Birmingham: Testament of Nonviolence; Back to School in Birmingham [1 of 2]

Item Information

Title:
Birmingham: Testament of Nonviolence; Back to School in Birmingham [1 of 2]
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. John's 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 expelled. The series was produced by Riverside Radio, WRVR, the FM station of the Riverside Church, New York City, for the Educational Radio Network and the National Association of Educational Broadcasters. It was distributed by the National Association of Radio Broadcasters Network. New York Times critic Jack Gould called the series "a first-class journalistic coup [that] constituted a remarkable social document for the ear." For information on the Birmingham movement, see Glenn T. Eskew, But for Birmingham: The Local and National Movements in the Civil Rights Struggle (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997).
Production company:
National Association of Educational Broadcasters
Production company:
WRVR (Radio station: New York, N.Y.)
Speaker:
Abernathy, Ralph D., 1926-1990
Speaker:
Motley, Constance Baker
Speaker:
Arthur, Robert C.
Interviewer:
Polk, Bob
Speaker:
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968
Creator:
Nixon, Walter
Creator:
Summerfield, Jack
Date:
June 10, 1963
Format:
Audio recordings (nonmusical)
Genre:
Documentary
Location:
University of Maryland
Collection (local):
American Archive of Public Broadcasting Collection
Series:
University of Maryland > Birmingham: Testament of Nonviolence
Subjects:
Social Issues
African Americans--Civil rights--History
Extent:
00:30:19
Link to Item:
https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-jq0svz1h
Terms of Use:
Rights status not evaluated.
Contact host institution for more information.
Notes:
Episode Number: Part 4