking through the country’s indifference to segregation.

On May 4, President Kennedy dispatched Assistant Attorney General Burke Marshall to Birmingham and urged the city’s white leaders to negotiate with the demonstrators. Marshall made a pragmatic appeal to the city officials, noting that the protests and police response were disrupting Birmingham’s economy and that the disruption would not stop unless the city desegregated. With the number of demonstrators growing by the day and about 2,500 protesters of all ages in the city’s jails by May 6, Marshall’s appeal was heeded.

On May 10, in the courtyard of Birmingham’s A.G. Gaston Motel (which served as the movement’s local headquarters), white city officials and Black civil rights leaders agreed to a tentative deal that included the desegregation of lunch counters, fitting rooms, restrooms, and drinking fountains.

The repercussions of the Children’s Crusade extended beyond Birmingham. Concerned that the campaign might inspire Black citizens in other American cities and hoping to prevent further violent backlash from segregationist authorities, Kennedy made a televised address on June 11 to announce his support for federal civil rights legislation to ban racial discrimination in public accommodations, education, employment, and housing. In the address, he asked Congress to enact such legislation.

The revived Civil Rights Movement held more demonstrations throughout the Summer of 1963, including the March On Washington on August 28. Yet confrontations and violence continued.

On September 15, a bomb planted by the Ku Klux Klan at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham killed four young girls. However, sustained pressure from the movement and the presidency (first Kennedy’s, then Lyndon B. Johnson’s) ultimately led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Footnote:

• Alexis Clark, “The Children’s Crusade: When the Youth of Birmingham Marched for Justice,” History, 15 April 2025. Accessed 2 May 2025.