Birmingham campaign

===Children's Crusade===
{{Main article|Children's Crusade (1963)}}

On May 2, 1963, 7th grader Gwendolyn Sanders helped organize her classmates, and hundreds of children from high schoolers down to first graders who joined her in a massive walkout defying the principal of Parker High School who attempted to lock the gates to keep students inside.<ref>Eskew, p. 264.</ref> Demonstrators were given instructions to march to the downtown area, to meet with the Mayor, and integrate the chosen buildings.<ref name=":0" /> They were to leave in smaller groups and continue on their courses until arrested. Marching in disciplined ranks, some of them using [[walkie-talkies]], they were sent at timed intervals from various churches to the downtown business area.<ref name="post5-3-63">
{{cite news
|last=Gordon
|first=Robert
|title=Waves of Young Negroes March in Birmingham Segregation Protest
|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]
|date=1963-05-03
|page=1}}</ref> More than 600 students were arrested; the youngest of these was reported to be eight years old. Children left the churches while singing hymns and "freedom songs" such as "[[We Shall Overcome]]".  They clapped and laughed while being arrested and awaiting transport to jail. The mood was compared to that of a school picnic.<ref name="nyt5-2-63">
{{cite news
|last=Hailey
|first=Foster
|title=500 Are Arrested in Negro Protest at Birmingham
|work=[[The New York Times]]
|date=1963-05-03
|page=1}}</ref> Although Bevel informed Connor that the march was to take place, Connor and the police were dumbfounded by the numbers and behavior of the children.<ref>Eskew, pp.&nbsp;264–265.</ref><ref>Nunnelley, p.&nbsp;147.</ref> They assembled [[paddy wagon]]s and school buses to take the children to jail. When no squad cars were left to block the city streets, Connor, whose authority extended to the fire department, used fire trucks. The day's arrests brought the total number of jailed protesters to 1,200 in the 900-capacity Birmingham jail.

Some considered the use of children controversial, including incoming Birmingham mayor Albert Boutwell and Attorney General [[Robert F. Kennedy]], who condemned the decision to use children in the protests.<ref>Branch, pp.&nbsp;761–762.</ref> Kennedy was reported in ''[[The New York Times]]'' as saying, "an injured, maimed, or dead child is a price that none of us can afford to pay", although adding, "I believe that everyone understands their just grievances must be resolved."<ref>
{{cite news
|title=Robert Kennedy Warns of 'Increasing Turmoil': Deplores Denials of Negroes' Rights but Questions Timing of Protests in Birmingham
|work=[[The New York Times]]
|date=1963-05-04
|page=1}}</ref> [[Malcolm X]] criticized the decision, saying, "Real men don't put their children on the firing line."<ref>Manis, p.&nbsp;370.</ref>

King, who had been silent and then out of town while Bevel was organizing the children, was impressed by the success of the children's protests. That evening he declared at a mass meeting, "I have been inspired and moved by today. I have never seen anything like it."<ref>McWhorter, p.&nbsp;368.</ref> Although Wyatt Tee Walker was initially against the use of children in the demonstrations, he responded to criticism by saying, "Negro children will get a better education in five days in jail than in five months in a segregated school."<ref name="newsweek5-13"/> The D Day campaign received front page coverage by ''[[The Washington Post]]'' and ''The New York Times''.<ref name="post5-3-63"/><ref name="nyt5-2-63"/>