Activists from Birmingham’s civil rights movement of the 1960s, famous worldwide for its example of non-violent protest, watched in horror Sunday night as protests of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis turned to looting and destruction in Birmingham.
“My heart is swollen,” said Jeff Drew, who still lives in the Birmingham house where his parents John and Deenie Drew hosted their close friend, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., on his visits to Birmingham. It’s where planning meetings for the 1963 demonstrations were often held. Drew grew up calling King “Uncle Mike,” and still calls him that.
“I’m sad, flirting with depression,” Drew said. “To see my parents’ life and Uncle Mike’s life diminished puts me at the brink of depression.”
Andrew Marrisett joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference field staff in 1963, was arrested on April 15, 1963 during demonstrations led by King, and still lives in Birmingham. “The way to do it is organization, having a spokesperson, having an agenda, having a fixed goal, knowing what we are marching for,” Marrisett said. “All those things can come together. It has to be organized.”
Marrisett said he was sickened by watching the video of Floyd dying with a police officer’s knee on his neck. “My soul still hurts,” he said.
“I am totally in agreement with peaceful protest,” said Marrisett, who turned 84 this month. “Police brutality throughout this country needs to stop. But I don’t condone violence in any form, especially when you’re fighting for your rights.”
The Rev. Gwendolyn Cook Webb, who took part in the Birmingham children’s marches of 1963 when she was 14, said Birmingham’s international reputation for successful peaceful protest has been tarnished.
“I could not sleep at all Sunday night and Monday knowing how they had destroyed our city,” said Webb, who became Birmingham’s second female police officer in 1975 and is now an associate pastor of Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church. “All those that did all that criminal activity, all up and down 20th Street, should be in jail.”
She pointed to black businesses that were hurt, such as that of Dr. Juanakee Adams, CEO of Adams Eye Care.
“Two doctors’ offices in that plaza were destroyed,” she said. “This doesn’t make sense. This never should have occurred. Juanakee Adams is a black doctor who has been there for years and serves black and white patients. They took her glass frames, the cash register, the security monitor. Don’t tell me these people were about peace and justice. These people were about destroying and destruction. I’m so upset about this. This never should have happened.”
Webb recalled being trained in non-violent protest training workshops led by SCLC staff member James Bevel. Marrisett also attended those sessions and later led some himself.
“They were trained in non-violent tactics,” said Andrew Manis, author of “A Fire You Can’t Put Out,” a biography of Birmingham civil rights leader the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. “Shuttlesworth was a stickler about that.”
Shuttlesworth had been leading non-violent protests in Birmingham since the 1950s and invited King to help lead demonstrations in Birmingham in 1963.
“I remember Fred and Uncle Mike in this front room fighting like cats and dogs,” Drew said. “When they walked out of this front door, they knew how important it was to speak with one voice. That was the kind of leadership that America grew to expect. It was the use of that knowledge and compassion that allowed the movement to really take hold.”
Drew said King would demand any weapons be surrendered. “He had us go up and down the aisles with shoeboxes to collect knives and guns,” he said. “He knew all it would take is a firecracker to get every last one of us killed. Today, the first thing he would say is we’re not going to make any gains by embracing violence.”
The clergy knew the rules and made sure marchers knew the rules.
“We always taught non-violence and love,” said Bishop Calvin Woods, 86, pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church in Birmingham, one of the clergy who marched with King in Birmingham in 1963.
“We tried to make it clear when we were having a march, if you can’t be non-violent, don’t get in the march,” Woods said. “We preached that every day. We’re fighting against violence. We have to be non-violent. If you can’t be non-violent, we don’t want you. It doesn’t take but one match to start fire. Many of us were upset. We got beaten. We were hurt, fired from our jobs, children were bit by dogs and knocked down by fire hoses. There were no black police officers then. We had to work hard. You don’t have a license to be violent just because somebody else is violent. We reached out to pull white people into the struggle. We realized it wasn’t a black problem. We felt they ought to be on the front line with us. There’s got to be a call for unity. White leaders have to stand up and speak out.”
The marches in the 1960s were always led by ministers.
“We didn’t start a march unless we had prayer and invoked God’s blessings,” Woods said. “We had singing, praying, preaching. We had a preacher telling people to be non-violent. It is a movement of God, and God loves everybody. Some said we were redeeming the soul of America. We were trying to dispel the darkness. We knew we were going to get beaten.”
The removal of the Confederate monument in Linn Park this week was the right thing to do, but it shouldn’t have been initiated by a mob attack, Woods said. “By them going up there trying to tear it down themselves, that was wrong,” Woods said. “We resolved we weren’t going to do it that way. You’ve got to pray and ask God for strength. You’ve got to be committed. Doing the will of God will never go out of style.”
Woods said he understands the outrage underlying the protests, and it’s justified.
“The primary emphasis should be put on the police killing a man,” Woods said. “Enough strong voices have got to come out and say we’re not going to stand for this. It was unequivocally wrong. That’s got to be strongly stated.”
Bishop Jim Lowe, pastor of Guiding Light Church and a survivor of the 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church who organized a reunion of survivors in 2013, said he’s angry at the way protests in Birmingham unfolded on Sunday night.
“We were effective (in the 1960s) because we began with prayer,” Lowe said. “There was an order. That’s what made the difference. This revolution is not led by men of God. We have to follow divine guidance, not self-guidance. The voice of reason is not there. It’s vengeance, it’s retaliation. Riots will not change the system for the better. Look at Watts (an area of Los Angeles where riots took place in 1965). Those areas are not changed. They’re blighted. It’s only when we begin to organize and petition the government for change that it happens. Revolution in America is done through the ballot. We have to think of what’s good for my community, for the nation.”
Drew said he’s alarmed by a lack of leadership across the nation.
“I cannot express to you my disdain for lack of character in our country,” Drew said. “Martin and Fred too were great negotiators. They had the acumen to sit down and negotiate. The negotiations worked. They worked without violence on our part. We had violence from (Birmingham’s then-Public Safety Commissioner) Bull Connor on their part. That made the difference.”
Drew said he understands the rage of the protests that have erupted since Floyd’s killing. “These folks feel there’s no other way to be heard,” he said. “Police are still killing us at will. Black America’s really lacking some leadership. White America’s lacking some leadership too. There are ways to bring people together of different backgrounds.”
Violence won’t help, he said.
“You’re not going to achieve anything through violence,” Drew said.
“We have not embraced love and equality as human beings,” Drew said. “Uncle Mike never dreamed that we would abuse the freedom we won on the backs of those sacrifices. He wanted the full right to assimilate into American society and be welcomed.”