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A review by brendan_e_m
We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March by Cynthia Levinson
4.0
Five (of many) takeaways:
*The Civil Rights Movement was floundering in 1963. Adults were less prone to march even if they were attending nightly meetings, due to economic and physical pressures and disagreements about strategy, and segregationists were getting smarter about shifting their own brutal responses to protesters in order to avert national outrage. The kids brought momentum back to the movement by taunting segregationists ("fill up the jails," "turn on the hoses") to reignite that national outrage.
*Movement tactics in Birmingham were being hotly debated in 1963. Fight back, aim for incremental change, or use radical nonviolence as a tactic? There was far less agreement than we assume looking back, and more than two approaches to achieving equal rights.
*The Children's March helped to get Kennedy's attention 2.5 years into his administration.
*Some white Birmingham residents were utterly uninformed about critical events in their own city, like not even hearing about the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. Local news coverage was disregarding or burying highly newsworthy events.
*Brave children coordinated with brave parents and adult leaders.
*The Civil Rights Movement was floundering in 1963. Adults were less prone to march even if they were attending nightly meetings, due to economic and physical pressures and disagreements about strategy, and segregationists were getting smarter about shifting their own brutal responses to protesters in order to avert national outrage. The kids brought momentum back to the movement by taunting segregationists ("fill up the jails," "turn on the hoses") to reignite that national outrage.
*Movement tactics in Birmingham were being hotly debated in 1963. Fight back, aim for incremental change, or use radical nonviolence as a tactic? There was far less agreement than we assume looking back, and more than two approaches to achieving equal rights.
*The Children's March helped to get Kennedy's attention 2.5 years into his administration.
*Some white Birmingham residents were utterly uninformed about critical events in their own city, like not even hearing about the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. Local news coverage was disregarding or burying highly newsworthy events.
*Brave children coordinated with brave parents and adult leaders.