Remembering James Bevel

By Dorothy Wright Tillman | Last updated: Jan 13, 2009 - 8:12:00 AM

In God’s Rest: Remembering the life, work of Rev. James Bevel

Dorothy Wright Tillman

(Editor’s note: The following eulogy was written for delivery at the funeral services for Rev. James Bevel. There were many tributes and remembrances and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan spoke words that essentially closed the service. Ms. Tillman, however, had been scheduled to provide a eulogy and her words are printed here as a remembrance from one who knew the civil rights pioneer and one who has been a fighter in the struggle for freedom, justice and equality.)

“Our Direct Action Department, under the direction of Rev. James Bevel, then decided to attack the very heart of the political structure of the state of Alabama and the Southland through a campaign for the right to vote.”
--Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Good Evening, we are gathered here on this 29th day of December in the year 2008, at the Greater Christ Temple Apostolic Church in Eutaw, Alabama, under the leadership of Bishop Luke Edwards. I am here on my final assignment, given to me by the Reverend James Luther Bevel, Direct Action secretary for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It is wonderful to see you all here at this family reunion, as we send Bevel on his journey.

When I was nine years old, my grandmother carried me to Holt Street Baptist Church, in Montgomery, Alabama to hear Dr. King, I never imagined that as a teenager I would become a part of his staff. As a child in Alabama, our parents tried to shield us from Jim Crow. My grandmother would pack a lunch to keep us from having to buy a sandwich from a dirty hole at the back of a restaurant. I watched her pay the 10 cents in the front of the bus to get off and to enter at the rear of the bus because we weren’t “good enough” to sit, eat or ride with dignity. When Rosa Parks refused to give her seat to a White man, although I was a child, I understood why she did it and why we had to fight. We had no other choice. I was proud of the community and my family for the year long struggle.

When I was a teenager, a young man, his wife Diane, and James Orange came to town (Montgomery, Ala.) and asked us if we were prepared to fight so our parents and grandparents could live in dignity. This bald headed man, with a yarmulke on, captured the hearts and souls of the youth and gave us the rationale and courage to fight. My job was to organize Booker T. Washington High School and the youth in my community.

Rev. James Bevel

As a Direct Action Field Staff Organizer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), under the leadership of Rev. Bevel, I am accepting this final assignment, to give his eulogy, join you in celebrating his life and to send him on his journey. Bevel instructed me to tell you that “he was going on a journey and that he is in God’s rest, where there is no death, and the power to do good is unlimited.” Bevel said, “For life is space, energy and motion. “

It is very befitting that we are here in Green County, Ala. The state of Alabama was the catalyst of many Movements for the liberation of Black people. As I was riding on the highway to get here, I thought about the struggles we had in so many of these counties; Shelby County, Perry County, Dallas County, and Hale County, my mind was travelling back in time. I could vividly remember all of the mass meetings, the beatings, the marches and those who lost their lives as we fought for the health, interests, rights, and needs of our people. We mobilized our community without faxes, cell phones, or the Internet, but with God, a mimeograph, and committed people.

I thought about Jimmy Lee Jackson. On the night of February 18, 1965, after a mass meeting at Zion United Methodist Church in Marion, we attempted a peaceful march to the Perry County Jail about a half a block away where James Orange was being held. We often marched at night because Bevel said that would “remove the fear.” Jimmy Lee Jackson was shot by an Alabama State Trooper, and later died for trying to protect his mother. I remembered when Rev. Bevel returned to a mass meeting, very frail because he had been beaten and jailed, and began to preach. He preached the anger and frustrations that we were all feeling out of the room. I remember how angelic he looked when he said, “We will take this Movement to Wallace’s lap!” That moment changed history. Bevel decided that we would not march to the courthouse but to the capital in Montgomery, which resulted in many nights of being turned away at the foot of the bridge. On Sunday, March 6, 1965, we were beaten and trampled on Edmund-Pettis Bridge. This became known as Bloody Sunday, where the world watched as our blood flowed like a river. As a result of that day we had the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

We came from all over today, some flew while others drove. We are staying in nice hotels and are able to eat at restaurants along the way. It was not long ago in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, or in America’s dark ghettos like Chicago, New York, Detroit, and Los Angeles, that if you were Black, and you travelled the highways and byways of this country, you could not use the bathroom in dignity. If you were Black, you could not eat where you wanted or sleep where you wanted. If you were Black, you would be lynched if you found yourself in the wrong bush or on the wrong side of town. Bevel asked the question, “What is man and how should he live? Shouldn’t all men enjoy the fruits of God’s Earth or just a chosen few? When there is injustice, Bevel says we must ask, what is this and how should it be addressed? He said, We have the moral authority to break an unjust law to make it a just law.”

Who is this man called Bevel? He conceptualized every movement in Alabama, with the exception of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Bevel initiated, strategized, and directed SCLC’s movement activities, as well as taught us the principles of nonviolence. He was an activist in the Nashville Student Movement and a founder of the Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He organized the Birmingham Children’s campaign that led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Program for Action in Alabama that led to the Voting Rights Act in 1965, the Chicago Open Housing Movement of 1966 and the 1967 Anti-Vietnam War Movement. Bevel’s brilliance helped formulate the March on Washington in 1963 and the message of atonement for Minister Louis Farrakhan’s Million Man March in 1995.

Yes Bevel, we know who you are. It had to be painful to stand there and watch our leader murdered in Memphis on April 4, 1968. It had to be painful to take his principles to the rest of the leadership and see it rejected. The following year, it is recorded in Look Magazine, at a meeting with SCLC leadership and staff Bevel said, “We should not let this country give us a poor defenseless goat in sacrifice for the body of our lamb;” he continued, “I don’t believe

Ray was capable of killing Dr. King, but whether he did or not doesn’t matter now ... Ray’s execution would not take us one step further in recognizing Dr. King’s dream. It would furnish our enemies with a scapegoat. They could wash their hands of the guilt. A more fitting memorial to Dr. King would be to send Ralph and Mrs. King around the world asking heads of government to cut back on spending for military armaments.”

The magazine continued to be evidence of Bevel’s steadfast commitment to the Movement, reporting that he suggests the enlisting of White student radicals, Black students’ organizations, and anti-war groups in massive non-violent demonstrations, with the Philadelphia public school system as its target. Bevel said, “The point would be to show how Black youngsters suffer inferior education and to protest the creation of sick human beings this nation turns out of its schools to keep wars going around the world. We would demand that Black children learn their history. We should demand that all children learn the philosophies of nonviolence through school curriculum ... More importantly, we’ve got to stop people from running around saying Dr. King is dead. The phonies have my children believing it. He lives, man! We got to flush out all the lying people hiding behind the coattails of James Earl Ray, all the people who stood in the path of Dr. King.” In his scientific, analytical, and spiritual mind he knew that if Ray had a fair trial, we could find out who murdered Dr. King.

It was very important to Bevel that our Movement and Teachings be institutionalized. After the Selma to Montgomery March, Bevel insisted that money be raised for a school. Instead of a school, SCLC launched Summer Community Organization and Political Education (SCOPE). SCOPE took place during the summer of 1965, growing out of SCLC’s participation in the Voter Education Project, the momentum following our Selma to Montgomery March, and SCLC’s desire to highlight the voter registration process for Blacks while the Voting Rights Act was pending before Congress.

Later, when Bevel and his staff went North on a exploratory, fact finding mission, that we called the “People to People” tour. He got permission from my grandmother and father for me to travel with them to Chicago and I am still on assignment.

Bevel told me it was important that I tell the people, “This prophet, this man of God, was more than a lieutenant. He was a partner in the fight for justice and equality for, as Dr. King would say, ‘the Negro people.’ When God has a man doing his work, as Dr. King was doing, and you second the motion, you have to make him successful.” He said that is what he did and that is what he taught us to do. Bevel said there were only a few men who changed the world without a single bullet; God/Moses, Gandhi, and King/Bevel.

The Civil Rights Movement elevated the Black Community. Because the Black Community was elevated, America was elevated. There is an assumption that the Civil Right Movement was about integration. We fought for equality and desegregation, but along the way the language was changed.

Bevel believed we could redeem the souls of America. As he was giving me my final assignment for this eulogy he explained our victories and why we had the moral authority. Bevel said, “The reason we were victorious is because Love is God and God is Love. Love is a powerful force. We fought for our people because we loved them, not for monetary rewards or some position in society. Love gives you the moral authority.” Years later, not understanding who the prophet was, we have lost our moral authority.

Before Bloody Sunday on Edmund-Pettus Bridge, that resulted in the right to vote, we had very few Black elected officials in America, now we have so many more, including Barak Obama our country’s first Black President. Blacks who have enjoyed political, educational, business and economic advantages owe their success to Bevel and those Civil Rights Veterans, both dead and alive, who heard the call and put their lives on the line. We should never be afraid to love and work on behalf of our people.

In Matthew 8:20 it is written, “And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.”

Bevel, like Dr. King, died without riches. He instructed me to tell you that he is in God’s rest. We go into His rest like it is no death and your power to do good is unlimited. Bevel said of himself, “I have paid enough with my life for my people; I have been a vessel for the Lord.”

To my teacher Bevel, on behalf of all the Civil Rights veterans and your SCLC Direct Action staff, we love you and thank you for all your work at redeeming the souls of America. Now let us all stand and escort Bevel’s body to the ancestor village and send him on his journey.

The Final Call