IDKMYDE: Children's March of 1963

Today’s episode of IDKMYDE tells the tale of The Children’s March of 1963: when a bunch of kids showed up with more courage than most adults, proving that sometimes the youngest voices are the loudest—and the most powerful.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
On today's episode. If I didn't know, maybe you didn't either.
Let's talk about the Children's March of nineteen sixty three,
a historical moment that doesn't get nearly the recognition that deserves.
And honestly, when I first heard about it, I thought, wait,
kids did what cause, let's be real. When I was
a kid, all the time, I did anything revolutionaries.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
When I was taking Kurt Franklin, do you want a revolution?
What's that? Do you want a revolution?

Speaker 1 (00:24):
I didn't know.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Maybe you didn't.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
I didn't know.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Maybe no, I didn't know. Maybe you did. I didn't know.
I didn't know. I didn't know.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
But not these kids in Birmingham, Alabama. They weren't playing
around Jack. There were nineteen sixty three and Birmingham was
the most racist city in the country.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Segregation was everywhere.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Schools, buses, bathrooms, water fountains, And I'm thinking, how racist
do you have to be to hate somebody at a
water fountain?

Speaker 2 (00:54):
You upset that they getting hydrated. It's silly.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
And the adults have been protesting for months. But the
CID he wasn't budgeting. Doctor Martin Luther King Jr.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
And his crew.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
They started quoting Jay z and said we need more people.
That's when James Bevill said, I've got a plan. Let's
get the kids involved.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
I don't know what parents sat down with their ten
year old and said, listen, pack of lunch, baby, cause
you're going to fight Jim Crow today.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
But they did it, and the kids they showed up.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Thousands of them left school and gathered at the sixteenth
Street Baptist Church like it were recess. And instead of dodgeballs,
they were like, hey, we're gonna dodge dogs, fire hoses
and billy clubs today. Seriously, that's some next level courage
right there. We're talking about kids.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Imagine being a racist police officer that day. You out
here ready to fight, and then you see a group
of twelve year olds chatting for freedom. What do you
even do? Well, apparently, if you're racist Birmingham police in
nineteen sixty three, you turned into cartoon villains. They brought
out fire hoses, fire hoses to blast these kids off
their feet, unleash the dogs on them kids like it

(01:59):
was a twisted Last Year episode. Some of y'all don't
remember Lastie, But here's the thing. Them kids didn't stop.
They got arrested by one hundreds, thrown in jail like
it was a field trip to Alcatraz. And more kids
just kept showing up day after day. They started putting
on their swimsuits to prepare for the fire hoses. They marched,
they sang, and they did not back down kids. And

(02:20):
it worked because the news saw them pictures, kids getting
hosed down and attacked by dogs, and the whole world
saw them pictures. You google Children's March of nineteen sixty
three right now, and you can see them pictures. Suddenly,
people just couldn't ignore the civil rights movement any longer.
That Children's March of nineteen sixty three pushed momentum forward

(02:40):
and led to the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty four.
That's right, a bunch of kids in pigtails, corn rows
and penny loafers helped change the laws. Now, why we
don't hear more about this? I think it's because the
dusts don't like being shown up by the kids. Don't
nobody want to admit that a ten year old with
a homemade sign had more guts than most of us
do right now, But the lesson here is real. You

(03:01):
ain't gotta wait till you're older, or richer, or more
established to make an impact. These kids took risk because
they believed in something bigger than themselves.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
So next time you think what.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Can I really do to change things, just remember if
a bunch of kids with no smartphones, no hashtags, no
TikTok followers can bring down segregation, what's stopping us? Let's
all channel a little bit of nineteen sixty three energy,
shall we? Black folks? Black folks we channeling. We don't
need no white folks channel in nineteen sixty three energy,
because history don't just happen. It gets made, and sometimes

(03:36):
it's made by people who ain't even old enough to drive.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
And I didn't know, maybe you didn't either. No,