Student civil rights activism in Birmingham, Alabama, in the mid-1960s
Moore describes her participation in civil rights marches in Birmingham, Alabama, during the mid-1960s. Moore was a student at Carver High School and she argues that students were important activists in the campaign for school desegregation. Moore begins by describing a meeting held at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. called on the children of the community to become actively involved in the civil rights movement. In addition to describing the actions of the student activists and the challenges they faced, she describes how her parents felt about their children's role in the movement.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Mary Moore, August 17, 2006. Interview U-0193. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- SARAH THUESEN:
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Were your parents involved in—?
- MARY MOORE:
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During that time most of our parents were afraid. The rationale was that
when their bosses learned that they were participating with the
Movement, then they were fired. In many cases the parents would
encourage the children to go to the Movement.
You had some, quite a few like the ministers. In that time it was no
danger for many of the ministers because they got their basic pay from
their congregation. They didn't have to experience the threat
of being fired because their living was paid for by their congregation.
You had a lot of ministers that was active in the Movement then. Young
people. A lot of people that was just brave people during the time and
were going to defy the segregation, the segregated structure regardless.
There were many of us at night, after school we walked from one side of
this city to the other trying to get to a Movement meeting. Then once
the decision was made by Dr. King that it would be better to use
children to take the Movement to the next step—and I always
remember that night. Because after the decision was
made—usually when we would go to the movement meeting adults
were the ones to sit down—children stood up around the walls,
in the balconies of the church. On that particular night Dr. King asked
the adults, "Why don't you step back and let the
children come forth?" His message that night was to the
children.
- SARAH THUESEN:
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You were present at that meeting?
- MARY MOORE:
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That was at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. We were always in the
balcony, I mean, a proud moment. Here it is Dr. King telling the grown
people step back and let the children come forth because his message was
for us. He preached that night about our role and how it relates back to
biblical times when things were hard, in many cases, children were used
in order to propel the spiritual message that got out then. That
was, to me, a proud moment. After he finished
talking to us that night they divided us up according to where we lived.
I lived in North Birmingham so they had selected—. I lived in
North Birmingham plus I went to Carver High School. The major schools
that they could draw children from at that time was Carver High School
on the north side, Parker High School in the center, Ullman High School
on the south side. Then they pulled from children from Fairfield and
surrounding cities. Miles College is located in Fairfield. So students
came in from Miles College. That night he explained to us that the night
before we were supposed to leave school that we met at one of the
churches close to the school. We met at St. Luke AME Methodist Church.
During that particular meeting they gave us our signal. At that time I
think Julian Bond was a young man that was probably at Howard University
at that time. Several other ones was out and they explained to us when
the people on the back side of the school saw these people out on the
campus you know that that's going to be the signal for you to
get your classmates and leave the school. Many of your teachers, they
were threatened also by the board. In many cases the teachers would even
open up a book and start reading—I don't see
what's going on. We quietly got up, left the school,
proceeded to downtown Birmingham and, mind you, it was already
determined that some children would be arrested. That was already
decided that some would be arrested; some would just keep the marches
going. Once we left school and got downtown Birmingham, during that
time, they told us the students from Parker High School
weren't leaving. You have to understand what was happening
with Parker High School because that was where most of the elitist
children went to school. I think they had some with second thoughts. If
they were identified as marching then what will happen to their parents
who were the teachers and the business professional people in
the city. They divided us up at that point and asked
some children to go to Parker High School because the adults knew they
couldn't go in. The children could go in and rally them to
come on out, which we did. Some went to Parker. Some proceeded on to
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church to start the marches. They had a list of
all the children that would potentially be arrested once we got to the
park. Some of us, only thing we did everyday was go and keep the marches
going. People like my brother got arrested two or three times.
- SARAH THUESEN:
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What's his name?
- MARY MOORE:
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His name was Rayfield Moore. Several members of our football team, my
brother Rayfield, Clarence Byrd, and there was another young man that
was killed during the Vietnam and his name is—that was
killed—I always could see his face, never can remember his
name. I know he was one of the football players because most of them had
committed that they would be arrested. Part of the thing that they were
looking at was that you needed enough young men to be arrested because
there was uncertainty as to what would happen to the young ladies. They
were going in for a two fold purpose because of the movement and also to
look out for the young ladies once they were arrested. They herded them
all on buses and hurried them to various places in the city. Used to be
called, it's still called the Fairground where they housed a
lot of the children. That was during '63. We got through that
faze and went on eventually to integrate the schools. Later on after I
finished high school in '66 they more or less stepped up the
integration process after then. Like my younger brothers, they decided
that even though they had been zoned for Carver High School for years,
but we lived close to Phillips High School, so many of the children
would have to go to Phillips. Then, when it got to point
that some of the children didn't want to go, they
started giving children options. The ones that want to go can. The ones
that don't want to go you can go back to whichever high
school you normally would have attended.
- SARAH THUESEN:
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You graduated from Carver in '66, right?
- MARY MOORE:
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'66.
- SARAH THUESEN:
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Were you ever arrested?
- MARY MOORE:
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Never arrested, thank god. My mother always told us we could march as
long as we wanted to, me and my sister. But because of her lack of trust
of the law enforcement at that point in time, she told us we could march
all day. My brother could be arrested because he was a boy. She just was
never certain as to what could possibly happen to a young lady. We
marched and marched and marched and marched everyday. Just like we were
going to work until the marches were called off. Every day we got up,
went to the church, got out there and marched, ran from the policemen,
look around the corner to see if we see Bull Connor and his white tank.
Once we could get past, then zoom back into the park we go. When the
police started chasing us we'd run them and run to some place
of safety to hide out. Once they would give up we'd come out
and run right back into the park again. It was a lot. The thing is to
have lived through that time, during the time when they put the dogs on
children and to know your friends—. I met a young lady while
I was campaigning; I met a lady this year. She was telling me,
"Yeah, I was in that park." She was hit by the hose in
her chest. She said, "I never recovered because the pressure of
that hose on my chest has resulted in a lot of medical
problems." It was a dangerous time but I could see where Dr.
King was coming from. It's like today, children think they
going to live forever, nothing can hurt us because we are children.
We're strong. We've been
promised life. We are fearless. I think that if it had not happened like
that some of the changes that occurred in this country and even around
the world would not have taken place, if it had not been for
children.
- SARAH THUESEN:
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I'm sure your parents must have been really worried about you
at this time. What did they do?
- MARY MOORE:
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I think most parents during that time—you have to realize the
black community during those days, highly religious. Their thought
process was that God was going to protect us anyway. That we were doing
something that was to help everybody. They felt certain at the end of
the day, we were going to return home and get up another day and start
all over again. I don't think the fear was there even with
parents. With them and their religious background, this is something
that had been ordained by God to be done. Dr. King was his messenger to
get it done. Dr. King said this is the way we'll have to do
it, through peaceful protests, then that was the way it was going to be.
No parent thought that their child was going to go out and be hurt. Even
when they brought out the dogs and the hose pipes, it still
didn't affect them that way because through them they believe
we'll continue to pray. This is what we've got to
go through.