POLICE AND DETECTIVE CARS ONLY THROUGH TRAFED 4 Hr Servi HAN IL LINE AP
5 CHAPTER ONE Police lead a group of African-American children to jail after they protested discrimination in May 1963 It was 1963 in Birmingham Alabama One by one African-American children skipped school to show up at the 16th Street Baptist Church They ranged in age from 12 to 18 years old The children had decided it was time to take a stand They were tired of hatred and unfair laws Soon the group grew to nearly 1,000 African-American children Adults were absent (cid:76)(cid:64)(cid:61)(cid:3)(cid:59)(cid:64)(cid:65)(cid:68)(cid:60)(cid:74)(cid:61)(cid:70)(cid:8)(cid:75)(cid:3) CRUSADE
The children’s parents feared they would lose their jobs if they protested discrimination Their children showed up at the church The group planned to march 0 5 miles 0 8 km to City Hall Few made it that far The children began a peaceful march White police officers tried to stop the demonstration But the children were determined They continued on The children wanted an end to segregation The police arrested hundreds of children and took them to jail in school buses They beat others with clubs or attacked them with police dogs The protests went on for more than one week The rest of the United States saw these events on the news The sight of peaceful protesters being attacked outraged many Americans The adults in charge of organizing the Alabama protest sat down with Birmingham officials and President John F Kennedy The city agreed to allow African Americans into downtown stores They also released the protesters from jail The protesters agreed to stop 6
Police officers blasted protesters in Birmingham with high-pressure fire hoses marching Although this was not a complete victory this event pushed the civil rights movement forward Separate Lives Life during the early 1960s was very different for African Americans and whites African Americans usually lived in poorer neighborhoods In many southern states laws kept African Americans from 7
