quo. Organizing led to lunch-counter sit-ins, marches on city hall, and dem- onstrations at stores to protest segre- gated shopping practices. By mid-April, however, energy for the campaign was waning. With little change from the city, African- American adults grew increasingly worried about repeated arrests. They also feared losing their jobs and not being able to take care of their fami- lies, Ellwanger said. On Good Friday, King and other leaders were arrested just when they were considering shut- ting the campaign down. That’s when King wrote “Letter from the Birming- ham Jail.” Although it wasn’t pub- lished until months later, Ellwanger said King’s letter “laid out the basic theology and prophetic imagination of the movement and that still is very relevant today.”
About that same time, teenagers and children were attending church meetings with their parents, sitting in the back pews doing their homework as adults organized. Given the oppor- tunity to march, the children said yes and were clear on why they wanted to, Ellwanger said. “They said, ‘We want to march for our freedom and for everyone’s,’ ” he added. They were taught Christian non- violent practices and signed com- mitment cards promising to pray and study, serve others, and “refrain from the violence of fist, tongue and heart.” Meetings included Sun- day school songs like “We Shall Overcome.”
“They had a clear understanding that this was the movement for justice and truth that God had called them,” Ellwanger said.
In May 1963 students left their classrooms, met at 16th Street Baptist Church, and then pew after pew filed out as nearly 1,000 children marched. Using dogs and water cannons, police arrested more than 600 of them that day for parading without a permit.
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They were held for five days, many in the pens and cages of the country fairgrounds because the jail was full. News and pictures of the Children’s March was broadcast worldwide. “The youth saved the campaign,” Ellwanger said. “I have no doubt the Children’s March and deaths were a significant factor in bringing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”
The bomb that ripped through the church on Sept. 15 destroyed all but
Expect
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one stained-glass window, which showed Christ leading a group of little children. Denise’s parents, Chris and Max- ine, asked Ellwanger to participate in the funeral for three of the girls and to lead her committal service. “In the face of racist action the amazing thing was the strong reaction of the gospel, faith in God who will see us through not with vengeance but compassion,” Ellwanger said.
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November 2013 35
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