. In 1965 SCLC gave its highest honor, the Rosa Parks Award, to James Bevel and Diane Nash for their work on the Alabama Voting Rights Project. or redistributed. Ms. MILLS: Well, in that it was going to be in the news, the story the side of the - my side should be told. This was financially backed by the Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon, which appeared to be trying to improve its controversial image by allying with such respected leaders. James Luther Bevel, (born Oct. 19, 1936, Itta Bena, Miss., U.S.died Dec. 19, 2008, Springfield, Va.), American minister and political activist who played a pivotal role in the civil rights movement in the early 1960s. King wanted to fill the jails with protesters, but it was becoming more difficult to find adults to march. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. The assault occurred in the early 1990s in Loudoun County, when Bevel was working closely with the Virginia-based organization led by political extremist Lyndon LaRouche. She said . He was recently released on bond while appealing a . Ms. MILLS: I feel almost as if it's something I had to do. In April of this year, Mr. Bevel was convicted of having sexual intercourse with one of his daughters in the 1990s, when the girl was a teenager. They agreed to work until they had ended segregation, obtained voting rights, and ensured that all American children had a quality education. He served in the U.S. And I think, all of us were abused in some way or another. They should have been helping her father confront his problem, she said. [20] Bevel was influential in gaining King's support for the anti-war movement,[13] and with King's agreeing to participate as a speaker Bevel agreed to lead the antiwar effort. At the time, Bevel was living in Leesburg, Virginia, and working with LaRouche's group, whose international headquarters was a few blocks from Bevel's apartment. Though not a lawyer, Mr. Bevel offered to represent Mr. Ray in court. As Dr. Martin Luther King's collaborator, Bevel was a key strategist of the Southern Civil Rights Movement. And so I chose a very difficult conversation we had in June with a daughter of civil rights strategist James Bevel. Though initially reluctant, Dr. King finally agreed. And Orrin said her mother correctly assumed that she would have been afraid to confront her father in court. Court testimony revealed that accusation had stemmed from a family reunion during which several family members recalled having been molested by Mr. Bevel. I think he's more like a spoiled child in which he has been doing and being the way he is for so long that he gets away with it. He grew up in rural LeFlore County of the Mississippi Delta and in Cleveland. I love him for his role in the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the vote I was able to cast that helped put a man of color in the White House. James Bevel, one of the architects of the civil rights movement, a chief lieutenant to Dr. Martin Luther King, was also a child molester. The daughter is one of 16 children Bevel said he has had with several different women. And my little sister who had a more recent experience in Chicago, she could have, but she could not talk. Orrin has undergone years of counseling to deal with the abuse she said she suffered from her father. {{start_at_rate}} {{format_dollars}} {{start_price}} {{format_cents}} {{term}}, {{promotional_format_dollars}}{{promotional_price}}{{promotional_format_cents}} {{term}}, Residents ask school board where is the outrage after drag performance; school system will revise agreement with Forsyth Tech, No new vaccinations would be allowed in North Carolina for 3 years under bill filed in N.C. House, Slice of Napoli closing; new pizza place moving in, Jim Spivey, a former athletics director at Reynolds High School, dies. It was later proven that a Ku Klux Klan chapter was responsible. King asked Bevel to refrain from recruiting students, and Bevel instead said that he would organize the children to march to Washington D.C. to meet with Kennedy about segregation, and King agreed. She and several of her siblings compiled affidavits detailing sexual abuse and confronted their father. [24], In the 1980s, Bevel supported Ronald Reagan as president. In late 1963 Bevel, Nash, and Orange also worked with local grassroots organizations to educate blacks and support them in trying to gain registration as voters, but made little progress. She was not able to deal with it. Ms. MILLS: The hardest part was learning of everyone's story. In the 1960s, Bevel was a leader in the Southern Christian Leadership. [23] Bevel continued to oppose the Poor People's Campaign, but served as its Director of Nonviolent Education. "I am equally devastated and disgusted by his pedophilia.". Bevel had 16 children with nine women. One, their own stories, each of them being able to tell their stories to me and for us to share. [26][27] A year earlier, Bevel had denounced the deprogramming of a Moon follower and called for the protection of religious rights. [17] Activists encountered severe violence at that time and retreated to regroup. [31], In 1992, Bevel ran on LaRouche's ticket as the vice presidential candidate. His brother - and we were all present, either on the phone or live. James Bevel - Bhamwiki It happened in the Memphis area when she staying with her father while her mother was out of town. Orrin and several of her siblings finally took action against him four years ago out of concern for his 7-and-a half-year-old daughter. "If you're going to bring it up at all, deal with it in a way that's helpful and healing," she said last week. He decides what's right and not right. How do you understand that? "There is something that reeks of moral depravity when an individual, whose sworn responsibility is to protect and serve and is fired for what. You Tell Us More, But In The Meantime : Tell Me More : NPR A loud opponent of American involvement in Vietnam, which he viewed as an extension of white oppression of nonwhites, Mr. Bevel was instrumental in Dr. Kings increasingly vocal opposition to the war. And when she told me that everything I told her about what's happening as I was telling her that really hurt me. "Saying 'I'm sorry' is a game we play. The accuser was one of his daughters, who was 1315 years old at the time and lived with him. SNCC had been conducting a Voting Rights Project (headed by Prathia Hall and Worth Long) since the early 1960s, meeting with violence in Alabama. [13] They were under an injunction by the state, so stayed within the city limits. This rally was attended by tens of thousands of peace activists who followed the growing counterculture movement. It doesn't necessarily make sense. Liese also shares custody of an 11-year-old son with her first husband, with whom the boy lives. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Ms. MILLS: It is hard to describe because it's part of the whole environment that we lived in, in terms of having meetings to discuss problems. Less than a month after his sentencing in October 2008, Bevel was released from prison on appeal. The four-day trial in Loudoun County Circuit Court included bizarre testimony about Bevel's philosophies for eradicating lust, and parents' duty to "sexually orient" their children. And know that it could come back to them pretty harsh. James Bevel, a key aide to Rev. Please subscribe to keep reading. She wrote a remarkable series of articles that told his story as well as her own. Sherrilynn is also estranged from her brother and from both of her adult children. MARTIN: Some people would call it intervention. A bubbly toddler might not seem to have much in common with the daughter of a convicted child molester, but Liese sees only the similarities as Athena slips on the kitchen floor and bounces back, still laughing. [40], In 1961, Bevel married activist Diane Nash after he completed his seminary studies. And it's something I had the support of so many people to do, up until 2004. I've never known him to be a liar. He was 72. During his four-day trial in 2008, the accusing daughter testified that she was repeatedly molested by him, beginning when she was six years old. Bevel suggested recruiting students in the campaign. But she believes that justice must be served, and that the victims have to come first. He appeared headed for a career as a pop music singer he had signed a contract with a record label when he felt called to the ministry and enrolled in the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, where he joined the local chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Besides being a leader in the Children's Crusade in which police turned fire hoses and dogs on child protesters, Bevel was also an organizer at other civil rights movement events, including the 1965 march at Selma, Ala. He can be reached at 727-7357 or at jrailey@wsjournal.com. At that meeting, which had been suggested by James Lawson, Bevel and King agreed to work together on an equal basis, with neither having veto power over the other, on projects under the auspices of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). In 2005, Bevel was accused of incest by one of his daughters and abuse by three others. But that you have to come to some understanding of what sex is outside of pleasure. MARTIN: You wrote her a letter telling her what happen. Children of the Movement - amazon.com Hoffman also questioned why the daughter returned to voluntarily live with her father after the alleged incest. He was free on bond, appealing the conviction, when pancreatic cancer killed him. Bevel was the brilliant, eccentric visionary who, among other things, helped orchestrate the march from Selma to Montgomery and helped persuade King to voice his opposition to the Vietnam War. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. After serving seven months, he was freed awaiting an appeal; he died of pancreatic cancer in December 2008 and was buried in Eutaw, Alabama . [5] He suggested that SCLC call for and join a March on Washington in 1963. Blake excels at uncovering the questions gnawing at his subjects. "Everyone dies. [7], Prior to his time with SCLC, Bevel worked in the Nashville Student Movement, which conducted the 1960 Nashville Lunch-Counter Sit-Ins, the 1961 Open Theater Movement, and recruited students to continue the 1961 Freedom Rides after they were attacked. The Court of Appeals affirmed this judgment. After high school he served in the U.S. Navy for a time and pursued a career as a singer. The demonstrations, early that year, overwhelmed the city, and the news coverage, complete with televised images of black children being arrested or soaked and bowled over by law enforcement officers wielding powerful fire hoses, helped rally much of the American public to the side of the civil rights movement. The Surprising Origins of #MeToo - New York Times The daughter testified that she went back because she had nowhere else to go. "There's no excuse for his philosophy in the law, or whether he's eccentric, or whether he's an historical figure. And you describe this - I don't know what words to use, it's almost like a trial at - so you decided you should put him on trial, and then he defended himself in this, I don't even really know how to describe it. In spite of everything, I was a happy kid, resilient, she says. And when I left there, I began that process of deciding and designing how I wanted to live my life. 'You dont like to work on anything that isnt your own idea,' King said, 'Bevel, I think you owe me one.'"[22]. But her father, who one relative said had been sexually abused as a child himself, refused to get help and give them custody of his daughter, she said. While working on SNCC's commitment to desegregate theaters, Bevel successfully directed the 1961 Nashville Open Theater Movement. How did she react? [8][9], Bevel soon became SCLC's Director of Direct Action and Director of Nonviolent Education to augment King's positions as SCLC's Chairman and spokesperson. 1 and Tennessee was No. Ms. MILLS: Well, I don't understand it. [13] In 1986, Bevel, Chicago alderman Danny K. Davis, singer-songwriter Kristin Lems, and others participated in a project of creating a summit in Chicago for Gorbachev and Reagan to bring peace and resolution to the ongoing Cold War. Ms. MILLS: I feel, I feel at peace with this whole process in terms of I'm happy that we stood on something and we followed it through. The Rev. James L. Bevel, a prominent figure in the civil rights movement whose legacy was clouded by an incest conviction has died, a relative said. Practices such as requiring payment of poll taxes and literacy tests administered in a discriminatory way by white officials maintained the exclusion of blacks from the political system in the 1960s. And when I got the confirmation from other siblings that it happened to them as well it was something I had to do.
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