James Bevel
James Luther Bevel was a prominent civil rights leader and Baptist minister, born on October 19, 1936, in Itta Bena, Mississippi. He grew up in a large family and worked as a farm laborer before pursuing a career in ministry, receiving his ordination in 1959. Bevel became deeply involved in the civil rights movement, influenced by workshops on nonviolence with figures like James Lawson and the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. He played a key role in significant initiatives, including the Nashville student sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, and the Birmingham campaign, where his innovative ideas, such as organizing a children's march, helped draw national attention to racial injustices. Bevel was instrumental in organizing the March on Washington and the Selma to Montgomery march, which were pivotal in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Later, he expanded his focus to housing discrimination in Chicago and anti-war efforts during the Vietnam War. Despite facing controversies later in life, Bevel's contributions to nonviolent resistance and civil rights advocacy left a lasting impact on American society. He passed away on December 19, 2008, after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
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Subject Terms
James Bevel
Activist and religious leader
- Born: October 19, 1936
- Birthplace: Itta Bena, Mississippi
- Died: December 19, 2008
- Place of death: Springfield, Virginia
Bevel played an important role in the Civil Rights movement as an advocate of nonviolent protest, as an innovative strategist, and as an exceptional organizer.
Early Life
James Luther Bevel (BEH-vehl), one of seventeen children, was born in Itta Bena, Mississippi, on October 19, 1936. His father was a sharecropper, and Bevel, while growing up, worked as a farm laborer. Before becoming involved in the ministry, Bevel performed briefly as a doo-wop singer, and he was a member of the United States Naval Reserve from 1954 to 1955. Ordained as a Baptist minister in 1959, he served as a pastor in Dixon, Tennessee. During this time, he attended the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville and received a B.A. degree in 1961.
While a student at the seminary, Bevel attended workshops on nonviolence given by James Lawson for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The workshops introduced Bevel to the teachings on nonviolent resistance of Mahatma Gandhi. Bevel also attended the Highlander Folk School of Myles Horton, which emphasized the value of collaboration and collective action over that of one individual. Bevel, like many other students of Lawson—including John Robert Lewis, Diane Nash, and Marion Barry—became involved in efforts to gain equal rights for African Americans.
From 1959 to 1960, Bevel participated in the student sit-ins initiated by the Nashville student movement to obtain service for African Americans at Nashville lunch counters. In 1961, Bevel was the chief organizer of the campaign to eliminate the restricted seating of African Americans in film theaters. He helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Bevel also played an instrumental role in the Freedom Rides to end segregation on interstate buses.
Life’s Work
In 1961, Bevel joined the SCLC, becoming one of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s most valuable colleagues, serving as head of direct action, as a leader in the youth-training program, and as a director of nonviolent education. Bevel was one of King’s most outspoken and energetic fellow civil rights advocates; unlike King and many of the other SCLC leaders, Bevel did not dress in a suit and tie but rather wore overalls, a denim shirt, and a Jewish yarmulke to emphasize his sharecropper origins and his Jewish prophet-inspired dedication to change the world. From 1961 to 1963, Bevel worked in Mississippi to register voters. In 1963, Bevel played a major role in the civil rights campaigns of the SCLC in Birmingham, Alabama, to end segregation in public accommodations and discrimination in hiring. The campaign was losing its impact when Bevel proposed a protest march by public school children, including elementary students. The arrest and jailing of these children focused public attention on the injustices that the civil rights activists were attempting to change. Bevel also was responsible for envisioning and organizing the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom that year. In 1965, along with Nash, to whom he was married at the time, he played a major role in the organizing and execution of the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to demand an end to police brutality and a guarantee of the right to vote for African Americans. The campaign resulted in the Voting Rights Act of 1965. For their role in the march, Bevel and Nash received the SCLC’s Rosa Parks Award in 1965. In 1966, King and the SCLC became interested in taking their civil rights movement into Northern cities. Bevel was appointed the project leader for the Chicago Open Housing Movement, which focused on ending discrimination in housing. Bevel encountered considerable resistance to his nonviolent protest policies among the young militants of Chicago, but he maintained and enforced them.
In 1967, Bevel took a leave of absence from the SCLC to direct the Movement to End the War in Vietnam. He organized a parade on Fifth Avenue in New York in April, 1967, and a march on Washington, D.C., in October, 1967. King’s assassination in 1968 and the appointment of Ralph David Abernathy to the leadership of the SCLC resulted in Bevel’s departure from the organization in 1969 because of serious disagreement over policy. Bevel then devoted himself to creating programs and facilities based on his belief in nonviolence and in poverty’s producing violence. His work resulted in the Making a Nation (MAN) clinic and Students for Education and Economic Development (SEED). In the 1980’s, he ran for Congress; in 1992, he was Lyndon LaRouche’s vice presidential candidate. In 1995, Bevel suggested to Louis Farrakhan the idea of a march of atonement, which became the Million Man March.
On April 10, 2008, Bevel was found guilty of incest as a result of charges brought by one of his daughters. He insisted the accusation was unjust. Bevel died of pancreatic cancer on December 19, 2008, at the home of his daughter Sherrilyn in Springfield, Virginia.
Significance
Bevel contributed significantly to the Civil Rights movement through his philosophical and religious beliefs in nonviolence, his creative abilities, and his skills in organization and leadership. Bevel’s dedication to achieving equal rights through nonviolence and his tenacity and determination to reach his goal imbued civil rights workers with the courage and faith to continue their protest efforts.
Bibliography
Arsenault, Raymond. Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Excellent detailed account of the Freedom Rides, recounting their importance, the dangers encountered by participants, and the experiences of the riders.
Halberstam, David. The Children. New York: Fawcett Books, 1999. Concentrates on Lawson’s students who joined the Civil Rights movement. Interviews with Bevel; good coverage of the role of his wife, Nash.
Riches, William Terence Martin. The Civil Rights Movement: Struggle and Resistance. New York: Palgrave, 2010. Places Bevel and King’s 1960’s movements in the context of civil rights from the end of slavery to the Obama administration.