Market data provided by Factset. He was one of seventeen children. And she always told me, no he doesn't do that to me, I have a wonderful relationship with my dad. She'd like to see abusers get help as well. Lela was born in Brownwood, January 17, 1937, the oldest of four daughters of Berl and Lela Naomi (Sansing) Clark. She married James Henry Bevel in Corpus Christi on January 27, 1956. (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). In 1966, Bevel chose Chicago as the site of SCLC's long-awaited Northern Campaign. One of his daughters, Aaralyn Mills, accused Bevel of molesting her as a child and having sex with her once in the 1990s, when she was a teenager. Americans like simple, straightforward plots where there are good guys and bad guys, she says, explaining that a friend told her the book feels like a foreign film. [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. 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. I think the community has not yet figured out what's the proper response to deal with pedophilia," said Orrin, who runs the WhiteSpace Gallery with her husband and is an administrator at Winston-Salem State University. I don't understand how parents violate their children in any way, realizing their children will grow up, and they're not going to forget. [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. She. [18] Bevel and Nash did not attend, and instead watched Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech on television. 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. Enoch Bevel Spring 2010. We have great country we live in that had slavery. Bevel never submitted the collected petitions and left the state the following summer. He initiated the 1967 March on the United Nations as part of the anti-war movement. The accuser was one of his daughters, who was 1315 years old at the time and lived with him. They, Nash, and others stayed in Mississippi to work on grassroots organizing. Six weeks later, he died of pancreatic cancer. 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. What helped you to understand that? Later efforts in Mississippi developed as Freedom Summer in 1964, when extensive voter education and registration efforts took place. 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. They should have been helping her father confront his problem, she said. In September 1963, a bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham killed four young girls attending Sunday School and damaged the church. And we have to find a way, because they exist. The daughter testified that she went back because she had nowhere else to go. Watching her 3-year-old daughter, Athena, clad in a pink leotard, twirl around her bright downtown Washington apartment, Aaralyn Liese says she cant help but be reminded of her own childhood. [26][27] A year earlier, Bevel had denounced the deprogramming of a Moon follower and called for the protection of religious rights. Bevel also attended workshops at the Highlander Folk School taught by its founder, Myles Horton, who emphasized grassroots organizing. Did you always know that it was wrong? And what really helped me was the fact that I had such a support system. Bevel died Friday in Virginia. The two agreed to work together to end segregation, obtain voting rights, and to ensure quality education for ALL children in America. Although Bevel initially intended to pursue a recording career, he felt called to Christian ministry. "There is something that reeks of moral depravity when an individual, whose sworn responsibility is to protect and serve and is fired for what. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Sherri talked a little about being the daughter of the iconic Civil Rights leaders. Ms. MILLS: I feel almost as if it's something I had to do. She filed for divorce in 2010 and fought to share custody of Athena. MARTIN: If you are just joining us, I'm speaking with Aaralyn Mills. Bevel suggested recruiting students in the campaign. Doctors estimate he has only six weeks to six months to live. At her father's recent funeral in an Alabama church, Chevara Orrin of Winston-Salem listened to one civil-rights veteran after another praise him. [12], In 1960, along with James Lawson's and Myles Horton's students Bernard Lafayette, John Lewis, Diane Nash, C.T. Virginia was No. He was educated at segregated local schools in both Mississippi and Cleveland. Bevel selected the student teams for the buses. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. She was not able to deal with it. In March 1965, Mr. Bevel, a fiery orator, spoke at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church in Selma, Ala., the starting point of a symbolic march to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where demonstrators had been beaten two days earlier a day remembered as Bloody Sunday in a first attempt to march to Montgomery to protest discriminatory voting practices. (Rebecca Drobis/COPYRIGHT REBECCA DROBIS 2008). This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. At a family reunion, three other daughters had also alleged that Bevel sexually abused them. MARTIN: I think it's fair to say that you, your other siblings went through a very great deal. But first, we go behind Closed Doors, that's our weekly segment when we talk about painful issues. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Its so amazing it doesnt matter if its yours or not. So, I didn't feel that it was wrong. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). [9] As the first march reached the end of the Edmund Pettus Bridge and passed out of the city, they were attacked by county police and Alabama State Troopers. 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. James L. Bevel, a fiery top lieutenant of the Rev. Four other daughters make allegationsProsecutors estimated that Bevel, who is eligibile for parole, would serve no more than five years if he were to live that long. And my sisters and my brothers also, you know, because my brothers were also stood behind us 100 percent and said, you know we have to do something. James Bevel, was an icon of the civil-rights movement who worked closely with the Rev. Lafayette and his wife, Colia Lidell, also opened an SNCC project in Selma, Alabama, to assist the work of local organizers such as Amelia Boynton. And actually during the trial he came out of the court room and he had met my daughter. 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. [17] Activists encountered severe violence at that time and retreated to regroup. Bevel spent weeks developing strategy, recruiting and educating students in the philosophy and techniques of nonviolence. He decides what's right and not right. [8][9] His last major action was as co-initiator of the 1995 Day of Atonement/Million Man March in Washington, D.C. For his work, Bevel has been called the strategist and architect of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement[10] and, with Dr. King, half of the first-tier team that formulated many of the strategies and actions to gain federal legislation and social changes during the 1960s civil rights era.[8][9]. I don't want to live that anymore. 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. Thank you so much for speaking with us. James Luther Bevel (born 1936) was a civil rights activist of the 1960s who aligned himself with Martin Luther King, Jr. James Luther Bevel was born in the farming community of Ittabena, Mississippi, on October 19, 1936. He is a celebrity civil rights leader. Last week, Joanna Connors a reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer told us about how 20 years later being raped still made her feel powerless and ashamed. At the sentencing hearing, the victims said they were hoping that Bevel would apologize for his actions and seek forgiveness and reconciliation. Family members who confronted Bevel in 2004 during a family meeting testified that Bevel read a written accusation by his daughter and replied that he did not contest the facts as laid out by his daughter. In 1962, Bevel was invited to meet in Atlanta with Martin Luther King Jr, a minister who was head of the SCLC. SNCC had been conducting a Voting Rights Project (headed by Prathia Hall and Worth Long) since the early 1960s, meeting with violence in Alabama. Ms. MILLS: I don't, I don't think he's mentally ill. Bevel had 16 children with nine women. The following day, when more students arrived at the church and started to walk to city hall, Eugene "Bull" Connor, City Commissioner of Public Safety, ordered that German Shepherd dogs and high-pressure fire hoses be used to stop them. At trial, Bevel denied committing the sexual act and his recorded statement was used against him. On April 10, 2008, after a three-hour deliberation, the jury found Bevel guilty, his bond was revoked, and he was taken into custody. She and several of her siblings compiled affidavits detailing sexual abuse and confronted their father. His brother - and we were all present, either on the phone or live. In 1968, Mr. Bevel was at the Memphis motel where Dr. King was assassinated, and in a bizarre post-mortem, he claimed that the man who was arrested for (and later convicted of) the shooting, James Earl Ray, was not the killer and that he had evidence which he declined to reveal that Mr. Ray was innocent. The judge . 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. He put this barrier between us and the world. As the Chicago movement neared its conclusion A. J. Muste, David Dellinger, representatives of North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, and others asked Bevel to take over the directorship of the Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. James L. Bevel, 71, a key 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 count of incest.
Michael Starr Hopkins Married, Articles J