This Day in History: 1963-05-02

More than 700 Black children peacefully protest racial segregation in Birmingham, Alabama, as part of the Children’s Crusade, beginning a movement that sparks widely-publicized police brutality that shocks the nation and spurs major civil rights advances. As part of that effort, more than 1,000 African American children trained in nonviolent protest tactics walked out of their classes on May 2 and assembled at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church to march to downtown Birmingham. Though hundreds were assaulted, arrested, and transported to jail in school buses and paddy wagons, the children refused to relent their peaceful demonstration. Learn more.