View source for James Bevel

{{Short description|1960s civil rights movement strategist (1936–2008)}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = James Bevel
| image       = Rev.Jim Bevel 003.jpg
| alt         =
| caption     = Bevel in 1987
| birth_name  = James Luther Bevel
| birth_date  = October 19, 1936
| birth_place = [[Itta Bena, Mississippi]], U.S.
| death_date  = {{death date and age|2008|12|19|1936|10|19}}
| death_place = [[Springfield, Virginia]], U.S.
| other_names =
| known_for   = Strategist of the [[Birmingham campaign|Birmingham Children's Crusade]], [[Selma to Montgomery marches|Selma voting rights movement]], [[Selma to Montgomery march]], and [[Chicago Freedom Movement|Chicago Open Housing Movement]] during the [[Civil Rights Movement]]
| occupation  = Minister and civil rights activist, [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference|SCLC]] Director of Direct Action
| spouse = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|[[Diane Nash]]|1961|1968|reason=divorced}}
* Helen Bevel
* Erica Henry
}}
| children= 16<ref>[https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/faithful-to-my-fathers-dream Faithful to my Father's Dream, Enoch Bevel]. ''dissentmagazine.org''.</ref>
}}

'''James Luther Bevel''' (October 19, 1936 – December 19, 2008) was an American minister and a leader and major strategist of the 1960s [[Civil Rights Movement]]. As a member of the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]] (SCLC), and then as its director of [[direct action]] and [[Nonviolence|nonviolent]] education, Bevel initiated, strategized, and developed SCLC's three major successes of the era:<ref>{{cite book|first=Randall L.|last=Kryn|chapter=James L. Bevel; The Strategist of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement|editor-first=David|editor-last=Garrow|editor-link=David Garrow|title=We Shall Overcome|date=1989|publisher=Carlson Publishing Company|location=Brooklyn, New York|page=325|isbn=978-0926019027}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://cfm40.middlebury.edu/node/287|first=Randy|last=Kryn|title=Movement Revision Research Summary Regarding James Bevel|website=middlebury.edu|date=October 2005|publisher=[[Middlebury College]]|location=Middlebury, Vermont|access-date=2013-01-28|archive-date=2016-03-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303174523/http://cfm40.middlebury.edu/node/287|url-status=dead}}</ref> the [[Birmingham campaign|1963 Birmingham Children's Crusade]],<ref>[https://www.npr.org/2022/10/04/1126680861/in-waging-a-good-war-ricks-examines-the-civil-rights-movement-of-the-1960s Thomas Ricks, NPR interview, October 4, 2022]</ref> the [[Selma to Montgomery marches|1965 Selma voting rights movement]], and the [[Chicago Freedom Movement|1966 Chicago open housing movement]].<ref name="Kryn in Garrow, 1989">Kryn in Garrow, 1989.</ref> He suggested that SCLC call for and join a [[March on Washington]] in 1963<ref name="Kryn in Garrow, 1989, pg. 533">Kryn in Garrow, 1989, p. 533.</ref> and strategized the [[Selma to Montgomery marches|1965 Selma to Montgomery marches]] which contributed to Congressional passage of the [[1965 Voting Rights Act]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Fager|first=Charles|title=Selma, 1965: The March That Changed the South|date=July 1985|publisher=Beacon Press|location=Boston, Massachusetts|isbn=0-8070-0405-7|edition=2nd}}</ref>

Prior to his time with SCLC, Bevel worked in the [[Nashville Student Movement]], which conducted the 1960 [[Nashville sit-ins|Nashville Lunch-Counter Sit-Ins]], the 1961 Open Theater Movement, and recruited students to continue the 1961 [[Freedom Rides]] after they were attacked. He helped with initiating and directing the 1961 and 1962 voting rights movement in [[Mississippi]]. In 1967, Bevel was chairman of the [[Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam]]. He initiated the 1967 March on the United Nations as part of the anti-war movement.<ref name="Garrow 1989"/><ref name="Kryn, 2005">Kryn, 2005.</ref> His last major action was as co-initiator of the 1995 [[Million Man March|Day of Atonement/Million Man March]] in Washington, D.C. For his work, Bevel has been called the strategist and architect of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement<ref>Kryn in Garrow, 1989, title & p. 532.</ref> and, with Dr. King, half of the first-tier team that formulated many of the strategies and actions to gain federal legislation and social changes during the 1960s civil rights era.<ref name="Garrow 1989"/><ref name="Kryn, 2005"/>

In 2005, Bevel was accused by one of his daughters of incest. Three others accused him of sexual abuse that allegedly occurred when they were children, though he was never charged with those crimes. He was tried for incest in April 2008, convicted, and sentenced to fifteen years in prison and a fine of $50,000.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www2.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=43768|title=Civil Rights Leader Convicted of Incest|first=Matthew|last=Barakat|agency=[[Associated Press]]|date=10 April 2008|access-date=26 November 2018|archive-date=26 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181126092749/http://www2.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=43768|url-status=dead}}</ref> After serving seven months, he was freed awaiting an appeal; he died of [[pancreatic cancer]] in December 2008 and was buried in [[Eutaw, Alabama]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tuscaloosanews.com/story/news/2008/12/30/controversial-civil-rights-leader-buried-in-eutaw/27780454007/|title=Controversial civil rights leader buried in Eutaw|first=Jason|last=Morton|newspaper=[[The Tuscaloosa News]]|date=29 December 2008|access-date=4 May 2023}}</ref>

== Early life and education (1936–1961) ==
Bevel was born in 1936 in [[Itta Bena, Mississippi]], the son of Illie and Dennis Bevel.<ref name="The Children">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rv-8E76FZWkC&q=Illie+Dennis+Bevel&pg=PT343 |title=The Children|isbn=978-1-4532-8613-5|last1=Halberstam|first1=David|date=2012 |publisher=Open Road Media}}</ref> He was one of 17 children and grew up in rural [[Leflore County, Mississippi|LeFlore County]] of the [[Mississippi Delta]] and in [[Cleveland]], [[Ohio]]. He worked on a cotton plantation for a time as a youth and later in a [[steel mill]]. He was educated at segregated local schools in both Mississippi and Cleveland. After high school he served in the [[U.S. Navy]] for a time and pursued a career as a [[singer]].<ref name="nytobit" />

Feeling an inner call to become a minister, he attended the [[American Baptist Theological Seminary]] in [[Nashville, Tennessee]] from 1957 to 1961 and became a Baptist preacher. He joined the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]].<ref name="nytobit" /> While at seminary, Bevel reread [[Leo Tolstoy]]'s 1894 book ''[[The Kingdom of God Is Within You]]'', which had previously inspired his decision to leave the military. Bevel also read several of [[Mohandas Gandhi]]'s books and newspapers while taking off-campus workshops on Gandhi's philosophy and [[nonviolence|nonviolent]] techniques taught by [[James Lawson (American activist)|James Lawson]] of the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]]. Bevel also attended workshops at the [[Highlander Folk School]] taught by its founder, [[Myles Horton]], who emphasized [[grassroots]] organizing.<ref name="The Children" />

== Leading the movements (1960s) ==
=== Nashville Student Movement (1960–1961) and SNCC ===
{{Main|Nashville sit-ins|Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee}}
In 1960, along with James Lawson's and Myles Horton's students [[Bernard Lafayette]], [[John Lewis]], [[Diane Nash]], [[C.T. Vivian]] and others, Bevel participated in the [[Nashville sit-ins|Nashville Sit-In Movement]] organized by Nash, whom he would later marry, to desegregate the city's lunch counters. After the success of this action, and with the aid of SCLC's [[Ella Baker]], activist students from Nashville and across the South developed the [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee]] (SNCC). While working on SNCC's commitment to desegregate theaters, Bevel successfully directed the 1961 Nashville Open Theater Movement.<ref>{{Cite book|title=SNCC: The New Abolitionists|last=Zinn|first=Howard|publisher=South End Press|year=2002|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|title-link=SNCC: The New Abolitionists}}</ref>

The Open Theater Movement, led by Bevel, had success in Nashville, the only city in the country where SCLC activists had organized such an action. In this same period, the [[Congress of Racial Equality]] (CORE) had organized the 1961 [[Freedom Rides]] through the Deep South to challenge southern state laws and practices that interstate buses and their facilities remain segregated despite federal laws for equal treatment. After buses and riders were severely attacked, including a firebombing of a bus and beatings with police complicity in [[Birmingham, Alabama]], CORE suspended the rides.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/snccdigitalgateway/core6105.pdf|title=Freedom Ride|last=Peck|first=Jim|date=May 1961|work=CORE-Lator}}</ref> Diane Nash, the [[Nashville Student Movement]]'s chairman, urged the group to continue the Freedom Rides, and called for college volunteers from [[Fisk University|Fisk]] and other universities across the South. Bevel selected the student teams for the buses. He and the others were arrested after they arrived in [[Jackson, Mississippi]] and tried to desegregate the waiting rooms in the bus terminal. Eventually, the Freedom Riders reached their goal of [[New Orleans, Louisiana]], generating nationwide coverage of the violence to maintain [[Jim Crow laws|Jim Crow]] and [[white supremacy]] in the South.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice|last=Arsenault|first=Raymond |publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2007|location=New York, NY}}</ref>

While in the Jackson jail, Bevel and [[Bernard Lafayette]] initiated the Mississippi Voting Rights Movement. They, Nash, and others stayed in Mississippi to work on grassroots organizing.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hogan|first=Wesley|date=2013-12-01|title=In peace and freedom: my journey in Selma|journal=The Sixties|volume=6|issue=2|pages=240–242|doi=10.1080/17541328.2014.898510|s2cid=143987916|issn=1754-1328}}</ref> Activists encountered severe violence at that time and retreated to regroup. Later efforts in Mississippi developed as [[Freedom Summer]] in 1964, when extensive voter education and registration efforts took place. Lafayette and his wife, Colia Lidell, also opened an SNCC project in [[Selma, Alabama]], to assist the work of local organizers such as [[Amelia Boynton]].

=== Bevel and King join forces (1962) ===
In 1962, Bevel was invited to meet  in [[Atlanta, Georgia|Atlanta]] with [[Martin Luther King Jr.|Martin Luther King Jr]], a minister who was head of the SCLC. At that meeting, which had been suggested by [[James Lawson (American activist)|James Lawson]], Bevel and King agreed to work together on an equal basis, with neither having veto power over the other, on projects under the auspices of the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]] (SCLC). They agreed to work until they had ended [[Racial segregation in the United States|segregation]], obtained voting rights, and ensured that all American children had a quality education. They agreed to continue until they had achieved these goals, and to ask for funding from the SCLC only if the group was involved in organizing a movement.<ref name="Garrow 1989">Kryn in Garrow, 1989, pp. 517, 523–24.</ref><ref name="Kryn, 2005"/>

Bevel soon became SCLC's director of direct action and director of nonviolent education to augment King's positions as SCLC's Chairman and spokesperson.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}

=== Birmingham Children's Crusade (1963) ===
{{main|Birmingham campaign|March on Washington}}
[[Image:Birmingham campaign dogs.jpg|thumb|300px|alt=A black-and-white photograph of a black male teenager being held by his sweater by a Birmingham policeman and being charged by the officer's leashed German Shepherd while another police officer with a dog and a crowd of black bystanders in the background look on|As Bevel sent 50 students at a time out of the [[16th Street Baptist Church]] to march in Birmingham, Alabama, [[Associated Press]] photographer [[Bill Hudson (photographer)|Bill Hudson]] took this well-known image of Parker High School student Walter Gadsden being attacked by dogs.]]
In 1963, SCLC agreed to assist its co-founder, [[Fred Shuttlesworth]], and others in their work on desegregating retail businesses and jobs in [[Birmingham, Alabama]], where discussion and negotiations with city officials had yielded few results. Weeks of demonstrations and marches resulted in King, [[Ralph Abernathy]], and Shuttlesworth being arrested and jailed. King wanted to fill the jails with protesters, but it was becoming more difficult to find adults to march. They were severely penalized for missing work and were trying to support their families.

Bevel suggested recruiting students in the campaign.<ref name="nytobit">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/us/23bevel.html?_r=0|first=Bruce|last=Weber|title=James L. Bevel, 72, an Adviser to Dr. King, Is Dead|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=December 23, 2008|access-date=November 25, 2015}}</ref> King was initially reluctant, but agreed. Bevel spent weeks developing strategy, recruiting and educating students in the philosophy and techniques of nonviolence. Their meetings occurred at Birmingham's [[16th Street Baptist Church]], and it was from there that  Bevel directed the students, 50 at a time, to peacefully walk to Birmingham's City Hall to talk to Mayor [[Art Hanes]] about segregation in the city. Almost 1,000 students were arrested on the first day. The following day, when more students arrived at the church and started to walk to city hall, [[Bull Connor|Eugene "Bull" Connor]], City Commissioner of Public Safety, ordered that German Shepherd dogs and high-pressure fire hoses be used to stop them. The national and international media covered the story, and photographs of the force used against schoolchildren generated public outrage against the city and its officials.

=== Dispute with President John F. Kennedy and the March on Washington===
{{See also|John F. Kennedy#Civil rights movement|Presidency of John F. Kennedy#Civil rights}}
During what was later called the [[Birmingham Children's Crusade]], President [[John F. Kennedy]] asked King to stop using children in the campaign. King asked Bevel to refrain from recruiting students, and Bevel instead said that he would organize the children to march to Washington D.C. to meet with Kennedy about segregation, and King agreed.<ref name="Kryn in Garrow, 1989, pg. 533"/> Bevel went to the children and asked them to prepare to take to the highways for a march on Washington, with the goal of questioning the President about his plans to end legal segregation in America.<ref name="Kryn in Garrow, 1989, pg. 533"/> Hearing of this plan, and in response to the city's violent treatment of the students, the Kennedy administration asked SCLC's leaders what they wanted in a comprehensive civil rights bill. Kennedy's staff, who were already drafting one, came to an agreement on its contents with the SCLC's leadership. Bevel then called off plans for the children's march.

=== Alabama Project and the Selma Voting Rights Movement (1965) ===
{{More citations needed section|date=September 2019}}
[[File:Bloody Sunday-Alabama police attack.jpeg|thumb|right|300px|James Bevel's plan for a [[Selma to Montgomery March|march from Selma to Montgomery]] resulted in "Bloody Sunday". Protesters later completed a march with federal protection, and thousands of people entered the capital in support of voting rights.]]
In September 1963, a [[16th Street Baptist Church bombing|bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church]] in Birmingham killed four young girls attending [[Sunday School]] and damaged the church. It was later proven that a [[Ku Klux Klan]] chapter was responsible. Bevel proposed organizing the Alabama Voting Rights Project, and co-wrote the project proposal with his wife Diane Nash.<ref>[https://www.civilrightsteaching.org/resource/the-alabama-project Civil rights teaching, Alabama Project]</ref> They moved to Alabama to implement the project along with Birmingham student activist [[James Orange]].

At the turn of the 20th century, southern state legislatures had passed new constitutions and laws that effectively disenfranchised most blacks. Practices such as requiring payment of poll taxes and literacy tests administered in a discriminatory way by white officials maintained the exclusion of blacks from the political system in the 1960s. [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee|SNCC]] had been conducting a Voting Rights Project (headed by [[Prathia Hall]] and Worth Long) since the early 1960s, meeting with violence in Alabama. In late 1963 Bevel, Nash, and Orange also worked with local grassroots organizations to educate blacks and support them in trying to gain registration as voters, but made little progress. They invited King and other SCLC leaders to Selma to develop larger protests and actions, and work alongside Bevel's and Nash's Alabama Project.<ref name="Kryn in Garrow, 1989"/> Together the groups became collectively known as the Selma Voting Rights Movement, with James Bevel as its director.

The Movement began to stage regular marches to the county courthouse, which had limited hours for blacks to register as voters. Some protesters were jailed, but the movement kept the pressure on. On February 16, 1965, [[Jimmie Lee Jackson]], his mother, and grandfather took part in a nighttime march led by [[C. T. Vivian]] to protest the related jailing of activist James Orange in [[Marion, Alabama]]. The street lights were turned off by Alabama State Troopers who attacked the protesters. In the melee, Jackson, 26, was shot in the stomach while defending his mother from an attack. He died a few days later.

Bevel and others were grieved and outraged. He suggested a march from [[Selma to Montgomery marches|Selma to Montgomery]], the capital, to protest Jackson's death and press Governor [[George Wallace]] to support voting rights for African Americans.<ref name="Kryn, 2005"/> As the first march reached the end of the [[Edmund Pettus Bridge]] and passed out of the city, they were attacked by county police and Alabama State Troopers. The large group were bludgeoned and tear-gassed in what became known as "[[Bloody Sunday (1965)|Bloody Sunday]]". SNCC Chairman John Lewis and [[Amelia Boynton Robinson|Amelia Boynton]] were both injured.

In March 1965 protesters made a symbolic march, inspired by a fiery speech by Bevel at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church, where much organizing was done.<ref name="nytobit"/> The protesters were under an injunction, so they remained within city limits. Organizers appealed to the federal court against an injunction by the state against marching in order to complete their planned march to the capital. [[Frank Minis Johnson|Judge Frank Johnson]] approved a public march. Following the nationwide publicity generated by Jackson's death and the previous attack on peaceful marchers, hundreds of religious, labor and civic leaders, many celebrities, and activists and citizens of many ethnicities traveled to Selma to join the march. By the time they entered Montgomery 54 miles away, the marchers were thousands strong. Even before the final march occurred, President [[Lyndon Johnson]] had gone on national television to address a joint session of [[Congress of the United States|Congress]], appealing for passage of his administration-backed comprehensive [[Voting Rights Act]].

In 1965 SCLC gave its highest honor, the [[Rosa Parks|Rosa Parks Award]], to James Bevel and Diane Nash for their work on the Alabama Voting Rights Project.

=== Chicago Freedom Movement (1965–1966) and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement (1967) ===
{{Main|Chicago Freedom Movement}}
In 1966, Bevel chose [[Chicago]] as the site of SCLC's long-awaited Northern Campaign.<ref>Kryn in Garrow, 1989, pp. 521–522.</ref> He worked to create tenant unions and build grassroots action to "end" slums. From previous discussions with King, and from work of [[American Friends Service Committee]] activist [[William Moyer|Bill Moyer]], Bevel organized, and directed the [[Chicago Freedom Movement|Chicago open housing movement]]. Housing in the area was segregated in a ''de facto'' way, enforced by covenants and real estate practices. This movement ended within a Summit Conference that included Chicago Mayor [[Richard J. Daley]].

As the Chicago movement neared its conclusion [[A. J. Muste]], [[David Dellinger]], representatives of [[North Vietnam]]ese leader [[Ho Chi Minh]], and others asked Bevel to take over the directorship of the [[Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam]].<ref>Kryn in Garrow, 1989, pp. 533–534.</ref> Bevel was influential in gaining King's support for the anti-war movement,<ref name="nytobit" /> and with King agreeing to participate as a speaker, Bevel agreed to lead the antiwar effort.

He renamed the organization the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, recruited members of  many diverse groups, and organized the April 15, 1967 march from [[Central Park]] to the [[United Nations]] Building in New York City. Originally planned as a rally in Central Park, the United Nations Anti-Vietnam War March became the largest demonstration in American history to that date.{{citation needed|date=November 2015}} During his speech to the crowd that day, Bevel called for a larger march in Washington D.C., a plan that evolved into the October 1967 [[March on the Pentagon]]. This rally was attended by tens of thousands of [[peace activists]] who followed the growing [[counterculture movement]].<ref>[http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/web/20051021-pentagon-vietnam-protest-washington-dc-lyndon-johnson-jerry-rubin-david-dellinger-allen-ginsberg-yippie-robert-mcnamara.shtml "The Day The Pentagon Was Supposed To Lift Off Into Space"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051219220648/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/web/20051021-pentagon-vietnam-protest-washington-dc-lyndon-johnson-jerry-rubin-david-dellinger-allen-ginsberg-yippie-robert-mcnamara.shtml |date=2005-12-19}}, ''American Heritage'' magazine, 21 October 2005, Accessed September 15, 2014.</ref>

=== Memphis sanitation strike (1968) ===
{{expand section|date=August 2023}}
{{main|Memphis sanitation strike}}
Although he opposed King's and SCLC's participation in it,<ref name="ReferenceA">Taylor Branch, ''At Canaan's Edge'', 2006</ref> Bevel, along with King and [[Ralph Abernathy]], helped lead the [[Memphis sanitation strike]] by organizing the protest and work stoppage.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/memphis-sanitation-workers-strike | title=Memphis Sanitation Workers' Strike &#124; the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/bevel-james-luther#:~:text=Bevel%20moved%20to%20Chicago%20in,the%20Memphis%20sanitation%20workers%27%20strike | title=Bevel, James Luther &#124; the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute }}</ref> Due to the violence that ensued during the strike in which 60 people were injured and one was killed, Bevel was among those whom the city of Memphis filed a formal complaint against in the District Court.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/memphis-v-mlk | title=Martin Luther King, Jr., and Memphis Sanitation Workers | date=15 August 2016 }}</ref>

== King assassination (April 4, 1968) ==
{{Main|Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.}}
{{See also|Martin Luther King Jr. assassination conspiracy theories}}
In 1968 Dr. King objected to Bevel and other SCLC organizers' opposition to proceeding with King's planned [[Poor People's Campaign]]. Historian [[Taylor Branch]] quotes King in ''[[America in the King Years|At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965–1968]]'' (2006) as saying that "[[Andrew Young]] had given in to doubt, Bevel to brains, and Jackson to ambition", and said that the movement had made them and now they were using the movement to promote themselves. "He confronted Bevel, who had been a mentor to Jackson and Young, as 'a genius who flummoxed his own heart'. 'You don't like to work on anything that isn't your own idea,' King said, 'Bevel, I think you owe me one.'"<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

Bevel was in the parking lot of the [[Lorraine Motel]] in Memphis and witnessed [[Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.|King's assassination]] on April 4, 1968. He reminded SCLC's executive board and staff that evening that King had left "marching orders" that, if anything should happen to him, he intended for Abernathy to take his place as SCLC's chairman.<ref>Kryn in Garrow, 1989, p. 524.</ref> Bevel continued to oppose the Poor People's Campaign, but served as its director of nonviolent education. 

For Bevel, King's assassination "represented a great personal crisis."<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Mack |first=Adam |date=2003 |title=No “Illusion of Separation”: James L. Bevel, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Vietnam War |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-0130.00255 |journal=Peace & Change |language=en |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=108–133 |doi=10.1111/1468-0130.00255 |issn=1468-0130|url-access=subscription }}</ref> His colleagues believed his long involvement in the Civil Rights Movement had taken a toll on his mental health, and he began to act erratically.  In particular he claimed that [[James Earl Ray]] had not killed killed King despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. He offered to defend Ray in court and campaign for his release from prison, though Ray was still convicted of the crime.<ref name="nytobit" /> 

SCLC's board of directors removed Bevel from his leadership positions in 1970. He had become "increasingly overbearing" in King's absence, and acted with "an almost studied arrogance," though the direct cause of his removal was the result of an incident in Spelman College, in Atlanta.<ref name=":0" />

== Bevel in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s ==
In 1970, Bevel created the Making of the Man Clinic in 1970.<ref name="Reverend James Bevel's Biography">{{cite web | url=https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/reverend-james-bevel | title=Reverend James Bevel's Biography }}</ref>

In the 1980s, Bevel supported [[Ronald Reagan]] as president.<ref name="nytobit"/> In 1986, Bevel, Chicago alderman [[Danny K. Davis]], singer-songwriter [[Kristin Lems]], and others participated in an unsuccessful project of creating a summit in Chicago for [[Gorbachev]] and Reagan to bring peace and resolution to the ongoing Cold War.<ref>{{Citation|last=Lipinski
|first=Ann Marie
|author-link=Ann Marie Lipinski
|title=Reykjavik's got nothing on us, Chicago informs world leaders
|newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]]
|pages=section 2, page 3
|date=25 November 1986
|url=
|access-date=}}</ref>

In 1989, Bevel and Abernathy organized the National Committee Against Religious Bigotry and Racism. This was financially backed by the [[Unification Church]] of [[Sun Myung Moon]], which appeared to be trying to improve its controversial image by allying with such respected leaders.<ref>{{cite news|title=Inside Moon's Washington; The Private Side of Public Relations: Improving the Image, Looking for Clout|first=Andrew|last=Leigh|newspaper=The Washington Post |location=Washington, D.C.|date=October 15, 1989|page=b.01}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Civil Rights Revolution: Events and Leaders, 1955-1968|first=Frederic O. |last=Sargent|publisher=McFarland|year=2004|isbn=978-0-7864-1914-2|page=137}}</ref> A year earlier, Bevel had denounced the [[deprogramming]] of a Moon follower and called for the protection of [[religious freedom]]. He also supported Unification Church members in their protest against news media use of the word "[[Moonie]]", which they considered offensive.<ref>{{cite news|title=Call Deprogramming 'Spiritual Rape' Church Chiefs Denounce Whelan Acquittal|work=Omaha World-Herald|location=Omaha, Nebraska|date=November 8, 1988|page=23}}</ref><ref name="hatch">{{cite news | last = Hatch | first = Walter | title = Big names lend luster to group's causes - Church leader gains legitimacy among U.S. conservatives | newspaper = [[The Seattle Times]] |page = A1 | publisher = [[The Seattle Times Company]]| location=Seattle, Washington|date = February 13, 1989 }}</ref>

Bevel moved to [[Omaha, Nebraska]], in November 1990 as the leader of the "Citizens Fact-Finding Commission to Investigate Human Rights Violations of Children in Nebraska", a group organized by the [[Schiller Institute]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Franklin Stories Called LaRouche 'Moneymaker'|first=Robert|last=Dorr|work=[[Omaha World-Herald]]|publisher=[[Berkshire Hathaway]]|location=Omaha, Nebraska|date=March 10, 1991|page=1B}}</ref> The commission was associated with conspiracy theorist [[Lyndon LaRouche]], and sought to persuade the state legislature to reopen its two-year investigation into the [[Franklin child prostitution ring allegations]]. Bevel never submitted the collected petitions and left the state the following summer.<ref>{{cite news|title=Activist in Franklin Probe Is LaRouche Running Mate|first=Robert|last=Dorr|work=[[Omaha World-Herald]]|publisher=[[Berkshire Hathaway]]|location=Omaha, Nebraska|date=September 20, 1992|page=7B}}</ref>

In 1992, Bevel ran on LaRouche's ticket as the [[Vice President of the United States|vice presidential candidate]]. At the time, he was living and working in [[Leesburg, Virginia]], near LaRouche's headquarters. LaRouche, characterized as a [[perennial candidate]], was serving a prison sentence for [[mail fraud]] and [[tax evasion]].<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/topstories/2008-04-10-1582164906_x.htm | work=[[USA Today]]| title=Civil rights leader convicted of incest | date=April 10, 2008 | access-date=May 5, 2010 | first=Matthew | last=Barakat}}</ref> He engaged in LaRouche seminars on issues including "Is the [[Anti Defamation League]] the new [[KKK]]?"<ref>[http://www.larouchepub.com/tv/tlc_programs_1992.html LaRouche Connection Master List 1991-1995<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> When Bevel introduced LaRouche at a convention of the 1996 [[National African American Leadership Summit]], both men were booed off the stage. A fight broke out between LaRouche supporters and black nationalists.<ref>{{cite news|first=Marable|last=Manning|title=Black fundamentalism|work=Dissent|location=New York|date=Spring 1998|pages=69–77}}</ref>

== Criminal charges (2007–2008) ==
In May 2007, Bevel was arrested in Alabama on a charge of [[Legality of incest in the United States|incest]] committed sometime between October 1992 and October 1994 in [[Loudoun County, Virginia]]. At the time, Bevel was living in [[Leesburg, Virginia]], and working with LaRouche's group, whose international headquarters was a few blocks from Bevel's apartment.

The accuser was one of his daughters, who was 13–15 years old at the time and lived with him. At a family reunion, three other daughters had also alleged that Bevel sexually abused them.<ref name="nytobit" /> Virginia had no [[statute of limitations]] for the offense of incest. Bevel pleaded not guilty to the one count charged and maintained his innocence. During his four-day trial in 2008, the accusing daughter testified that she was repeatedly [[child sexual abuse|molested]] by him, beginning when she was six years old.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.nbc4.com/news/13503426/detail.html?dl=headlineclick |title=Allegations Pour In Against Civil Rights Leader Accused Of Incest |publisher=NBC-WRC |location=Washington, DC |access-date=2007-06-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929084024/http://www.nbc4.com/news/13503426/detail.html?dl=headlineclick |archive-date=2007-09-29 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

During the trial, prosecutors presented key evidence: a 2005 police-sting telephone call recorded by the Leesburg police without Bevel's knowledge. During that 90-minute call, Bevel's daughter asked him why he had sex with her the one time in 1993, and she asked him why he wanted her to use a vaginal [[douche]] afterward. Bevel said that he had no interest in getting her pregnant. At trial, Bevel denied committing the sexual act and his recorded statement was used against him.<ref name=call>{{cite news|first=Bill|last=Brubaker|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/10/AR2008041002222.html|title=Civil Rights Leader Convicted of Incest|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=April 11, 2008}}</ref>

On April 10, 2008, after a three-hour deliberation, the jury convicted Bevel of incest. His bond was revoked and he was taken into custody.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com.nyud.net/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/11/AR2008041102574_pf.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120918201314/http://www.washingtonpost.com.nyud.net/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/11/AR2008041102574_pf.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 18, 2012|first=Bill|last=Brubaker|title=Incest Verdict Is Bittersweet For Daughter Of Minister|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=April 12, 2008}}</ref> On October 15, 2008, the judge sentenced him, based on the jury's recommendation, to 15 years in prison and fined him [[United States dollar|$]]50,000. After the verdict, Bevel claimed that the charges were part of a conspiracy to destroy his reputation, and said that he might appeal. He received an appeal bond on November 4, 2008, and was released from jail three days later, after a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.<ref name="nytobit" /> Six weeks later he died of cancer, at the age of 72, in [[Springfield, Virginia]].<ref>{{cite news|first=Alexander|last=Remington|url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-bevel25-2008dec25-story.html|title=The Rev. James L. Bevel dies at 72; civil rights activist and top lieutenant to King|newspaper=[[The Los Angeles Times]]|date=December 24, 2008}}</ref>

Bevel's attorney requested that the [[Court of Appeals of Virginia]] [[Abatement ab initio|abate the conviction]] on account of Bevel's death. The Court of Appeals remanded the case to the trial court to determine whether there was good cause not to abate the conviction. The trial court found that abating the conviction would deny the victim the closure that she sought and denied the motion to abate. The Court of Appeals affirmed this judgment.<ref>{{cite web |title=Bevel v. Commonwealth (Va.Ct.App., 14 Sept. 2010)|url=https://law.justia.com/cases/virginia/court-of-appeals-unpublished/2010/2373094.html |website=US Law |publisher=Justia |access-date=24 March 2022}}</ref> Bevel's attorney appealed the denial of the abatement motion to the [[Supreme Court of Virginia]]. In an opinion issued November 4, 2011, the commonwealth's Supreme Court held that abatement of criminal convictions was not available in Virginia under the circumstances of Bevel's case. Because the executor of Bevel's estate had not sought to prosecute the appeal, the Court affirmed the dismissal of his appeal as moot.<ref>{{cite web |title=Bevel v. Commonwealth (Va.S.Ct., 4 Nov. 2011) |url=https://law.justia.com/cases/virginia/supreme-court/2011/102246.html |website=U.S. Law |publisher=Justia |access-date=7 June 2020}}</ref>

==Marriage and family==
In 1961, Bevel married activist [[Diane Nash]] after he completed his seminary studies. They worked together on civil rights, and had a daughter and son together. They divorced after seven years.<ref name="usatoday.com">{{cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/03/26/nashville-civil-rights-diane-nash/2023301/|first=Heidi|last=Hall|title=Years After Change, Activist Lives Her Conviction|newspaper=[[USA Today]]|date=April 21, 2013|access-date=August 2, 2013}}</ref> He married two other women in the following decades, and had told the court during his incest case that he had 16 children born of seven women.<ref name="nytobit"/>

== Cultural impact ==
Actor and rapper [[Common (rapper)|Common]] portrays Bevel in the 2014 film ''[[Selma (film)|Selma]]''.<ref name=Common>{{cite news|last1=Fleming|first1=Mike Jr.|title=Common Is James Bevel, Andre Holland Is Andrew Young In Ava DuVernay's Mlk Tale 'Selma'|url=https://www.deadline.com/2014/05/common-andre-holland-mlk-selma/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140511070617/http://www.deadline.com/2014/05/common-andre-holland-mlk-selma/|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 11, 2014|access-date=5 June 2014|website=[[Deadline (website)|Deadline]]|date=9 May 2014}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|United States|Biography|Christianity|Society}}
* [[African American founding fathers of the United States]]
* [[List of civil rights leaders]]
* [[List of peace activists]]
* [[Pacifism]]
* [[Timeline of the civil rights movement]]

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|James Bevel}}
* [https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/bevel-james-luther James Bevel profile], The Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute
* Statements by Rev. James L. Bevel, The Freedom Rides [https://web.archive.org/web/20111005005713/http://ifile.it/l4kib13 (see request for download at bottom of page). From the Helen L. Bevel Archives].
* [https://snccdigital.org/people/james-bevel/ SNCC Digital Gateway: James Bevel], Documentary website created by the SNCC Legacy Project and Duke University, telling the story of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and grassroots organizing from the inside-out
* {{C-SPAN|6594}}
* [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/05/22/ST2008052202216.html ''Washington Post''] "A Father's Shadow" Les Carpenter; May 25, 2008
*''[[Eyes on the Prize]]''; [http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-151-gt5fb4x427 Interview with James Bevel], 1985-11-13,  [[American Archive of Public Broadcasting]]
* [https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=James+Bevel+youtube&view=detail&mid=B1545876D61AFA7A869CB1545876D61AFA7A869C&FORM=VIRE ''Bevel's Last Sermon'', YouTube video by Seth McClellan], filmed 10 days before Bevel's death

{{Civil rights movement}}
{{Martin Luther King Jr.}}
{{African American topics}}
{{Mohandas K. Gandhi}}
{{LaRouche movement}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bevel, James}}
[[Category:James Bevel| ]]
[[Category:1936 births]]
[[Category:2008 deaths]]
[[Category:1992 United States vice-presidential candidates]]
[[Category:20th-century American criminals]]
[[Category:20th-century American politicians]]
[[Category:Activists for African-American civil rights]]
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[[Category:African-American activists]]
[[Category:American anti–Vietnam War activists]]
[[Category:American Christian pacifists]]
[[Category:American community activists]]
[[Category:American conscientious objectors]]
[[Category:American members of the clergy convicted of crimes]]
[[Category:American people convicted of child sexual abuse]]
[[Category:Deaths from pancreatic cancer in Virginia]]
[[Category:COINTELPRO targets]]
[[Category:Gandhians]]
[[Category:Freedom Riders]]
[[Category:LaRouche movement]]
[[Category:Nashville Student Movement]]
[[Category:American nonviolence advocates]]
[[Category:People convicted of incest]]
[[Category:People from Itta Bena, Mississippi]]
[[Category:People from Leesburg, Virginia]]
[[Category:Selma to Montgomery marches]]
[[Category:Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee]]
[[Category:Tolstoyans]]
[[Category:Poor People's Campaign]]
[[Category:Birmingham campaign]]
[[Category:Chicago Freedom Movement]]
[[Category:Suffragists from Mississippi]]
[[Category:People involved with the civil rights movement]]