In May 1963, thousands of students walked out of their classrooms with the intention to get arrested. Terrence said even though this march is a reenactment he sees a lot of the same problems students faced back then. “They’re giving us the potential, the opportunity and the idea to actually do it ourselves today … I’m glad that they actually took the opportunity and a chance and the risk to do all of that.”ĭuring the event, students heard from original child foot soldiers from 1963 and local educators who encouraged students to continue to fight. “It kind of feels amazing to know that even though they were so young and back then in that time they were segregated … the Jim Crow laws and all that, that they were able to stand together as one to make a movement,” Terrence said. Jackson-Olin High School sophomore Terrence Miller said it’s an honor to stand where many other student activists stood 60 years ago.

It was a moment in the Civil Rights Movement that turned eyes from around the world toward Birmingham. Sixty years ago this week thousands of children took to the streets in Birmingham to protest against racism and discrimination. Those actions were part of a reenactment of the 1963 Children’s March hosted by the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Hundreds of students from Birmingham schools marched on Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham Friday chanting “Fired up! Ready to go!” They carried signs reading “We Shall Overcome,” “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” and “We Ain’t Afraid of Your Jails.”

Hold on to hope by al jackson