The most basic right of a citizen in a democracy is the right to vote. Without this right, people can be easily ignored and even abused by their government. This, in fact, is what happened to African American citizens living in the South following Civil War Reconstruction. Despite the 14th and 15th amendments guaranteeing the civil rights of black Americans, their right to vote was systematically taken away by white supremacist state governments.
“ALL TRUTH CARRIES PROOF”
James Bevel may be the most important civil rights activist in the 20th century that you've never heard of. This is a snippet into the true life story of a man, a living legend who won constitutional rights for his people, as he interpreted the works of Yeshua/Jesus, Tolstoy and Gandhi. A true story, the kind that myths and legends are made of. A man born in the bowels of slavery, “the Delta in Mississippi.” (The constitution of the state of Mississippi was revised in 1867 with the following stated purpose, “The purpose for the revision of this constitution is to destroy the manhood of the Negro citizen through to success.”) A man who struggled to unshackle the chains of slavery from himself and his people, in-order to exit slavery (Egypt), to live in the (Wilderness) for forty years in order to purge and heal himself of emotional wounds, scars, shackles, limitations, perversions and errors that slavery and colonialism heaped upon him and the masses, but like Moses he did not enter the Land of Freedom, Justice and Equality (The Promise Land). He and his brother (Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.) did however leave a road map for those who would enter.
No people can endure four hundred years of chattel slavery and come out unharmed, unscarred and whole. James L. Bevel, did not come out of Mississippi unscathed by the violence he experienced as a child. Each movement that Bevel initiated and participated in, was a sort of therapy to regain full manhood and son-ship with God.
Fifty five years have passed since the signing of the Voting Rights Act, which is proclaimed the most effective piece of civil rights legislation of the 20th century. These fifty-five years are reflective of the wilderness experience that Moses and the people endured.
All Jews are hard pressed to know that Moses delivered them from Egypt. All Indians know that Gandhi delivered them from the British. All American’s know that George Washington delivered them from the King of England. All Americans know that Abraham Lincoln emancipated the slaves. And yet those of us who enjoy political enfranchisement had among us a man who liberated us from segregation, discrimination and disenfranchisement, using the principles and methods of Christ, and like Christ he came among his own and his own received him not. This reveals to us our own non-relationship to Christ.
James Bevel, is somebody who needs to be known. as a theologian, statesman, agricultural scientist, clinician, scholar, husbandman, nonviolent scientist, father, grandfather and brother to all of humanity. His voice was that of reason, his thoughts are those of nonviolent living, and principles (love, truth, peace, freedom, justice), his work was that of the wounded healer, healing others to heal his wounds and educating, and his vision was of the beloved community and world peace.
Because the masses have rejected nonviolence at the personal and social level and continue to build on the old archaic violent structures of colonialism and slavery, seeking advantage and control over others, while complaining, conspiring, comparing and competing, they have missed the teachings and works of James Bevel.
This book is designed to introduce James Bevel, and at the same time create a value for freedom, the freedom won with passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. A freedom that is slowly slipping away, because the tool that was used to secure it -nonviolence- has been thrown into the garbage heap of time. It is not to late, to unearth and utilize this valuable science for achieving peaceful co-existence between brothers and sisters in Christ. “It’s either nonviolence or non-existence, "Martin Luther King, Jr. has told us, and if we are to truly honor his legacy we must take serious his teachings. It is past time for us to remember who we are as a people and continue the work of forging “An Authentic Nation Under God.”
—Myeka, 2010
The nonviolent revolution begins in your mind. You must first redefine yourself. When people redefine themselves, slavery is dead. Then the power structure makes a motion, but doesn't get a second.
–Reverend James L. Bevel
–Reverend James L. Bevel
YESHUA THE CHRIST
The Sermon on the Mount, by Yeshua the Christ (generally referred to by his Greek name of Jesus), can be found in what is now called the book of Matthew in the Bible. It covers chapter five through seven in the book. Matthew was a Jew who collected taxes for the Roman occupiers and most Jews hated the type of person Yeshua represented.
Yeshua (who was also a Jew) went one day and told Matthew, “Well they can get someone else to do the tax collecting. There will always be someone to do that. You come and go with me for a few years, and I'll wake you up.” So Matthew went and got spiritually cleaned up.
When he wrote his book about his experience with Yeshua, he gave account of a long speech that he gave to a lot of people on a hill, because in those days they didn't have microphones to amplify his voice, so a speech to a large audience had to be done either indoors or in a quiet location away from the city and village noises.
People generally call this speech the Sermon on the Mount. It is however much more than a sermon, it is a scientific lecture. Every item in it can be worked out scientifically, and is usable in life for solving seemingly unsolvable problems. We used it in the movement as our main teaching, our textbook and our guidebook. We used it like a chemist would use his chemical formulas.
Reverend James Lawson introduced me to the real meanings of this lecture. During the Nashville Movements, we studied it daily. We began to dig deep into the Sermon on the Mount, not to memorize it, but to study the points and be in compliance with it, and then we adjusted our lives so that we followed it as closely as possible. Remember, we were students experimenting with nonviolence, to see if it worked. We were both explorers and scientist in a science which had very little field study done. We had to do most of the basic field work, just to see if it actually worked.
For instance, Yeshua uses the phrase, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” We had to acknowledge that we weren't pure hearted enough, because none of us had seen God.
Well, I haven't seen God, so God cannot be seen,” the issue arose. “Yeah, well we don't know, because we have not met the requirements of being pure in heart. We have ill motives. We have motives to cheat, to get even with people and to engage in physical injury. We have all kinds of motives. We even have motives to be successful in a system of segregation, which we all recognize to be unjust.” So we started working on the areas of fear in ourselves and on the areas of hate, of emotional attachment to things and to concepts. We addressed the whole problem of embarrassment, shame, guilt, blame, jealousy and regrets. We began to challenge ourselves on these negative emotions using the “Sermon on the Mount.”
Historically, men have said that if somebody violates you, as the nation was doing to us with segregation, you should violate them. Nonviolence said, “Not so.” It wouldn't work for everybody's health, interest, rights and needs. This means that when others are being irresponsible, you must assume the responsibility to be responsible.
The theology of old would say that if somebody curses you, you curse them. Nonviolence says no. The person that curses you is having a problem. So why should you take on their problem? Why don't you continue to do what you're doing? Keep on respecting them and thus you teach them to respect people from the way you respect them.
When somebody hits you, turn the other cheek. In the movement, a good example of this is, if in a demonstration somebody throws a brick and hits a little girl in the head. Instead of acting up about this, keep on demonstrating and assign someone to get an ambulance for the little girl. This way, when the little girl is taken to the emergency room of the hospital to save her life, she'll have the ambulance and the attention of the emergency room staff all to herself. If the crowd reacts, they are likely to cause a chaotic scene and many more injuries, and the little girl could die from lack of proper medical attention.
When guys persecute you for something you are doing, be glad about this. It gives you an opportunity to serve. When somebody sues you for your coat, let them have it. Don't contend with people over things.
Don't be concerned about what you're going to eat or drink or wear in the movement. Stay concerned with the health, interest, rights and needs of the people. Don't judge other people, because if you are judging others, you certainly have not worked out the science of creating your own reality and taking responsibility. If people oppose you in a movement, don't yell and scream and sing taunting songs. Take them aside, walk that mile with them, respect their point of view and show them your point of view. These are the kind of things that we learned. The strategy was to bring ourselves into active compliance with the spirit and the attitude of the “Sermon on the Mount.”
Once we did this, the Nashville Sit-in Movement became natural. We were not sitting in because we were black, we had actually gone through a process of transformation, and we were men.
For the first time, I really understood what it meant to believe in Yeshua the Christ, in the Divine. For the first time, I really understood nonviolence, the science of love. It had to do with living the gospel. The science is taught in all enlightened texts of value in every culture. Should we wait or should we live it? We were just living the gospel.
So, in the movement we learned not to believe in the historical drama that went on, and what the status quo was suppose to be. We accepted Christ's principles and applied them to our own lives. We then acted on these principles in a larger arena and called this movement. These actions brought us more knowledge and that further knowledge brought more experiences, and so on.
I began to see how our instructors at the Nashville American Baptist Theological Seminary, pretended that Yeshua's suggestions were not for this time period. They contended that it was just history. They could not imagine anybody actually doing what Yeshua said. As we began to practice it, we came out of darkness and then we began to apply natural common sense to the situations that we found ourselves in.
All throughout the 1960's movements, we'd open our SCLC meeting with reading from the “Sermon on the Mount.” We taught everybody who was taking movement classes and citizenship education classes that the “Sermon on the Mount” was the centerpiece, our textbook.
The movement leaders all know that this is true, but few have used it since, or continued to ground people in it. They leave that out of their public actions. What has been missing in movements since 1968 is making sure that the “Sermon on the Mount” is instilled in people.
The religion of Christ is the religion of love. The science of Christ is the science of what love does when it is applied. This is what creates a scientific working mind. According to the science, when we negate or leave out this point of love, we then get off into our own ego, or into some kind of national or group religion. Most people play at religion. They are not practicing the religion and the science of Christ. As a result, you get all the whole disorder of man and nations.
When we don't deal with our personal, social or economic problems through institutions like clinic, government and business, we are not able to maintain a point of love. This has now been field tested. When you follow the science of love, it causes society to follow logic and love to its logical conclusion and freedom, justice and intelligence follows.
—Reverend James L. Bevel
“The first insight is that the world as it is in its current form cannot be fixed, no matter how profound or far-reaching the revolution may be. The very bedrock of our modern society is founded upon a species that has always made decisions rooted in fear. In this respect the whole civilization is rotten from its core. The only way for a new future to be created is to begin from scratch.”
—Richard Rudd, Gene Keys, page 383
—Richard Rudd, Gene Keys, page 383
THEOLOGICAL PRESUPPOSITION
The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, and the world and those who dwell therein. And God created man in the same image and likeness of itself to have dominion over the earth; male and female they (Man) were created, and God blessed them and said to them, “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and assume stewardship responsibility over the whole earth.
THE DEFINITION AND PURPOSE OF MAN
Man (male/female) is a living soul, created by the Creator to reflect the image and likeness of the Creator, which is love, truth, righteousness and justice. Man is thus that which is created by the Creator to manifest love (being committed to the freedom and growth of self and others), truth (honoring the right knowledge of reality), righteousness (doing the right thing, the right way, for the right reason and getting the right result) and justice (giving what is needed and receiving what is needed). These are “Divine Attributes,” which are reflected through human character when the person maintains the four definitions and purposes upon which the character of man rests. Those definitions are; the definition of man; the definition and purpose of sex; the definition and purpose of correct diet and the definition and purpose of work.
The purpose of man's existence is to exercise stewardship responsibility over the earth which is naturally done when man simultaneously works for his/her health, interest, rights and needs and that of others.
—Reverend James L. Bevel
The purpose of man's existence is to exercise stewardship responsibility over the earth which is naturally done when man simultaneously works for his/her health, interest, rights and needs and that of others.
—Reverend James L. Bevel
WHO IS JAMES L. BEVEL
James Bevel: Yeah, well we were dealing with uh, well, if the Sheriff was involved in that and the Deputy Sheriff was involved in that, then the way we can stop the bombings is to give the black people the option to put Sheriffs and irresponsible law-makers and law enforcing agents out of office since they're elected by the people. So, rather than being mad and asking for Kennedy to send the army down and those kinds of things, let's take to the people, since all of the people are angry and all the people feel the shock of this um, violation. Let's take to the people a strategy and a plan for working on the right to vote. And what was interesting, all of the people bought into it, but the leaders had problems with it.
Interview with James Bevel, conducted by Blackside, Inc. on November 13, 1985, for Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years (1954-1965).
“We would have never gone to Selma, and there would not have been a Voting Rights Bill today if James Bevel had not conceived of the idea. Jim Bevel was the originator of the idea of the march from Selma to Montgomery. Dr. King could not have done the things he
did unless he had a James Bevel.”
—Dr. Ralph David Abernathy, Co-Founder SCLC, Close friend and confidante of Martin Luther King Jr.
“I'd say 98% of the plans and activities in Selma were Bevel's.
The Selma Movement was Bevel's baby.”
—Reverend James Orange, Project Coordinator, Organizer SCLC
“The plans for Selma grew out of a lot of the thinking of James and Diane Bevel and it was a part of a strategy that they began to develop in response to the bombing of the church in Birmingham. When the four little girls were killed in the church in Birmingham.”
—Reverend Andrew Young, Interview Eyes on the Prize
“I went to a meeting at this church, and they announced about this important mass meeting, something we wasn’t use to, and said James Bevel would be speaking that night. James Bevel did speak and everything he said, you know made sense.”
—Fannie Lou Hamer, Voting Rights Activist and Civil Rights Leader
“I don't think we would have had a movement without him. He played a very important role, and that role was translated into a successful movement.”
— Ambassador Andrew Young, Civil Rights Leader, U.S. Ambassador
“James Bevel is a young Baptist minister who has been involved in the civil rights movement since the lunch counter sit-ins in Nashville, TN in 1960. He quickly became known for his abilities as an organizer, particularly of youth, and his eloquence as a speaker. In 1962, he joined SCLC as a close aide of Martin Luther King, Jr., until the latter’s assassination in 1968.
“As a civil rights leader, Bevel has received little publicity, though he had the charisma to have been on the front pages of newspapers all around the world. But he has never sought publicity or projected his own personality into the public arena.”
—Julius Lester, Author, Evergreen Magazine, May, 1971, p.4
“Even the March on Washington was Jim Bevel's idea.”
—Dr. Bernard Lafayette, Co-founder the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
“He was a great philosopher, an unbelievable philosopher.”
“Bevel could do more with young people than any
human being on the face of the earth.”
— Reverend Hosea William, Civil Rights Leader, Organizer SCLC
“We were trying to map out some strategy about what we were going to do to retaliate, and that’s when Rev. Bevel came and stood up on the car to speak to us. He said that we were brave in the dark, we were going to shoot somebody in the dark or hit somebody on the head in the dark. He challenged us to do something in the light, if we had the guts. He said we could take that energy and go to the bus station and buy a ticket in the main waiting room which was on the white side. He said we could take that energy and go buy a Coke in the restaurant where it was suppose to
be open to the public. That was in 1961, when the Freedom Rides
were just coming into Mississippi.”
— Stranger At The Gate, A Summer In Mississippi, Author, Tracy Sugarman
“Reverend Bevel was the real creative genius of that period.”
“I was inspired by Jesus, Gandhi and James Bevel.”
—Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Civil Rights Leader, Founder Operation PUSH
As a historian who has focused on James Bevel's career in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, I'd like to correct the data referring to Bevel as “a top lieutenant of Martin Luther King Jr.” Rather than being any type of underling, Bevel and King held a meeting in 1962 and agreed to work as equals. From that point on James Bevel initiated, directed, and strategized SCLC's major movements, as well as teaching their participants the science and art of nonviolence and how to carry it out.
The ongoing but discredited habit of giving James Bevel less credit than historically accurate remains interesting. Imagine Madison and Adams forever praised but Jefferson not mentioned, or Gehrig without Ruth, or Paul McCartney without a fellow musician/songwriter named John. This still remains true about Bevel and King, although the truth has emerged. Historian David Garrow affirms much of it, and even Taylor Branch, in his book “At Canaan's Edge” confirms it when he quotes King as saying about the ill-fated Memphis actions: “You don't like to work on anything that isn't your own idea. Bevel, I think you owe me one.”
For accurate summaries of James Bevel's work, see my papers on the internet or obtain my 1984 paper, with '88 addendum, in David Garrow's 1989 book “We Shall Overcome Volume II”.
—Randy Kryn, Historian, December 5, 2008, http://cfm40.middlebury.edu/node/287
“The Bevel story does revise the history of the civil rights movement and it needs to be told.”
—Robert St. John, (Author & Broadcaster) in a letter to Randy Kryn
“Someone who really shakes things up…this man was there. He was committed. He trained these people. He trained many of the so-called leaders that you see out there today.”
–Alton Maddox, Jr., Esq. Former Director of the National Conference of Black Lawyers Juvenile Defense Project.
“I heard preacher after preacher. The fourteenth sermon was the best. James Bevel…delivered the greatest speech I have ever heard in my life.”
–Gary Wills, Author, Under God
“James Bevel was a pioneer for an American Revolution. It’s the bad boys who cause revolutions. A person would have to be a tad bit insane to go up against Jim Clark, Bull Connor, police dogs and fire hoses. The culture of slavery created post-traumatic stress syndrome of slavery. The affect of the plantation system was disconnection. America and its structures had no avenue for healing. Only novelty can get you out of slavery. Bevel was born into slavery and inherited all the slave tendencies. His work was designed to bring healing to the nation.”
—Dr. Nkosi Ajanaku, Esquire, Future America Basic Research Institute, www.futureamericatoday.com
“You (James Bevel)were like an angel to me. God sent you to me to
talk about a day of atonement.”
—Minister Louis Farrakhan, Leader of the Nation of Islam
“Rev. Bevel was the one who really came up with the idea of the
National Day of Atonement.
–Minister Benjamin Chavis Muhammad,
CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association
“I’ve…been touched by the words of Reverend Bevel…we thank him for
that most powerful, powerful message.”
–Secretary of State Colin Powell
“There is nothing you can do to repay this man for what he has
fought for, and secured…for you.”
–Dr. Abdul Alim Muhammad, Nation of Islam’s first Minister of Health and Human Services
“James Bevel was a blessing in my life in so many ways. He challenged me to grow up and take responsibility as female man; to give up the curse of irresponsibility (blaming others for my shortcomings); to make primary decisions and to think for myself and be Man (male/female) created in the image and likeness of God, and give up being woman, created out of the imagination of Adam in Genesis in the Holy Bible. Even though we experienced many ups and downs in our relationship, we stayed together for over fifteen (concentrated) years and we continued to communicate and work on projects together. Today, I am a free female, as a result of the challenges he made to my conditioning, that made slavery comfortable. James Bevel was a master at breaking down the ego so that it had no hiding place and getting at those idiosyncrasies that we learn to hide under, that keep us from being real and authentic human beings. He was able to do this because he had worked so hard on uprooting the “nigga” in himself to eradicate the common fears that caused immobility and ill motivation.
I can say unhesitatingly that here was a truly remarkable man, a rare specimen of humanity forged from the muddy waters of the Mississippi Delta, where manhood was outlawed and sentenced to death. James Bevel raised himself out of the murk and mire of his environment and worked tirelessly to uproot vestiges of his slave past and conditioning. His successful efforts are evidenced by the humongous contributions that he made to humanity. Here was a man who gave unselfishly to anyone who was in need. There was never a question of what do I get for helping you when he was asked for help. He just gave. He was always accessible to anyone who sought his assistance. His life was dedicated to removing any impediments that would hinder him from serving God. Being human he erred, but his intent was always to do his best and to give his all in a spirit of love.”
—Minister Helen L. Bevel, Student of Nonviolence, Wife and Mother of Six
Interview with James Bevel, conducted by Blackside, Inc. on November 13, 1985, for Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years (1954-1965).
“We would have never gone to Selma, and there would not have been a Voting Rights Bill today if James Bevel had not conceived of the idea. Jim Bevel was the originator of the idea of the march from Selma to Montgomery. Dr. King could not have done the things he
did unless he had a James Bevel.”
—Dr. Ralph David Abernathy, Co-Founder SCLC, Close friend and confidante of Martin Luther King Jr.
“I'd say 98% of the plans and activities in Selma were Bevel's.
The Selma Movement was Bevel's baby.”
—Reverend James Orange, Project Coordinator, Organizer SCLC
“The plans for Selma grew out of a lot of the thinking of James and Diane Bevel and it was a part of a strategy that they began to develop in response to the bombing of the church in Birmingham. When the four little girls were killed in the church in Birmingham.”
—Reverend Andrew Young, Interview Eyes on the Prize
“I went to a meeting at this church, and they announced about this important mass meeting, something we wasn’t use to, and said James Bevel would be speaking that night. James Bevel did speak and everything he said, you know made sense.”
—Fannie Lou Hamer, Voting Rights Activist and Civil Rights Leader
“I don't think we would have had a movement without him. He played a very important role, and that role was translated into a successful movement.”
— Ambassador Andrew Young, Civil Rights Leader, U.S. Ambassador
“James Bevel is a young Baptist minister who has been involved in the civil rights movement since the lunch counter sit-ins in Nashville, TN in 1960. He quickly became known for his abilities as an organizer, particularly of youth, and his eloquence as a speaker. In 1962, he joined SCLC as a close aide of Martin Luther King, Jr., until the latter’s assassination in 1968.
“As a civil rights leader, Bevel has received little publicity, though he had the charisma to have been on the front pages of newspapers all around the world. But he has never sought publicity or projected his own personality into the public arena.”
—Julius Lester, Author, Evergreen Magazine, May, 1971, p.4
“Even the March on Washington was Jim Bevel's idea.”
—Dr. Bernard Lafayette, Co-founder the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
“He was a great philosopher, an unbelievable philosopher.”
“Bevel could do more with young people than any
human being on the face of the earth.”
— Reverend Hosea William, Civil Rights Leader, Organizer SCLC
“We were trying to map out some strategy about what we were going to do to retaliate, and that’s when Rev. Bevel came and stood up on the car to speak to us. He said that we were brave in the dark, we were going to shoot somebody in the dark or hit somebody on the head in the dark. He challenged us to do something in the light, if we had the guts. He said we could take that energy and go to the bus station and buy a ticket in the main waiting room which was on the white side. He said we could take that energy and go buy a Coke in the restaurant where it was suppose to
be open to the public. That was in 1961, when the Freedom Rides
were just coming into Mississippi.”
— Stranger At The Gate, A Summer In Mississippi, Author, Tracy Sugarman
“Reverend Bevel was the real creative genius of that period.”
“I was inspired by Jesus, Gandhi and James Bevel.”
—Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Civil Rights Leader, Founder Operation PUSH
As a historian who has focused on James Bevel's career in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, I'd like to correct the data referring to Bevel as “a top lieutenant of Martin Luther King Jr.” Rather than being any type of underling, Bevel and King held a meeting in 1962 and agreed to work as equals. From that point on James Bevel initiated, directed, and strategized SCLC's major movements, as well as teaching their participants the science and art of nonviolence and how to carry it out.
The ongoing but discredited habit of giving James Bevel less credit than historically accurate remains interesting. Imagine Madison and Adams forever praised but Jefferson not mentioned, or Gehrig without Ruth, or Paul McCartney without a fellow musician/songwriter named John. This still remains true about Bevel and King, although the truth has emerged. Historian David Garrow affirms much of it, and even Taylor Branch, in his book “At Canaan's Edge” confirms it when he quotes King as saying about the ill-fated Memphis actions: “You don't like to work on anything that isn't your own idea. Bevel, I think you owe me one.”
For accurate summaries of James Bevel's work, see my papers on the internet or obtain my 1984 paper, with '88 addendum, in David Garrow's 1989 book “We Shall Overcome Volume II”.
—Randy Kryn, Historian, December 5, 2008, http://cfm40.middlebury.edu/node/287
“The Bevel story does revise the history of the civil rights movement and it needs to be told.”
—Robert St. John, (Author & Broadcaster) in a letter to Randy Kryn
“Someone who really shakes things up…this man was there. He was committed. He trained these people. He trained many of the so-called leaders that you see out there today.”
–Alton Maddox, Jr., Esq. Former Director of the National Conference of Black Lawyers Juvenile Defense Project.
“I heard preacher after preacher. The fourteenth sermon was the best. James Bevel…delivered the greatest speech I have ever heard in my life.”
–Gary Wills, Author, Under God
“James Bevel was a pioneer for an American Revolution. It’s the bad boys who cause revolutions. A person would have to be a tad bit insane to go up against Jim Clark, Bull Connor, police dogs and fire hoses. The culture of slavery created post-traumatic stress syndrome of slavery. The affect of the plantation system was disconnection. America and its structures had no avenue for healing. Only novelty can get you out of slavery. Bevel was born into slavery and inherited all the slave tendencies. His work was designed to bring healing to the nation.”
—Dr. Nkosi Ajanaku, Esquire, Future America Basic Research Institute, www.futureamericatoday.com
“You (James Bevel)were like an angel to me. God sent you to me to
talk about a day of atonement.”
—Minister Louis Farrakhan, Leader of the Nation of Islam
“Rev. Bevel was the one who really came up with the idea of the
National Day of Atonement.
–Minister Benjamin Chavis Muhammad,
CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association
“I’ve…been touched by the words of Reverend Bevel…we thank him for
that most powerful, powerful message.”
–Secretary of State Colin Powell
“There is nothing you can do to repay this man for what he has
fought for, and secured…for you.”
–Dr. Abdul Alim Muhammad, Nation of Islam’s first Minister of Health and Human Services
“James Bevel was a blessing in my life in so many ways. He challenged me to grow up and take responsibility as female man; to give up the curse of irresponsibility (blaming others for my shortcomings); to make primary decisions and to think for myself and be Man (male/female) created in the image and likeness of God, and give up being woman, created out of the imagination of Adam in Genesis in the Holy Bible. Even though we experienced many ups and downs in our relationship, we stayed together for over fifteen (concentrated) years and we continued to communicate and work on projects together. Today, I am a free female, as a result of the challenges he made to my conditioning, that made slavery comfortable. James Bevel was a master at breaking down the ego so that it had no hiding place and getting at those idiosyncrasies that we learn to hide under, that keep us from being real and authentic human beings. He was able to do this because he had worked so hard on uprooting the “nigga” in himself to eradicate the common fears that caused immobility and ill motivation.
I can say unhesitatingly that here was a truly remarkable man, a rare specimen of humanity forged from the muddy waters of the Mississippi Delta, where manhood was outlawed and sentenced to death. James Bevel raised himself out of the murk and mire of his environment and worked tirelessly to uproot vestiges of his slave past and conditioning. His successful efforts are evidenced by the humongous contributions that he made to humanity. Here was a man who gave unselfishly to anyone who was in need. There was never a question of what do I get for helping you when he was asked for help. He just gave. He was always accessible to anyone who sought his assistance. His life was dedicated to removing any impediments that would hinder him from serving God. Being human he erred, but his intent was always to do his best and to give his all in a spirit of love.”
—Minister Helen L. Bevel, Student of Nonviolence, Wife and Mother of Six
HISTORY OF THE
SELMA RIGHT-TO-VOTE MOVEMENT
The introduction of Birmingham’s children into the campaign was one of the wisest moves made. It brought a new impact to the crusade and the impetus that we needed to win the struggle. Jim Bevel had the inspiration of setting D Day, when the students would go to jail in historic numbers.
Why We Can’t Wait, Martin L. King, Jr.
Why We Can’t Wait, Martin L. King, Jr.
|
Our Direct Action Department, under the direction of Rev. James Bevel, then decided to attack the very heart of the political structure of the state of Alabama and the Southland through a campaign for the right to vote. Planning for the voter registration project in Selma started around the seventeenth of December, 1964, but the actual project started on the second of January, 1965. Our affiliate organization, the Dallas County Voters League, invited us to aid and assist in getting more Negroes registered to vote. We planned to have Freedom Days, days of testing and challenge, to arouse people all over the community. We decided that on the days that the county and the state had designated as registration days, we would assemble at the Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church and walk together to the courthouse. More than three thousand were arrested in Selma and Marion together. I was arrested in one of those periods when we were seeking to go to the courthouse.
The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. |
But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 19;14 
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When the four little girls were killed in a Birmingham church bombing on September 15, 1963, Reverend Bevel decided that it could not be ignored. He could see the inter-relatedness of the bombing and the movement actions being carried out in Birmingham. Bevel decided to step up the action of the nonviolent movement. His overriding thought was to provide Black people with a tool that they could use to nonviolently protect themselves. He decided that getting the southern Black people the right-to-vote would go a long way in providing this protection. On the day of the bombing, he and his wife Diane Nash drew up a plan for getting the right to vote. He sent his wife Diane Nash-Bevel to present the proposal to Dr. King, asking for his and SCLC’s support for such a plan.
Ye have heard that it hath been said, “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
Matthew 5;38-39
Matthew 5;38-39
“My former husband (Jim Bevel) and I, cried when we heard about the bombing, because in many ways we felt like our own children had been killed. We knew that the activity of the civil rights movement had been involved in generating a kind of energy that brought out this kind of hostility. We decided that we would do something about it, and we said that we had two options. First, we felt confident that if we tried, we could find out who had done it, and we could make sure they got killed. We considered that as a real option. The second option was that we felt that if blacks in Alabama had the right to vote, they could protect black children. We deliberately made a choice, and chose the second option. We weren't going to stop working until Alabama Blacks had the right to vote.”
Diane Nash-Bevel interview in Voices of Freedom, p. 173
Diane Nash-Bevel interview in Voices of Freedom, p. 173