Rev. James Bevel Biography Favorites Color Black Food Avocado Quote “He’s on the case.” (Referring to God) Time of Year Spring

Civil rights activist the Reverend James Luther Bevel was born in Itta Bena, Mississippi, on October 19, 1936. After a stint in the service, Bevel was called to the ministry and enrolled in the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee. There, he joined the Nashville chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) led by the Reverend James Lawson.

In 1960, Bevel and other black students trained by Lawson, including John Lewis, Diane Nash, Marion Barry and Bernard Lafayette, organized sit-ins against segregated lunch counters. The students won a hard-fought, nonviolent victory. Then, as chairman of the Nashville student movement, Bevel participated in Freedom Rides to desegregate interstate travel and public accommodations throughout the South. In his home state, Bevel created the SCLC Mississippi Project for voting rights in 1962. However, in 1963, he was compelled to join the stalled desegregation struggle waged by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth in Birmingham, Alabama. When King was jailed, Bevel organized black children and marched against Commissioner Bull Connor's fire hoses and police dogs. The "Children's Crusade" led by Bevel turned the media tide in their favor. Bevel brainstormed the March On Washington in 1963 and the Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery march in 1965. He also worked behind the scenes on the Chicago open housing movement in 1966, the anti-Vietnam War movement in 1967, the Memphis sanitation workers strike and the Poor People's Campaign in 1968.

In 1969, Bevel left SCLC and created the Making of a Man Clinic in 1970. In the 1980s and 1990s, he founded Students for Education and Economic Development (SEED). In 1992, he ran for vice president on a ticket with Lyndon LaRouche. Bevel is pastor of the Hebraic-Christian-Islamic Assembly in Chicago; a board member of Chicago's Fulfilling Our Responsibilities Unto Mankind (F.O.R.U.M.); and chairman of the Camden, New Jersey, County Economic Development Board. Bevel is Pastor and adviser to Chicago's Council of Mothers, West Side Baptist Minister's Conference, WorkShip Coalition and the Nation of Islam.

Bevel was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on January 14, 2003.