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In my text I will include him by my character asking him questions and talking to him.

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My characters are going to be raring rags because they can not afford it. My groups will be whites and blacks. I am going to make my character protest. It takes place in Birmingham

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(The Root) - Defying your parents' orders not to march in Birmingham, Ala., in the 1960s could have meant a whipping for teens. Defying the police commissioner's order not to march protesting segregation could have meant attacks by dogs, blasts from fire hoses and a lockup in jail.

Fifty years ago in the spring of 1963, thousands of youths in Birmingham did just that - often disobeying their parents because they wanted to join a unified call to end segregation. A re-enactment of the Children's March (also known as the Children's Crusade) is set for Thursday, May 2, in downtown Birmingham.

In 1963, pictures from Birmingham were shown around the world of children blasted by fire hoses. Of children attacked by dogs. Of children singing, "We Shall Overcome."

Freeman Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland at Baltimore County, was 12 and a freshman at Ullman High School when he left school to march downtown. Before the day was over, he had come face-to-face with the city's iconic, racist public-safety commissioner, Eugene "Bull" Connor, and found himself locked up in a juvenile detention facility.

"I guess you could say I learned an early lesson from a Birmingham jail," said Hrabowski, named last year by Time magazine as one of its "100 Most Influential People in the World.""If I had to do it all over again, I would do the very same thing."

While he was locked up, Hrabowski remembers Martin Luther King Jr. coming to the juvenile facility and speaking words of encouragement outside. "He said, 'What you do this day will impact children who have not been born,' " Hrabowski said. Days earlier, Hrabowski had heard King speak at his church, Sixth Avenue Baptist. "He told us that by marching in the movement, children would help end segregation and improve education. That caught my attention. We had great teachers at the time, but we were told that our resources were not the same as whites. I wanted to see change."

When Hrabowski told his parents he wanted to march, they told him, "Absolutely not."

"Then I did something you just didn't do back then. I asked them why they would take me to hear this man [King] talk about marching for better education, but tell me I couldn't do it," he said. "My dad said, 'Boy, go to your room.' "

Hrabowski insisted on marching, and when the crowds left Ullman that May day, he left, too. They marched from south of town about two miles to 16th Street Baptist Church. "As a child, I was a fat nerd, but I loved school. I wanted to be part of anything that would bring better education," he said.

The youths assembled in the church and received their instructions for the day. When they made it to the Birmingham City Hall, they would kneel and pray. That's where Hrabowski encountered the public-safety commissioner whose image was synonymous with segregation - Bull Connor.

"My knees were shaking. He looked at me and said, 'Little nigra, what do you want?' I said, 'We want to kneel and pray,' " Hrabowski said. Not long after that, he and hundreds of others were hauled away and locked up.

Washington Booker, also a student at Ullman, was among the youths who were locked up. He had been reluctant about participating in the marches - not because he didn't believe in the cause, but because he knew what could happen. Booker grew up in the projects in a place called Loveman Village. "It was nothing for the police to call you over to the car and tell you to stick your head in the window so they could tell you something. Then they would roll up the window on you," he said. "Rarely did a day go by when you didn't hear about a black man or a black boy being abused by police.

"We knew what the police would do. I was thinking, let's just let the little middle-class kids go down there and march. I had planned on just doing as I did before - standing behind the crowd and chunking bottles and bricks at the police," he said.

But the more he heard about plans for the May Children's March, the more he became caught up with the idea of participating.

"They told us this would be a nonviolent movement, but when I went into the church that day, I was carrying a pocket knife. They passed a collection basket, and we were told to put all of our weapons in the baskets. I dropped my pocket knife in, but I wished I had tucked it under a pew so I could have come back to get it."

Booker, a Marine, community activist and political consultant, was 14 at the time of the Children's March. While he is proud of their actions in 1963, change, he said, still came at a very slow pace. "The laws changed, but prevailing attitudes changed much slower."

Brenda Phillips Hong, a graduate of Western Olin High School in West Birmingham's Ensley community, said the youths felt a sense of urgency in 1963. The walk from her high school to downtown Birmingham and 16th Street Baptist Church was more than five miles, but at the time, the detail was not important, Hong said. "This was something we had to do."

Her mother had told her not to march, but Hong slipped away to the march organization and training sessions by telling her mother she was going to her older sister's home. "We were marching and singing all the way," she said. "We had strong student leaders who helped keep everyone focused."

The students were given signs to carry in the march. Shirley Holmes Sims, a graduate of Parker High School, recalls her sign: "We Shall Overcome." "My mother had told me not to march and said I'd better not go to jail. But this just felt like something we were supposed to do," she said. "I didn't have sense to be afraid. I thought about our lives at the time. You look back and think, my God."

Sims had listened to the speeches on nonviolence but admits that it was difficult to remain nonviolent while being taunted. "Not long after the march, I was boarding a bus to ride home, and a little white boy spat on me," she said. "It was all I could do to keep from slapping him, but I knew that was something I could not do."

C. Virginia Fields, the former Manhattan borough president in New York City and president and CEO of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, marched as a Birmingham teen in 1963 and found herself in a Birmingham jail at the age of 17. "I didn't march in May because I had been jailed for marching in April, and my case was still tied up in court," said Fields, who graduated from Carver High School in January 1963. "I spent six days in jail after participating in the Good Friday march led by Dr. King.

"My mother was a leader in the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. We attended Bethel Baptist Church where Rev. [Fred] Shuttlesworth had been our pastor," she said.

"We were teenagers, and we had already seen so much. We knew this had to change. My church was bombed. My pastor's home was bombed. We wanted a better life," she said. "This started me on a path and believing that using my voice, I can make a difference."

Denise Stewart grew up in Birmingham, Ala., in the 1960s and is a freelance journalist based in Alabama.

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(The Root) - Defying your parents' orders not to march in Birmingham, Ala., in the 1960s could have meant a whipping for teens. Defying the police commissioner's order not to march protesting segregation could have meant attacks by dogs, blasts from fire hoses and a lockup in jail.

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The Children's March tells the story of how the young people of Birmingham, Alabama, braved fire hoses and police dogs in 1963 and brought segregation to its knees. Their heroism complements discussions about the ability of today's young people to be catalysts for positive social change.

"Definitely Academy Award material! I was in tears at the end, along with some of the students. ... This is the best civil rights documentary I've ever used."

Pennsylvania teacher

The Children's March kit includes:

A 40-minute teachers' edition of the Academy Award-winning documentary film, available in VHS or DVD format, with closed-captioning; and

A teacher's guide with 9 standards-based lesson plans for social studies, language arts and music classrooms.

Produced by Teaching Tolerance in association with HBO.

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The Children's March tells the story of how the young people of Birmingham, Alabama, braved fire hoses and police dogs in 1963 and brought segregation to its knees. Their heroism complements discussions about the ability of today's young people to be catalysts for positive social change. "Definitely Academy Award material!

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Left to right: Walter Reuther, Benjamin McFall, James Del Rio, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rev. C.L. Franklin. Behind Franklin is Detroit Mayor Jerome Cavanagh.

Two months before the "March On Washington" was held, there was The "Walk To Freedom" on June 23, 1963. Held in Detroit was the largest ever civil rights demonstration in the country at the time. It was estimated that approximately 125,000 people marched down Woodward Avenue in Detroit.

It was also the first time that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous, "I Have A Dream Speech" for the first time. National and state leaders who marched along with Reverend King included United Auto Workers president Walter Reuther, former Michigan governor John B. Swainson, and Detroit mayor Jerome Cavanagh.

The march ended at Cobo Hall where Dr. King was cheered by thousands of supporters when he stated that segregation needed to end. Dr. King believed that it was the responsibility of African Americans to take part in peaceful demonstrations like the Walk to Freedom, which he called, "one of the most wonderful things that has happened in America."

Feel Free to Like/Share/Comment/Re-Post!

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Left to right: Walter Reuther, Benjamin McFall, James Del Rio, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rev. C.L. Franklin. Behind Franklin is Detroit Mayor Jerome Cavanagh. Two months before the "March On Washington" was held, there was The "Walk To Freedom" on June 23, 1963.

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Who Was Martin Luther King Jr?

Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and civil-rights activist who had a seismic impact on race relations in the United States, beginning in the mid-1950s.

Among his many efforts, King headed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Through his activism and inspirational speeches, he played a pivotal role in ending the legal segregation of African American citizens in the United States, as well as the creation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, among several other honors. He continues to be remembered as one of the most influential and inspirational African American leaders in history.

Early Life

Born as Michael King Jr. on January 15, 1929, Martin Luther King Jr. was the middle child of Michael King Sr. and Alberta Williams King.

The King and Williams families had roots in rural Georgia. Martin Jr.'s grandfather, A.D. Williams, was a rural minister for years and then moved to Atlanta in 1893.

He took over the small, struggling Ebenezer Baptist church with around 13 members and made it into a forceful congregation. He married Jennie Celeste Parks and they had one child that survived, Alberta.

Martin Sr. came from a family of sharecroppers in a poor farming community. He married Alberta in 1926 after an eight-year courtship. The newlyweds moved to A.D.'s home in Atlanta.

Martin Sr. stepped in as pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church upon the death of his father-in-law in 1931. He too became a successful minister and adopted the name Martin Luther King Sr. in honor of the German Protestant religious leader Martin Luther. In due time, Michael Jr. would follow his father's lead and adopt the name himself.
READ MORE: Martin Luther King Jr. and Martin Luther: The Parallels Between the Two Leaders
King had an older sister, Willie Christine, and a younger brother, Alfred Daniel Williams King. The King children grew up in a secure and loving environment. Martin Sr. was more the disciplinarian, while his wife's gentleness easily balanced out the father's strict hand.

Though they undoubtedly tried, King's parents couldn't shield him completely from racism. Martin Sr. fought against racial prejudice, not just because his race suffered, but because he considered racism and segregation to be an affront to God's will. He strongly discouraged any sense of class superiority in his children which left a lasting impression on Martin Jr.

Growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, King entered public school at age five. In May 1936 he was baptized, but the event made little impression on him.

In May 1941, King was 12 years old when his grandmother, Jennie, died of a heart attack. The event was traumatic for King, more so because he was out watching a parade against his parents' wishes when she died. Distraught at the news, young King jumped from a second-story window at the family home, allegedly attempting suicide.

King attended Booker T. Washington High School, where he was said to be a precocious student. He skipped both the ninth and eleventh grades, and entered Morehouse College in Atlanta at age 15, in 1944. He was a popular student, especially with his female classmates, but an unmotivated student who floated through his first two years.

Although his family was deeply involved in the church and worship, King questioned religion in general and felt uncomfortable with overly emotional displays of religious worship. This discomfort continued through much of his adolescence, initially leading him to decide against entering the ministry, much to his father's dismay.

But in his junior year, King took a Bible class, renewed his faith and began to envision a career in the ministry. In the fall of his senior year, he told his father of his decision.

Education and Spiritual Growth

In 1948, King earned a sociology degree from Morehouse College and attended the liberal Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. He thrived in all his studies, and was valedictorian of his class in 1951, and elected student body president. He also earned a fellowship for graduate study.

But King also rebelled against his father's more conservative influence by drinking beer and playing pool while at college. He became involved with a white woman and went through a difficult time before he could break off the affair.

During his last year in seminary, King came under the guidance of Morehouse College President Benjamin E. Mays who influenced King's spiritual development. Mays was an outspoken advocate for racial equality and encouraged King to view Christianity as a potential force for social change. After being accepted at several colleges for his doctoral study, King enrolled at Boston University.

During the work on his doctorate, King met Coretta Scott, an aspiring singer and musician at the New England Conservatory school in Boston. They were married in June 1953 and had four children, Yolanda, Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott and Bernice.

In 1954, while still working on his dissertation, King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church of Montgomery, Alabama. He completed his Ph.D. and earned his degree in 1955. King was only 25 years old.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

On March 2, 1955, a 15-year-old girl refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery city bus in violation of local law. Teenager Claudette Colvin was then arrested and taken to jail.

At first, the local chapter of the NAACP felt they had an excellent test case to challenge Montgomery's segregated bus policy. But then it was revealed that Colvin was pregnant and civil rights leaders feared this would scandalize the deeply religious Black community and make Colvin (and, thus the group's efforts) less credible in the eyes of sympathetic white people.

On December 1, 1955, they got another chance to make their case. That evening, 42-year-old Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus to go home after an exhausting day at work. She sat in the first row of the "colored" section in the middle of the bus. As the bus traveled its route, all the seats in the white section filled up, then several more white passengers boarded the bus.

The bus driver noted that there were several white men standing and demanded that Parks and several other African Americans give up their seats. Three other African American passengers reluctantly gave up their places, but Parks remained seated.

The driver asked her again to give up her seat and again she refused. Parks was arrested and booked for violating the Montgomery City Code. At her trial a week later, in a 30-minute hearing, Parks was found guilty and fined $10 and assessed $4 court fee.

On the night that Parks was arrested, E.D. Nixon, head of the local NAACP chapter met with King and other local civil rights leaders to plan a Montgomery Bus Boycott. King was elected to lead the boycott because he was young, well-trained with solid family connections and had professional standing. But he was also new to the community and had few enemies, so it was felt he would have strong credibility with the Black community.

In his first speech as the group's president, King declared, "We have no alternative but to protest. For many years we have shown an amazing patience. We have sometimes given our white brothers the feeling that we liked the way we were being treated. But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice."

King's skillful rhetoric put new energy into the civil rights struggle in Alabama. The bus boycott involved 382 days of walking to work, harassment, violence, and intimidation for Montgomery's African American community. Both King's and Nixon's homes were attacked.

But the African American community also took legal action against the city ordinance arguing that it was unconstitutional based on the Supreme Court's "separate is never equal" decision in Brown v. Board of Education. After being defeated in several lower court rulings and suffering large financial losses, the city of Montgomery lifted the law mandating segregated public transportation.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Flush with victory, African American civil rights leaders recognized the need for a national organization to help coordinate their efforts. In January 1957, King, Ralph Abernathy and 60 ministers and civil rights activists founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to harness the moral authority and organizing power of Black churches. They would help conduct non-violent protests to promote civil rights reform.

King's participation in the organization gave him a base of operation throughout the South, as well as a national platform. The organization felt the best place to start to give African Americans a voice was to enfranchise them in the voting process. In February 1958, the SCLC sponsored more than 20 mass meetings in key southern cities to register Black voters in the South. King met with religious and civil rights leaders and lectured all over the country on race-related issues.

In 1959, with the help of the American Friends Service Committee, and inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's success with non-violent activism, King visited Gandhi's birthplace in India. The trip affected him in a profound way, increasing his commitment to America's civil rights struggle.

African American civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, who had studied Gandhi's teachings, became one of King's associates and counseled him to dedicate himself to the principles of nonviolence. Rustin served as King's mentor and advisor throughout his early activism and was the main organizer of the 1963 March on Washington.
READ MORE: How Martin Luther King Jr. Took Inspiration From Gandhi Nonviolence
But Rustin was also a controversial figure at the time, being a homosexual with alleged ties to the Communist Party. Though his counsel was invaluable to King, many of his other supporters urged him to distance himself from Rustin.

DOWNLOAD BIOGRAPHY'S MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. FACT CARD

Greensboro Sit-In

In February 1960, a group of African American students in North Carolina began what became known as the Greensboro sit-in movement.

The students would sit at racially segregated lunch counters in the city's stores. When asked to leave or sit in the colored section, they just remained seated, subjecting themselves to verbal and sometimes physical abuse.

The movement quickly gained traction in several other cities. In April 1960, the SCLC held a conference at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina with local sit-in leaders. King encouraged students to continue to use nonviolent methods during their protests.

Out of this meeting, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee formed and for a time, worked closely with the SCLC. By August of 1960, the sit-ins had been successful in ending segregation at lunch counters in 27 southern cities.

By 1960, King was gaining national exposure. He returned to Atlanta to become co-pastor with his father at Ebenezer Baptist Church but also continued his civil rights efforts.

On October 19, 1960, King and 75 students entered a local department store and requested lunch-counter service but were denied. When they refused to leave the counter area, King and 36 others were arrested.

Realizing the incident would hurt the city's reputation, Atlanta's mayor negotiated a truce and charges were eventually dropped. But soon after, King was imprisoned for violating his probation on a traffic conviction.

The news of his imprisonment entered the 1960 presidential campaign when candidate John F. Kennedy made a phone call to Coretta Scott King. Kennedy expressed his concern for King's harsh treatment for the traffic ticket and political pressure was quickly set in motion. King was soon released.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

In the spring of 1963, King organized a demonstration in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. With entire families in attendance, city police turned dogs and fire hoses on demonstrators.

King was jailed along with large numbers of his supporters, but the event drew nationwide attention. However, King was personally criticized by Black and white clergy alike for taking risks and endangering the children who attended the demonstration.

In his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail, King eloquently spelled out his theory of non-violence: "Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community, which has constantly refused to negotiate, is forced to confront the issue."

'I Have a Dream' Speech

By the end of the Birmingham campaign, King and his supporters were making plans for a massive demonstration on the nation's capital composed of multiple organizations, all asking for peaceful change.

On August 28, 1963, the historic March on Washington drew more than 200,000 people in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial. It was here that King made his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, emphasizing his belief that someday all men could be brothers

"I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." - Martin Luther King, Jr. / "I Have A Dream" speech, August 28, 1963

The rising tide of civil rights agitation produced a strong effect on public opinion. Many people in cities not experiencing racial tension began to question the nation's Jim Crow laws and the near-century of second-class treatment of African American citizens.
READ MORE: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Famous Speech Almost Didn't Have the Phrase 'I Have a Dream'
Nobel Peace Prize

This resulted in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, authorizing the federal government to enforce desegregation of public accommodations and outlawing discrimination in publicly owned facilities. This also led to King receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

King's struggle continued throughout the 1960s. Often, it seemed as though the pattern of progress was two steps forward and one step back.

On March 7, 1965, a civil rights march, planned from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama's capital, turned violent as police with nightsticks and tear gas met the demonstrators as they tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

King was not in the march, however, the attack was televised showing horrifying images of marchers being bloodied and severely injured. Seventeen demonstrators were hospitalized in a day that would be called " Bloody Sunday."

A second march was canceled due to a restraining order to prevent the march from taking place. A third march was planned and this time King made sure he was part of it. Not wanting to alienate southern judges by violating the restraining order, a different approach was taken.

On March 9, 1965, a procession of 2,500 marchers, both Black and white, set out once again to cross the Pettus Bridge and confronted barricades and state troopers. Instead of forcing a confrontation, King led his followers to kneel in prayer and they then turned back.

Alabama governor George Wallace continued to try to prevent another march until President Lyndon B. Johnson pledged his support and ordered U.S. Army troops and the Alabama National Guard to protect the protestors.

On March 21, approximately 2,000 people began a march from Selma to Montgomery, the state capitol. On March 25, the number of marchers, which had grown to an estimated 25,000, gathered in front of the state capitol where King delivered a televised speech. Five months after the historic peaceful protest, President Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

From late 1965 through 1967, King expanded his civil rights efforts into other larger American cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles. But he met with increasing criticism and public challenges from young Black power leaders.

King's patient, non-violent approach and appeal to white middle-class citizens alienated many Black militants who considered his methods too weak, too late and ineffective.

To address this criticism, King began making a link between discrimination and poverty, and he began to speak out against the Vietnam War. He felt that America's involvement in Vietnam was politically untenable and the government's conduct in the war discriminatory to the poor. He sought to broaden his base by forming a multi-racial coalition to address the economic and unemployment problems of all disadvantaged people.

Who Killed Martin Luther King Jr.?

By 1968, the years of demonstrations and confrontations were beginning to wear on King. He had grown tired of marches, going to jail, and living under the constant threat of death. He was becoming discouraged at the slow progress of civil rights in America and the increasing criticism from other African American leaders.

Plans were in the works for another march on Washington to revive his movement and bring attention to a widening range of issues. In the spring of 1968, a labor strike by Memphis sanitation workers drew King to one last crusade.

On April 3, he gave his final and what proved to be an eerily prophetic speech, "I've Been to the Mountaintop," in which he told supporters at the Mason Temple in Memphis, "I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land."

The next day, while standing on a balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel, Martin Luther King Jr. was killed by a sniper's bullet. The shooter, a malcontent drifter and former convict named James Earl Ray, was eventually apprehended after a two-month, international manhunt.

The assassination sparked riots and demonstrations in more than 100 cities across the country. In 1969, Ray pleaded guilty to assassinating King and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He died in prison on April 23, 1998.

READ MORE: The Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Legacy

King's life had a seismic impact on race relations in the United States. Years after his death, he is the most widely known African American leader of his era.

His life and work have been honored with a national holiday, schools and public buildings named after him, and a memorial on Independence Mall in Washington, D.C.

But his life remains controversial as well. In the 1970s, FBI files, released under the Freedom of Information Act, revealed that he was under government surveillance, and suggested his involvement in adulterous relationships and communist influences.

Over the years, extensive archival studies have led to a more balanced and comprehensive assessment of his life, portraying him as a complex figure: flawed, fallible and limited in his control over the mass movements with which he was associated, yet a visionary leader who was deeply committed to achieving social justice through nonviolent means.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed into law a bill creating Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday honoring the legacy of the slain civil rights leader.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first celebrated in 1986, and in all 50 states in 2000.

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Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and civil-rights activist who had a seismic impact on race relations in the United States, beginning in the mid-1950s. Among his many efforts, King headed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

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Many Bostonians may not be aware that Martin Luther King Jr. has a history with the city having received his doctorate in theology from Boston University in 1955. In fact, his papers are housed at the university to this day. After King was assassinated in 1968, BU instituted a program in his name that admitted minority students to the university.

The MLK commemoration at BU has evolved into a celebration concert that includes music, poetry and performances. Now in it's 45th year, today's concert theme is "Hope, Despair, and the Blues." It features Dorchester native and a composer who worked with Duke Ellington, Randall Keith Horton.

Horton told me why he's always had an affinity for Ellington's three Sacred Concerts. "The choral music that is drawn from the Bible is definitely what distinguishes what is known Ellington... known by the populace... you know by the public... and the sacred music has gorgeous choral music in it," says Horton.

WGBH's Eric Jackson, host of the jazz program, "Eric In The Evening," was a recipient of BU's MLK scholarship and attended the university's first commemoration after King's death. And he says that Ellington and King crossed paths at least once.

" I know that there is at least one picture of them meeting together. That may be the only time they met," says Jackson.

But what Ellington and King had in common was a philosophy of love, tolerance, and healing. While King spread his message through impassioned speeches and civil disobedience during the tumultuous years of the Civil Rights Movement, Jackson says Ellington did so through his music.

" Ellington, as long as I can think back in his career, always made a point of shining a positive light on African-American culture... even in the titles of the songs that he would make," says Jackson.

Ellington himself considered his sacred music concerts the most important music he ever composed. But Randall Keith Horton says not everyone embraced the jazz greats foray into the spiritual realm.

"Folks in the religious community especially in the African-American community.... not all but there were some... who said that this man... who has been in nightclubs all his life .... doing music in no way edifies God... has no business...all of a sudden turning to religious or sacred music. So, he was rejected by a lot of the black churches," according to Horton.

Horton says Ellington was hurt by the backlash because he considered himself a man of deep faith.

"The way Ellington got through all of the confusion and the madness that was in the jazz world was his faith. He had a firm faith but he wasn't able to express it because of the realities of his performance venues and the genre in which he presented his music," says Horton.

Horton hopes that by performing Ellington's Sacred Music at Boston University Martin Luther King Jr. concert...it'll bring alive the shared experience of two men dedicated to breaking down barriers.
To listen to the MLK Story click on the audio file above. To listen to extended interviews with WGBH ME host Bob Seay and Conductor Randall Keith Horton click on the audio. To listen to extended interviews with WGBH ME host Bob Seay and WGBH Jazz host Eric Jackson click on the audio file.

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Duke Ellington's Sacred Music Elevates BU's 45th Martin Luther King Day Observance

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Many Bostonians may not be aware that Martin Luther King Jr. has a history with the city having received his doctorate in theology from Boston University in 1955. In fact, his papers are housed at the university to this day. After King was assassinated in 1968, BU instituted a program in his name...

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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking at Mason Temple, Memphis, TN on April 3, 1968.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered this speech in support of the striking sanitation workers at Mason Temple in Memphis, TN on April 3, 1968 - the day before he was assassinated. License to reproduce this speech granted by Intellectual Properties Management, 1579-F Monroe Drive, Suite 235, Atlanta, Georgia 30324, as manager for the King Estate. Write to IPM re: copyright permission for use of words and images of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Thank you very kindly, my friends. As I listened to Ralph Abernathy in his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about. It's always good to have your closest friend and associate say something good about you. And Ralph is the best friend that I have in the world.

I'm delighted to see each of you here tonight in spite of a storm warning. You reveal that you are determined to go on anyhow. Something is happening in Memphis, something is happening in our world.

As you know, if I were standing at the beginning of time, with the possibility of general and panoramic view of the whole human history up to now, and the Almighty said to me, "Martin Luther King, which age would you like to live in?" - I would take my mental flight by Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promised land. And in spite of its magnificence, I wouldn't stop there. I would move on by Greece, and take my mind to Mount Olympus. And I would see Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides and Aristophanes assembled around the Parthenon as they discussed the great and eternal issues of reality.

But I wouldn't stop there. I would go on, even to the great heyday of the Roman Empire. And I would see developments around there, through various emperors and leaders. But I wouldn't stop there. I would even come up to the day of the Renaissance, and get a quick picture of all that the Renaissance did for the cultural and esthetic life of man. But I wouldn't stop there. I would even go by the way that the man for whom I'm named had his habitat. And I would watch Martin Luther as he tacked his ninety-five theses on the door at the church in Wittenberg.

But I wouldn't stop there. I would come on up even to 1863, and watch a vacillating president by the name of Abraham Lincoln finally come to the conclusion that he had to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. But I wouldn't stop there. I would even come up to the early thirties, and see a man grappling with the problems of the bankruptcy of his nation. And come with an eloquent cry that we have nothing to fear but fear itself.

But I wouldn't stop there. Strangely enough, I would turn to the Almighty, and say, "If you allow me to live just a few years in the second half of the twentieth century, I will be happy." Now that's a strange statement to make, because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land. Confusion all around. That's a strange statement. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars. And I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a away that men, in some strange way, are responding - something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee - the cry is always the same - "We want to be free."

And another reason that I'm happy to live in this period is that we have been forced to a point where we're going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demand didn't force them to do it. Survival demands that we grapple with them. Men, for years now, have been talking about war and peace. But now, no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it's nonviolence or nonexistence.

That is where we are today. And also in the human rights revolution, if something isn't done, and in a hurry, to bring the colored peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is doomed. Now, I'm just happy that God has allowed me to live in this period, to see what is unfolding. And I'm happy that He's allowed me to be in Memphis.

I can remember, I can remember when Negroes were just going around as Ralph has said, so often, scratching where they didn't itch, and laughing when they were not tickled. But that day is all over. We mean business now, and we are determined to gain our rightful place in God's world.

And that's all this whole thing is about. We aren't engaged in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody. We are saying that we are determined to be men. We are determined to be people. We are saying that we are God's children. And that we don't have to live like we are forced to live.

Now, what does all of this mean in this great period of history? It means that we've got to stay together. We've got to stay together and maintain unity. You know, whenever Pharaoh wanted to prolong the period of slavery in Egypt, he had a favorite, favorite formula for doing it. What was that? He kept the slaves fighting among themselves. But whenever the slaves get together, something happens in Pharaoh's court, and he cannot hold the slaves in slavery. When the slaves get together, that's the beginning of getting out of slavery. Now let us maintain unity.

Secondly, let us keep the issues where they are. The issue is injustice. The issue is the refusal of Memphis to be fair and honest in its dealings with its public servants, who happen to be sanitation workers. Now, we've got to keep attention on that. That's always the problem with a little violence. You know what happened the other day, and the press dealt only with the window-breaking. I read the articles. They very seldom got around to mentioning the fact that one thousand, three hundred sanitation workers were on strike, and that Memphis is not being fair to them, and that Mayor Loeb is in dire need of a doctor. They didn't get around to that.

Now we're going to march again, and we've got to march again, in order to put the issue where it is supposed to be. And force everybody to see that there are thirteen hundred of God's children here suffering, sometimes going hungry, going through dark and dreary nights wondering how this thing is going to come out. That's the issue. And we've got to say to the nation: we know it's coming out. For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory.

We aren't going to let any mace stop us. We are masters in our nonviolent movement in disarming police forces; they don't know what to do, I've seen them so often. I remember in Birmingham, Alabama, when we were in that majestic struggle there we would move out of the 16th Street Baptist Church day after day; by the hundreds we would move out. And Bull Connor would tell them to send the dogs forth and they did come; but we just went before the dogs singing, "Ain't gonna let nobody turn me round." Bull Connor next would say, "Turn the fire hoses on." And as I said to you the other night, Bull Connor didn't know history. He knew a kind of physics that somehow didn't relate to the transphysics that we knew about. And that was the fact that there was a certain kind of fire that no water could put out. And we went before the fire hoses; we had known water. If we were Baptist or some other denomination, we had been immersed. If we were Methodist, and some others, we had been sprinkled, but we knew water.

That couldn't stop us. And we just went on before the dogs and we would look at them; and we'd go on before the water hoses and we would look at it, and we'd just go on singing "Over my head I see freedom in the air." And then we would be thrown in the paddy wagons, and sometimes we were stacked in there like sardines in a can. And they would throw us in, and old Bull would say, "Take them off," and they did; and we would just go in the paddy wagon singing, "We Shall Overcome." And every now and then we'd get in the jail, and we'd see the jailers looking through the windows being moved by our prayers, and being moved by our words and our songs. And there was a power there which Bull Connor couldn't adjust to; and so we ended up transforming Bull into a steer, and we won our struggle in Birmingham.

Now we've got to go on to Memphis just like that. I call upon you to be with us Monday. Now about injunctions: We have an injunction and we're going into court tomorrow morning to fight this illegal, unconstitutional injunction. All we say to America is, "Be true to what you said on paper." If I lived in China or even Russia, or any totalitarian country, maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment privileges, because they hadn't committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of the press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right. And so just as I say, we aren't going to let any injunction turn us around. We are going on.

We need all of you. And you know what's beautiful tome, is to see all of these ministers of the Gospel. It's a marvelous picture. Who is it that is supposed to articulate the longings and aspirations of the people more than the preacher? Somehow the preacher must be an Amos, and say, "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Somehow, the preacher must say with Jesus, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to deal with the problems of the poor."

And I want to commend the preachers, under the leadership of these noble men: James Lawson, one who has been in this struggle for many years; he's been to jail for struggling; but he's still going on, fighting for the rights of his people. Rev. Ralph Jackson, Billy Kiles; I could just go right on down the list, but time will not permit. But I want to thank them all. And I want you to thank them, because so often, preachers aren't concerned about anything but themselves. And I'm always happy to see a relevant ministry.

It's all right to talk about "long white robes over yonder," in all of its symbolism. But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here. It's all right to talk about "streets flowing with milk and honey," but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can't eat three square meals a day. It's all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day, God's preachers must talk about the New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. This is what we have to do.

Now the other thing we'll have to do is this: Always anchor our external direct action with the power of economic withdrawal. Now, we are poor people, individually, we are poor when you compare us with white society in America. We are poor. Never stop and forget that collectively, that means all of us together, collectively we are richer than all the nations in the world, with the exception of nine. Did you ever think about that? After you leave the United States, Soviet Russia, Great Britain, West Germany, France, and I could name the others, the Negro collectively is richer than most nations of the world. We have an annual income of more than thirty billion dollars a year, which is more than all of the exports of the United States, and more than the national budget of Canada. Did you know that? That's power right there, if we know how to pool it.

We don't have to argue with anybody. We don't have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don't need any bricks and bottles, we don't need any Molotov cocktails, we just need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say, "God sent us by here, to say to you that you're not treating his children right. And we've come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment, where God's children are concerned. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you."

And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy-what is the other bread?-Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Hart's bread. As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing these companies because they haven't been fair in their hiring policies; and we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying, they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And then they can move on downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to do what is right.

But not only that, we've got to strengthen black institutions. I call upon you to take your money out of the banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank-we want a "bank-in" movement in Memphis. So go by the savings and loan association. I'm not asking you something we don't do ourselves at SCLC. Judge Hooks and others will tell you that we have an account here in the savings and loan association from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. We're just telling you to follow what we're doing. Put your money there. You have six or seven black insurance companies in Memphis. Take out your insurance there. We want to have an "insurance-in."

Now these are some practical things we can do. We begin the process of building a greater economic base. And at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. I ask you to follow through here.

Now, let me say as I move to my conclusion that we've got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point, in Memphis. We've got to see it through. And when we have our march, you need to be there. Be concerned about your brother. You may not be on strike. But either we go up together, or we go down together.

Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness. One day a man came to Jesus; and he wanted to raise some questions about some vital matters in life. At points, he wanted to trick Jesus, and show him that he knew a little more than Jesus knew, and through this, throw him off base. Now that question could have easily ended up in a philosophical and theological debate. But Jesus immediately pulled that question from mid-air, and placed it on a dangerous curve between Jerusalem and Jericho. And he talked about a certain man, who fell among thieves. You remember that a Levite and a priest passed by on the other side. They didn't stop to help him. And finally a man of another race came by. He got down from his beast, decided not to be compassionate by proxy. But with him, administering first aid, and helped the man in need. Jesus ended up saying, this was the good man, this was the great man, because he had the capacity to project the "I" into the "thou," and to be concerned about his brother. Now you know, we use our imagination a great deal to try to determine why the priest and the Levite didn't stop. At times we say they were busy going to church meetings-an ecclesiastical gathering-and they had to get on down to Jerusalem so they wouldn't be late for their meeting. At other times we would speculate that there was a religious law that "One who was engaged in religious ceremonials was not to touch a human body twenty-four hours before the ceremony." And every now and then we begin to wonder whether maybe they were not going down to Jerusalem, or down to Jericho, rather to organize a "Jericho Road Improvement Association." That's a possibility. Maybe they felt that it was better to deal with the problem from the causal root, rather than to get bogged down with an individual effort.

But I'm going to tell you what my imagination tells me. It's possible that these men were afraid. You see, the Jericho road is a dangerous road. I remember when Mrs. King and I were first in Jerusalem. We rented a car and drove from Jerusalem down to Jericho. And as soon as we got on that road, I said to my wife, "I can see why Jesus used this as a setting for his parable." It's a winding, meandering road. It's really conducive for ambushing. You start out in Jerusalem, which is about 1200 miles, or rather 1200 feet above sea level. And by the time you get down to Jericho, fifteen or twenty minutes later, you're about 2200 feet below sea level. That's a dangerous road. In the days of Jesus it came to be known as the "Bloody Pass." And you know, it's possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or it's possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking. And he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt, in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the Levite asked was, "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"

That's the question before you tonight. Not, "If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?" The question is not, "If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?" "If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?" That's the question.

Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation. And I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to be here with you.

You know, several years ago, I was in New York City autographing the first book that I had written. And while sitting there autographing books, a demented black woman came up. The only question I heard from her was, "Are you Martin Luther King?"

And I was looking down writing, and I said yes. And the next minute I felt something beating on my chest. Before I knew it I had been stabbed by this demented woman. I was rushed to Harlem Hospital. It was a dark Saturday afternoon. And that blade had gone through, and the X-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. And once that's punctured, you drown in your own blood-that's the end of you.

It came out in the New York Times the next morning, that if I had sneezed, I would have died. Well, about four days later, they allowed me, after the operation, after my chest had been opened, and the blade had been taken out, to move around in the wheel chair in the hospital. They allowed me to read some of the mail that came in, and from all over the states, and the world, kind letters came in. I read a few, but one of them I will never forget. I had received one from the President and the Vice-President. I've forgotten what those telegrams said. I'd received a visit and a letter from the Governor of New York, but I've forgotten what the letter said. But there was another letter that came from a little girl, a young girl who was a student at the White Plains High School. And I looked at that letter, and I'll never forget it. It said simply, "Dear Dr. King: I am a ninth-grade student at the White Plains High School." She said, "While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I am a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I'm simply writing you to say that I'm so happy that you didn't sneeze."

And I want to say tonight, I want to say that I am happy that I didn't sneeze. Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting-in at lunch counters. And I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the best in the American dream. And taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up. And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can't ride your back unless it is bent. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation, and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have had a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America about a dream that I had had. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been down in Selma, Alabama, been in Memphis to see the community rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering. I'm so happy that I didn't sneeze.

And they were telling me, now it doesn't matter now. It really doesn't matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane, there were six of us, the pilot said over the public address system, "We are sorry for the delay, but we have Dr. Martin Luther King on the plane. And to be sure that all of the bags were checked, and to be sure that nothing would be wrong with the plane, we had to check out everything carefully. And we've had the plane protected and guarded all night."

And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

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"I've Been to the Mountaintop" by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking at Mason Temple, Memphis, TN on April 3, 1968. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered this speech in support of the striking sanitation workers at Mason Temple in Memphis, TN on April 3, 1968 - the day before he was assassinated.

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The Children's March is a dramatic work that mixes song and narration to tell the story of a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Era, the Children's Crusade of 1963, when children in Birmingham, Alabama marched to challenge segregation and were met by a violent response. The piece, written by Andrew Bleckner and librettist Charlotte Blake Alston, both of Philadelphia, was originally commissioned and first performed by Singing City in 2013. The Commonwealth Youthchoirs version will feature high school students singing the adult voice parts with younger singers portraying the children.

Composer Andrew Bleckner notes: "The process of creating music for the Children's March was for me a uniquely emotional and fulfilling spiritual journey. My approach was theatrical, and my aim was to help narrate the historical events in a clear manner, and to amplify the emotions surrounding them. I weaved together a collage of musical styles and songs that often gravitate and borrow from Freedom Songs - the folk music of the Civil Rights Era. The story is a universal one of self-empowerment in the face of oppression, and I hope I have captured the essence of this struggle, from the pain and bitterness of discrimination to the triumphant call to empowerment to the transcendental hymns of freedom and joy."

"I thought it important for young people to know that they have the bravery and power to help change our society, and to see how singing helped make that change possible," says Steven Fisher, artistic director for Commonwealth Youthchoirs.

As Freeman Hrabowski, who was one of the children marching in Birmingham in 1963 put it, "It was eye opening to see how Americans of all races responded to the way we, as children, were treated in those demonstrations. Such an experience told me that our voices - the voices of the young - were significant, and that young people could think and act responsibly, and that our actions could change the course of history and the world."
The History Written by Thomas J. Sugrue, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and History and Director of the American Studies Program and NYU Collaborative on Global Urbanism, New York University Birmingham, Alabama, Spring 1963
In early May 1963, several thousand African American schoolchildren left their classrooms and took to the streets of Birmingham, Alabama, one of the nation's most segregated cities. Their protest against white supremacy was one of the most dramatic moments in America's long struggle for racial equality. The city's white leadership ordered the march to be stopped and authorized the use of force. It was impossible not to be shocked and profoundly moved by the photographs and film footage of children blasted by fire hoses, attacked by vicious police dogs, and arrested and jailed. The Children's March galvanized support for the black freedom struggle worldwide. In the aftermath of the events, tens of thousands of civil rights protesters took to the streets of cities nationwide, including Philadelphia. Inspired by Birmingham's kids, they demanded "Freedom Now!" The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. reassured Birmingham's parents that their children were part of a just cause. "Don't worry about your children; they are going to be alright. Don't hold them back if they want to go to jail, for they are not only doing a job for themselves, but for all of America and for all of mankind." Today, in a world deeply troubled by injustice and violence, we remember and honor and learn from Birmingham's protesters for "doing a job" for all of humanity. Their brave steps forward in face of terrible violence helped bend the arc of history toward justice and freedom.

Martin Luther King, Jr. brought the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to Birmingham, a city he saw as "probably the most segregated city in America." The plan was for activists to conduct pickets and marches to pressure downtown department stores to change their policy - that African Americans could spend their money at the stores, but could not eat at the lunch counters, try on clothing, or use the restrooms. Progress was slow until one of the young lieutenants proposed that the children lead the marches.

For several days in early May 1963, thousands of Birmingham's children and youth skipped school to march. Facing dogs and firehoses, they sang and clapped as they were led off to jail. Within days, business owners had agreed to the protestors' modest demands, and the movement was declared a success.

There are those who write history. There are those who make history. There are those who experience history...I don't know how many of you would be able to write a history book, but you are certainly making history and you are experiencing history, And you will make it possible for the historians of the future to write a marvelous chapter. Never in the history of this nation have so many people been arrested for the cause of freedom and human dignity. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr
The Performances at Girard College
view a timeline of children in Birmingham in 1963 at KidsInBirmingham.org
Making Difficult History More Understandable
May 2 is an important date because it marks the beginning of the Children's Crusade in 1963. Tuesday, May 2, 2017, is also the date that hundreds of singers in Keystone State Boychoir, Pennsylvania Girlchoir and Find Your Instrument! will come together to perform this work at Girard College, 2101 S. College Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19121. There will be a free performance for area school students held during the day and an evening ticketed performance at 6:15 pm. Tickets go on sale April 1.
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Because the work portrays a violent episode, a committee of CY staff and CY parents who are educators are developing age-appropriate lessons to help the singers make sense of the violence referenced in the work and understand its historical context. Singers will also hear from local Civil Rights leaders, such as Kenneth Salaam, nicknamed "Freedom Smitty," about the part Freedom songs played in Civil Rights protests. He will be joined by other members of the Cecil B. Moore Freedom Fighters, who helped lead the Civil Rights Movement in Philadelphia. Commonwealth Youthchoirs, the parent organization of Keystone State Boychoir, Pennsylvania Girlchoir, and Find Your Instrument!, received its first National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant for this intergenerational project.

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The Children's March is a dramatic work that mixes song and narration to tell the story of a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Era, the Children's Crusade of 1963, when children in Birmingham, Alabama marched to challenge segregation and were met by a violent response.

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The youth in my practice with the most complex mental health problems are those who have grown up "in care". The expression "in care" refers to the fact that a child or youth is not living at home but rather with a foster family or in a residential care facility, usually called a "group home". These young people are victims of assault and neglect in their families of origin, but they are also victims of a system of residential care that shuffles them around from home to home, caregiver to caregiver - a system that is no more supportive than their own family.

In late 2016, the Government of Ontario undertook to improve the lot of these youth. On the usual road, paved with the usual good intentions, the Government introduced Bill 89: An Act to Enact the Child, Youth and Family Services Act, 2016, to amend and repeal the Child and Family Services Act and to make related amendments to other acts. In many respects, the young people in this province who are living in care played a large role in ensuring that such an act is even before the Ontario legislature.

In November 2011, with the support of the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth of Ontario, youth volunteers from across Ontario convened the Youth Leaving Care Hearings at Queen's Park in Toronto. This was the first time youth had organized public hearings at Queen's Park. The reason for the hearings was to address the concerns of the over 8,000 children and youth who are Crown Wards in Ontario - children and youth whose guardian is the Crown, through the Children's Aid Societies in Ontario. There is a Report on the Hearings, My Real Life Book, and You tube videos. These will help you to understand how many youth live in care in Ontario and how they feel about this experience. I felt very honoured to be one of the adult contributors to the hearings. I remember an interview after my presentation and how emotional I felt during the interview. I had met three youth I had cared for at the hearings and I was so glad to see them doing well after everything they had gone through.

After the hearings, the youth continued to be involved. They participated in the inquests for Jeffrey Baldwin and for Katelynn Sampson, two children who died at the hands of their caregivers while living as wards, even though both these experiences must have been extraordinarily difficult personally. Their work and participation and enthusiasm finally convinced the Government that it had to act to change the existing Child and Family Services Act to better serve the children and youth it was meant to help.

The best part of Bill 89 are the principles it sets out as guidelines:

"The Government of Ontario is committed to the following principles:

Services provided to children and families should be child-centred.

Children and families have better outcomes when services build on their strengths. Prevention services, early intervention services and community support services build on a family's strengths and are invaluable in reducing the need for more disruptive services and interventions.

Services provided to children and families should respect their diversity and the principle of inclusion, consistent with the Human Rights Code and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Systemic racism and the barriers it creates for children and families receiving services must continue to be addressed. All children should have the opportunity to meet their full potential. Awareness of systemic biases and racism and the need to address these barriers should inform the delivery of all services for children and families.

Services to children and families should, wherever possible, help maintain connections to their communities."

The worst part of Bill 89 is that, in fact, it may not, in fact, adhere to these principles and it is not at all clear in the text what the measures are to ensure that Children's Aid Societies and group homes or foster parents will comply with the new measures of the act. Legislation is always complex, and difficult for people to understand. I am very well-educated - 11 years of postsecondary education - and I have trouble completely understanding the bill. Can you imagine how difficult it is for those who have not yet completed their education to understand it? Youth in care in Ontario have worked for many years to bring changes to the Child and Family Services Act. They made submissions to hearings and inquests, telling their stories of being cut off from their families, from those who loved them and from services that would have helped them heal. They told these stories even when it brought back horrible memories of what happened to them. They told these stories even if their mental health deteriorated.

They are, in fact, getting ready to do this again. Bill 89 is now in Committee and the Youth in Ontario want it to meet their needs. There are over 8,000 Crown Wards in Ontario, but there are almost 20,000 living in Children's Aid Society Care. These are Ontario's children - literally.

This Act - in fact, every legislative act - needs to be accessible. In simple language, citizens must be able to understand what an Act is saying to ensure that it does what it means to do. No one is blaming the legislators - the lofty goals and language set out in Bill 89 make it clear that the intent is to improve the situation for Children and Youth and Families in Ontario who need support. If the Act is made understandable for the Youth who have worked to get Bill 89 onto the legislative agenda, they will know whether it can be effective.

The Government has also made it clear that these changes are needed quickly and so, as is often their habit, the Committee process is being truncated. This is not fair to the youth who have been working for these changes. Until every submission is heard, from every youth who wants or needs to provide their input, the Committee process should not stop.

Our Voice, Our Turn, My Real Life Book, and the inquests for Jeffrey Baldwin and Katelyn Sampson showed us that the current Child and Family Services Act silenced children and youth and allowed their suffering, even their deaths, to be institutionalized. Let us honour these young people and their heroic actions to make Ontario a better place to grow up. Let us urge the Government to wait, and make Bill 89 as effective as it can be. Let's match their courage with our own.
(Note: The Children's March refers to incidents in Birmingham Alabama in 1963 when African American children left school to march downtown to meet the Mayor and speak about their experience of segregation. They were arrested, sprayed with hoses, but kept on marching, causing legislators, and especially President John F. Kennedy, to finally move forward on Civil Rights legislation. Photo is from a Biography documentary.)

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The youth in my practice with the most complex mental health problems are those who have grown up "in care". The expression "in care" refers to the fact that a child or youth is not living at home but rather with a foster family or in a residential care facility, usually called a "group home".

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Birmingham and the Children's March | Season 16 Episode 04/25/2013 | Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

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Fifty years ago, they braved police dogs and fire hoses to march against segregation.