European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 8, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A at o South the Johannesburg of North America. The a act had been outlawed in the state since1956. Connors cops were used to break up Black political meetings. In 1962, the City closed 68 Parks 38 playgrounds six swimming pools and four Golf courses to avoid complying with a Federal court order to desegregate Public facilities. The year 1963 began with George Wallace being sworn in As governor. He called for Quot segregation now segregation tomorrow and segregation  the klan was running amok. It was against this backdrop that Shuttlesworth and King and the rest of the Sulc began their demonstrations much to the distress of a group of White moderates working behind the scenes with Black businessmen to try to keep a lid on the City the Kennedy administration through a shuttling Burke Marshall of the Justice department also had tried to head off a confrontation. Volunteers would March off daily from the Black churches to the downtown businesses to sit at so arc gated lunch counters expecting to get arrested and fill up the jails. King himself was arrested and from his cell wrote his famous Quot letter from Birmingham City  the leaders of the Birmingham demonstrations would become legend in the civil rights movement. Andrew Young Wyatt Walker Ralph Abernathy Joseph Lowery Bernard Lee. Less remembered today is James Bevel of i Tea Bena miss. He was a self described a Chicken eating liquor drinking woman chasing Baptist preacher who was married for a time to civil rights worker Diane Nash a former Beauty contestant from a mid dle class Chicago family who could pass for White. Bevel wore bib overalls and a Yarmulke on his shaved head he said to confuse Mississippi sheriffs. It was Bevel who recruited hundreds of schoolchildren to fill up the jails after the number of adult volunteers dwindled partly because they had jobs to hold Down. On May 2, the first Waves of the children a crusade began spilling out of the sixteenth Street Baptist Church. The children spirit edly Sang we shall overcome and carried signs that said Quot segregation is a sin Quot and a no eat no  about 600 were herded off to jail that Day. Asked her age As she was climbing into a Paddy Wagon one tiny girl called out that she was 6. Blocking the streets  Church the next Day was an army of uniformed policemen massed in front of fire apparatus police cruisers and school buses. Especially ominous were the fire department s Monitor guns two hoses to Force water through a single nozzle mounted on a tripod. It could take the bark off a tree at 100 feet. With the jails already overflowing a Many of the children were being held at the Alabama state Fairgrounds a Connor wanted to keep the demonstrators out of the downtown area without making arrests. The singing turned to screaming As the Monitor guns pummelled the marchers. Bystanders began to hurl rocks. Watching from his office in the nearby Gaston building was . Gaston the City a leading Black businessman who had helped put together a shaky Alliance with the White moderates and was opposed to Kings tactics. When they turned on the hoses he was talking on the phone with David Vann a White attorney who helped bring Down Bull Connor. A but lawyer Vann a Gaston exclaimed. A a they be turned the fire hoses on a Little Black girl. And they re rolling that girl right Down the Middle of the  a police deployed eight k-9 units at a Corner of Kelly Ingram Park across from the Church. Some children and bystanders fled in terror others taunted the dogs. Three teen agers were bitten severely enough to require Hospital treatment. An a photographer was there when one of the dog handlers grabbed a 15-year-old boy and whirled him around into the jaws of a German Shepherd. The picture landed on Page 1 across the country. A few Days later Shuttlesworth with King and Abernathy at his Side would be Able to Tell a news conference Quot the City of Birmingham has reached an Accord with its  he detailed an agreement for the formation of a biracial committee and a schedule for integrating Public facilities. With that Shuttlesworth fainted from exhaustion from his fir Rhose bruises and was taken to a Hospital. But klan night riders went about their business As usual. Bombs hit Black churches the Homes of influential Black leaders such As attorney Arthur shores and . King the rights leaders brother and the Gaston Motel. It would be 14 years before Justice was served in the sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing of sept. 15. In november 1977, after a crusading Young state attorney Genera named Bill Baxley reopened the Case Robert a dynamite Bob Quot Chambliss was found guilty of murder. Similarly Jesse Stoner a disbarred Georgia attorney and head of the National states rights party was extradited from Georgia and convicted in 1980 of the bombing of Shuttlesworth a Bethel Baptist Church. Since no one was injured in the blast he was sentenced to 10 years. Is Fred Shuttlesworth satisfied with the Progress made in civil rights these past 30 years a i done to think anybody could be totally objective and say they Are Happy with it Quot he says. A but sometime people get a Little taste of something and they want so much More until they forget the discipline that the movement had. A the Young generation has become rebellious and contemptuous of what we  bombing am Yna mitc was the Kun flux klan a weapon of Choice three decades ago in the City they came to Call bombing am. Police nicknamed one Black neighbourhood dynamite Hill. Between 1957 and 1963, there were 50 unsolved bombings of Black churches Homes and business. The klan was in full cry. One of those night riders was Jesse Stoner a Pirn ply faced squinty cycad lawyer from Atlanta who was a frequent candidate for Public office in Georgia. He was also a suspect in the bombing of the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth a Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham. Stoner was Imperial wizard of the Christian knights he organized in Georgia and was general counsel for the National states rights party a Neo nazi group headquartered in an old Frame House in Birmingham. Be pee told a reporter he thought Adolf Hitler was a too moderate.�?�. Asked if he condoned violence against Blacks Stoner replied a niggers Are killing White people from one end of the country to the other every Day so if a White Man kills a Nigger Why i say More Power to  it was almost 20 years later that Stoner was convicted in the Church bombing. He was indicted in 1977 after then attorney general Bill Baxley reopened the Case and extradited Stoner from Georgia in 1979. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison. In the same year that Stoner was indicted Baxley got a murder conviction against a Klansman named Robert Chambliss in the bombing of the sixteenth continued on Page 8 Birmingham a sixteenth Street Baptist Church a fews Days after the bombing that killed four Black girls. The killing klan Fred Shuttlesworth August 8, 1933 sunday \ Page 7