(The completed march, which led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act, took place two weeks later.). Forgiving her father, says Liese, now 32, allows her to hold on to good; it lets her hear her own laughter in her daughters. Ready to start the second half of my life, after the funeral, Liese says she began to question her marriage. [15] Diane Nash, the Nashville Student Movement's chairman, urged the group to continue the Freedom Rides, and called for college volunteers from Fisk and other universities across the South. Bevel pleaded not guilty at his trial in Leesburg, Va. Bevel and others were grieved and outraged. The accuser was one of his daughters, who was 1315 years old at the time and lived with him. The large group were bludgeoned and tear-gassed in what became known as "Bloody Sunday". He was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1959 and went on to pastor the Chestnut Grove Baptist Church. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. During his trial, testimony indicated that Bevel considered it parents' duty to "sexually orient" their children. Hoffman said there were questions about the timeline the daughter said she could not recall exactly what year the act occurred, and her recollection of when she lived in Virginia did not fully mesh with school records and other testimony. Doctors estimate he has only six weeks to six months to live. Bevel died Friday in Virginia after a fight with pancreatic cancer, said a daughter, Chevara Orrin, who lives in Winston-Salem, N.C. At the age of seventy-two, James Bevel had seen and experienced more than most men. Bevel never submitted the collected petitions and left the state the following summer. He was 72. Ms. MILLS: Well first of all, I had that feeling, too, that I didn't want to touch it, that I have moved on with my life. Ms. MILLS: I mean we have to look at a lot of aspects of life, in those parallels. They agreed to work until they had ended segregation, obtained voting rights, and ensured that all American children had a quality education. How much you describe it? [37] On October 15, 2008, the judge sentenced him, based on the jury's recommendation, to 15 years in prison and fined him $50,000. She and several of her siblings compiled affidavits detailing sexual abuse and confronted their father. In May 2007, Bevel was arrested in Alabama on a charge of incest committed sometime between October 1992 and October 1994 in Loudoun County, Virginia. 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He served in the U.S. From previous discussions with King, and from work of American Friends Service Committee activist Bill Moyer, Bevel organized, and directed the Chicago open housing movement. [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. In the 1960s, Bevel was a leader in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student. [35], During the trial, prosecutors presented key evidence: a 2005 police-sting telephone call recorded by the Leesburg police without Bevel's knowledge. James Luther Bevel (born October 19, 1936 in Itta Bena, . Later efforts in Mississippi developed as Freedom Summer in 1964, when extensive voter education and registration efforts took place. As a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and then as its Director of Direct Action and Nonviolent Education, Bevel initiated, strategized, and developed SCLC's three major successes of the era:[2][3] the 1963 Birmingham Children's Crusade,[4] the 1965 Selma voting rights movement, and the 1966 Chicago open housing movement. John Railey writes local editorials for the Journal. A wild man from Itta Bena, Mississippi, Taylor Branch called him in Parting the Waters, the first volume of his history of the civil rights movement, a self-described example of the legendary chicken-eating, liquor-drinking, woman-chasing Baptist preacher.. [citation needed]. In 1962 Bevel met with Rev. Enoch Bevel Spring 2010. [6] Hearing of this plan, and in response to the city's violent treatment of the students, the Kennedy administration asked SCLC's leaders what they wanted in a comprehensive civil rights bill. It was later proven that a Ku Klux Klan chapter was responsible. Bevel testified during Wednesday's hearing that he was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer that has spread to his liver. [12], In 1960, along with James Lawson's and Myles Horton's students Bernard Lafayette, John Lewis, Diane Nash, C.T. While a seminarian, he participated in two forms of nonviolent protest against institutionalized racial segregation: sit-ins by African American youths at department-store lunch counters in 1960 and the Freedom Rides on bus lines throughout the South in 1961. And it's something I had the support of so many people to do, up until 2004. MARTIN: If you are just joining us, I'm speaking with Aaralyn Mills. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Sherri Bevel, the daughter of civil rights legends Diane Nash and James Bevel, discussing her work spreading Kingian Nonviolence in Chicago with partner organization the Addie Wyatt Center for Nonviolence Training at #URISummerinstitite2017. Martin Luther King Jr. and a legendary leader of the student sit-in and Freedom Ride movements. Reverend James Bevel's Biography - The HistoryMakers Ms. MILLS: Well, in that it was going to be in the news, the story the side of the - my side should be told. James L. Bevel, 71, an architect of the 1963 Children's Crusade in Birmingham, Ala., and other pivotal moments of the civil rights movement, was convicted earlier this year of a single . MARTIN: Sounds like you would have made a hell of an organizer? "People don't just wake up one morning and stop being a pedophile," Orrin said. James Bevel, a key aide to Rev. So, I grew up with a fear of society and of people, and a great mistrust for the system and a great trust in my father. I'm Michel Martin, and this is tell me more from NPR News. 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. 4. Having background is important to get the whole picture. 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. But before the Poor People's campaign occurred, King and the SCLC organizers traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, to organize a march in support of a sanitation strike after King's and James Lawson's first march had turned into a riot. [13] Six weeks later he died of cancer, at the age of 72, in Springfield, Virginia. Ms. MILLS: Her - the exact statement was that I spelled molest wrong. And then things I never understood as parents. [14], The Open Theater Movement, led by Bevel, had success in Nashville, the only city in the country where SCLC activists had organized such an action. And know that it could come back to them pretty harsh. What saddened Orrin was that speakers at the five-hour funeral danced around the fact that Bevel had been convicted just this past spring of molesting one of his daughters in the 1990s. Bevel's daughter testified that she was repeatedly molested by Bevel beginning when she was just 6 years old, culminating in an act of sexual intercourse in 1993 or 1994 that formed the basis of the incest charge. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. Social services would have taken custody of Orrin and her siblings if they pressed charges, Orrin said her mother told her. He was recently released on bond while appealing a. [17] Activists encountered severe violence at that time and retreated to regroup. 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. The news coverage, which featured children being water-hosed by police and more than 600 youth being arrested, prompted a groundswell of support for the civil rights movement. In 1963, as the Alabama project director for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the organization led by Dr. King, Mr. Bevel persuaded Dr. King to allow children to participate in antisegregation demonstrations, in which they would almost surely face arrest. But prosecutors said his illness should not temper his sentence. And I never understood that. Do you have any idea where you were able to find that within yourself to do this? He was convicted earlier this year of having sex 15 years ago with his then-teenage daughter in Virginia. He can be reached at 727-7357 or at jrailey@wsjournal.com. In a Post story chronicling Lieses decision to come forward about the abuse, she described a trauma room, where her father slid onto her bed fondling her. Liese formerly Mills before creating a new last name to replace her ex-husbands says she forgave and let go long before the trial. [31], In 1992, Bevel ran on LaRouche's ticket as the vice presidential candidate. Bevel died Friday in Virginia after a fight with pancreatic cancer, said a daughter, Chevara Orrin, who lives in Winston-Salem, N.C. Originally planned as a rally in Central Park, the United Nations Anti-Vietnam War March became the largest demonstration in American history to that date. Recently, Mills shared her story in the Washington Post Magazine, and she joins us now. or redistributed. We didn't know each other really, and we were just getting to know each other, but I didn't know how difficult it would be. James Bevel - Bio, Age, Wiki, Facts and Family - in4fp.com Copyright 2008 NPR. Eventually, her former husband agreed. To fight those feelings, she decided to track down her attacker. She was not able to deal with it. But she believes that justice must be served, and that the victims have to come first. It's back! James Bevel, Activist, and Minister born - African American Registry The Sad Fall of James Bevel. | PostBourgie And I always thought that was odd and that people would do something that's not going to be forgotten. Virginia was No. MARTIN: You wrote her a letter telling her what happen. She filed for divorce in 2010 and fought to share custody of Athena. SNCC had been conducting a Voting Rights Project (headed by Prathia Hall and Worth Long) since the early 1960s, meeting with violence in Alabama. We have great country we live in that had slavery. She said he told her, "I got you the right to vote. And it reminded us that those feelings of being ashamed and alone can be magnified when the perpetrator is in a position of trust, highly regarded by the community, perhaps a family member. And yes, she dismissed it in that regard. In 1992, he was vice presidential running mate to political maverick Lyndon LaRouche, who has a home in Loudoun County but at the time was in a federal prison for a tax conviction. MARTIN: Your story was very painful to read. "At the end of the day, they're still our fathers, our mothers, our uncles and aunts and brothers and sisters," she said. The national and international media covered the story, and photographs of the force used against schoolchildren generated public outrage against the city and its officials. Orrin said he made no denials. James Bevel Biography, Life, Interesting Facts - Famous Birthdays By Ms. MILLS: There are eight girls. Charismatic and eloquently quick-witted in a vernacular style, Mr. Bevel was known as a man of passion and peculiarity. 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. I don't want to relive any of that. MARTIN: One thing I want to point out is that one of the reasons that you decided to move forward with pressing charges is that there was a young woman in the house or a young girl in the house, with your father at the time your parents marriage had ended.

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