National Association of Educational Broadcasters WRVR (Radio station : New York, N.Y.) Arthur, Robert C Motley, Constance Baker Polk, Bob

Description

A documentary recorded in Birmingham, Alabama, in May 1963, profiling students who were jailed for demonstrating during the recent 38-day direct action nonviolent integration campaign and were subsequently expelled or suspended from their schools. The Reverend Ralph D. Abernathy of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), one of the leaders of the Birmingham movement, speaks to newly released students on strategy going forward. Bob Polk, minister to youth in New York, interviews students on their experiences in jail, their commitment to nonviolent protest, and their opinions on the controversial issue of whether children, some as young as six years old, should have been encouraged to join the demonstrations. On May 20, Birmingham Board of Education president Robert C. Arthur, announces that the 1,081 students who had been arrested would be expelled or suspended. That night, at St. Johns Church, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., president of SCLC, advises the students not to engage in further demonstrations until a new strategy has been devised. Constance Baker Motley, attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, tells the students that a suit will be filed the next day to stop the expulsion order and announces that the Supreme Court had ruled that day that students engaged in department store sit-ins must be released, a ruling, she says, that will effect more than 3,000 students. The next day, after the suit was filed, the U. S. Circuit Court in Atlanta ordered the reinstatement of all 1,081 Birmingham students who had been...

Record Contributed By

University of Maryland

Record Harvested From

Digital Commonwealth