Compiled`By

Helen L. Bevel
The Father of the 1965
Nonviolent Right-to-Vote Movement, Selma, AL
October 16, 1936 - IttaBena, Mississippi - December 19, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-105-18354-6
The Spiritual Significance of the Nonviolent Right-to-Vote
Movement, Demonstrated by, Reverend James L. Bevel,
Father of the 1965 Nonviolent Right-to-Vote Movement,
Selma, AL
Published By: The Nonviolent Human & Community Development Institute
Founded 1976 by Reverend James L. Bevel, Helen L. Edmond and Marcellus Brooks
652 E. 89th Place
Chicago, IL 60619
312.880.7806
Dedication
This booklet is dedicated to the building of the
James L. Bevel
Nonviolent Library & Restorative
Justice Healing Retreat Center
I went to Selma to be government. I was
operating in Selma as government.
Reverend James L. Bevel
ITS TIME FOR TRUTH IN HISTORY
Please help support the creation of the James L. Bevel Library and Restorative
Justice Center, to further his work, by educating a new generation on the power
of nonviolence. Send your donations to: James L. Bevel Nonviolent Library
and Restorative Justice Center, 652 E. 89th Place, Chicago, IL 60619. Online
at anewbeing.com/bevel-library.html
For further information read: The Nonviolent Right-To-Vote Movement
Almanac, by Helen L. Bevel. Available at lulu.com. 50% of all proceeds
will go to the above library fund.
My thanks to Reverend Mother Joy Segur-Ramza, Ellen Shivers, Yesse
Yehudah and AmiRa Bevel for their input into the production of this book.
The Voting Rights Act
of 1965
TABLE OF CONTENT
All truth carries proof ........................................................1
Yeshua the Christ ...............................................................3
Theological Presupposition ...............................................8
The Definition and Purpose of Man ..................................9
Self-hood: Who are you really ........................................10
Who is James L. Bevel ....................................................12
Timeline of James L. Bevel .............................................16
History of the Right-to-Vote Movement .........................19
Foot Soldiers ....................................................................34
Churches & Organizations ...............................................35
Proposal for the Right-to-Vote ........................................36
Self-knowledge vs Self-concept ......................................40
Man As Government ........................................................41
The Laws Governing A Nonviolent Meeting ..................43
Where Do We Go From Here? ........................................44
The Nonviolent Clinical Process .....................................45
From Boss/Boy to Brother/Sister .....................................54
Twelve Laws of Natural Education .................................55
Education: Which Side Are You On? ..............................56
Nonviolence As A Christian Principle ............................58
The Nonviolent Court ......................................................59
Precinct Council: The New Frontier ................................61
Precinct Council: An Idea Whose Time Has Come .......64
8 Steps of Atonement .......................................................70
Bevelian Nonviolence .................................................... 73
1
ALL TRUTH CARRIES PROOF.
James Bevel may be the most important civil rights activist in the 20th century that
you've never heard of. This is a snippet into the true life story of a man, a living legend
who won constitutional rights for his people, as he interpreted the works of
Yeshua/Jesus, Tolstoy and Gandhi. A true story, the kind that myths and legends are
made of. A man born in the bowels of slavery, the Delta in Mississippi. (The
constitution of the state of Mississippi was revised in 1867 with the following stated
purpose, The purpose for the revision of this constitution is to destroy the manhood
of the Negro citizen through to success.) A man who struggled to unshackle the chains
of slavery from himself and his people, in-order to exit slavery (Egypt), to live in the
(Wilderness) for forty years in order to purge and heal himself of emotional wounds,
scars, shackles, limitations, perversions and errors that slavery and colonialism heaped
upon him and the masses, but like Moses did not enter the Land of Freedom, Justice
and Equality (The Promise Land). He and his brother (Dr. King) however did leave a
road map for those who would enter.
No people can endure four hundred years of chattel slavery and come out unharmed,
unscarred and whole. James L. Bevel, did not come out of Mississippi unscathed by
the violence he experienced as a child. Each movement that Bevel initiated and
participated in, was a sort of therapy to regain full manhood and son-ship with God.
Forty nine years have passed since the signing of the Voting Rights Act, which is
proclaimed the most effective piece of civil rights legislation of the 20th century. These
forty-nine years are reflective of the wilderness experience that Moses and the people
endured.
All Jews are hard pressed to know that Moses delivered them from Egypt. All Indians
know that Gandhi delivered them from the British. All Americans know that George
Washington delivered them from the King of England. All Americans know that Abraham
Lincoln emancipated the slaves. And yet those of us who enjoy political enfranchisement
had among us a man who liberated us from segregation, discrimination and
disenfranchisement, using the principles and methods of Christ, and like Christ he came
among his own and his own received him not. This reveals to us our own non-relationship
to Christ.
James Bevel, is somebody who needs to be known. as a theologian, statesman,
agricultural scientist, clinician, scholar, husbandman, father, grandfather and brother
to all of humanity. His voice was that of reason, his thoughts are those of nonviolent
living, and principles (love, truth, peace, freedom, justice), his work was that of healing
and educating, and his vision was of the beloved community and world peace.
The most basic right of a citizen in a democracy is the right to vote. Without this
right, people can be easily ignored and even abused by their government. This, in
fact, is what happened to African American citizens living in the South following
Civil War Reconstruction. Despite the 14th and 15th amendments guaranteeing the
civil rights of black Americans, their right to vote was systematically taken away by
white supremacist state governments.
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Because the masses have rejected nonviolence at the personal and social level and
continue to build on the old archaic violent structures of colonialism and slavery,
seeking advantage and control over others, while complaining, conspiring, comparing
and competing, they have missed the teachings and works of James Bevel.
This book is designed to introduce James Bevel, and at the same time create a value
for freedom, the freedom won with passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. A
freedom that is slowly slipping away, because the tool that was used to secure it
-nonviolence- has been thrown into the garbage heap of time. It is not to late, to unearth
and utilize this valuable science for achieving peaceful co-existence between brothers
and sisters in Christ. Its either nonviolence or non-existence, "Martin Luther King,
Jr. has told us, and if we are to truly honor his legacy we must take serious his teachings.
It is past time for us to remember who we are as a people and continue the work of
forging An Authentic Nation Under God.
Myeka, 2010
The nonviolent revolution begins in your mind. You
must first redefine yourself. When people redefine
themselves, slavery is dead. Then the power structure
makes a motion, but doesn't get a second.
Reverend James L. Bevel
3
YESHUA THE CHRIST
The Sermon on the Mount, by Yeshua the Christ (generally referred to by his
Greek name of Jesus), can be found in what is now called the book of Matthew
in the Bible. It covers chapter five through seven in the book. Matthew was a
Jew who collected taxes for the Roman occupiers and most Jews hated the type
of person Yeshua represented.
Yeshua (who was also a Jew) went one day and told Matthew, Well they can
get someone else to do the tax collecting. There will always be someone to do
that. You come and go with me for a few years, and I'll wake you up. So
Matthew went and got spiritually cleaned up.
When he wrote his book about his experience with Yeshua, he gave account of
a long speech that he gave to a lot of people on a hill, because in those days
they didn't have microphones to amplify his voice, so a speech to a large
audience had to be done either indoors or in a quiet location away from the city
and village noises.
People generally call this speech the Sermon on the Mount. It is however much
more than a sermon, it is a scientific lecture. Every item in it can be worked
out scientifically, and is usable in life for solving seemingly unsolvable
problems. We used it in the movement as our main teaching, our textbook and
our guidebook. We used it like a chemist would use his chemical formulas.
Reverend James Lawson introduced me to the real meanings of this lecture.
During the Nashville Movements, we studied it daily. We began to dig deep
into the Sermon on the Mount, not to memorize it, but to study the points and
be in compliance with it, and then we adjusted our lives so that we followed it
as closely as possible. Remember, we were students experimenting with
nonviolence, to see if it worked. We were both explorers and scientist in a
science which had very little field study done. We had to do most of the basic
field work, just to see if it actually worked.
For instance, Yeshua uses the phrase, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they
Artist Daniel ben Israel
4
shall see God. We had to acknowledge that we weren't pure hearted enough,
because none of us had seen God.
Well, I haven't seen God, so God cannot be seen, the issue arose. Yeah, well
we don't know, because we have not met the requirements of being pure in
heart. We have ill motives. We have motives to cheat, to get even with people
and to engage in physical injury. We have all kinds of motives. We even have
motives to be successful in a system of segregation, which we all recognize to
be unjust. So we started working on the areas of fear in ourselves and on the
areas of hate, of emotional attachment to things and to concepts. We addressed
the whole problem of embarrassment, shame, guilt, blame, jealousy and regrets.
We began to challenge ourselves on these negative emotions using the Sermon
on the Mount.
Historically, men have said that if somebody violates you, as the nation was
doing to us with segregation, you should violate them. Nonviolence said, Not
so. It wouldn't work for everybody's health, interest, rights and needs. This
means that when others are being irresponsible, you must assume the
responsibility to be responsible.
The theology of old would say that if somebody curses you, you curse them.
Nonviolence says no. The person that curses you is having a problem. So why
should you take on their problem? Why don't you continue to do what you're
doing? Keep on respecting them and thus you teach them to respect people
from the way you respect them.
When somebody hits you, turn the other cheek. In the movement, a good
example of this is, if in a demonstration somebody throws a brick and hits a
little girl in the head. Instead of acting up about this, keep on demonstrating
and assign someone to get an ambulance for the little girl. This way, when the
little girl is taken to the emergency room of the hospital to save her life, she'll
have the ambulance and the attention of the emergency room staff all to herself.
If the crowd reacts, they are likely to cause a chaotic scene and many more
injuries, and the little girl could die from lack of proper medical attention.
When guys persecute you for something you are doing, be glad about this. It
gives you an opportunity to serve. When somebody sues you for your coat, let
them have it. Don't contend with people over things.
Don't be concerned about what you're going to eat or drink or wear in the
movement. Stay concerned with the health, interest, rights and needs of the
people. Don't judge other people, because if you are judging others, you
5
certainly have not worked out the science of creating your own reality and taking
responsibility. If people oppose you in a movement, don't yell and scream and
sing taunting songs. Take them aside, walk that mile with them, respect their
point of view and show them your point of view. These are the kind of things
that we learned. The strategy was to bring ourselves into active compliance
with the spirit and the attitude of the Sermon on the Mount.
Once we did this, the Nashville Sit-in Movement became natural. We were not
sitting in because we were black, we had actually gone through a process of
transformation, and we were men.
For the first time, I really understood what it meant to believe in Yeshua the
Christ, in the Divine. For the first time, I really understood nonviolence, the
science of love. It had to do with living the gospel. The science is taught in all
enlightened texts of value in every culture. Should we wait or should we live
it? We were just living the gospel.
So, in the movement we learned not to believe in the historical drama that went
on, and what the status quo was suppose to be. We accepted Christ's principles
and applied them to our own lives. We then acted on these principles in a larger
arena and called this movement. These actions brought us more knowledge
and that further knowledge brought more experiences, and so on.
I began to see how our instructors at the Nashville American Baptist Theological
Seminary, pretended that Yeshua's suggestions were not for this time period.
They contended that it was just history. They could not imagine anybody actually
doing what Yeshua said. As we began to practice it, we came out of darkness
and then we began to apply natural common sense to the situations that we found
ourselves in.
All throughout the 1960's movements, we'd open our SCLC meeting with
reading from the Sermon on the Mount. We taught everybody who was taking
movement classes and citizenship education classes that the Sermon on the
Mount was the centerpiece, our textbook.
The movement leaders all know that this is true, but few have used it since, or
continued to ground people in it. They leave that out of their public actions.
What has been missing in movements since 1968 is making sure that the
Sermon on the Mount is instilled in people.
The religion of Christ is the religion of love. The science of Christ is the science
of what love does when it is applied. This is what creates a scientific working
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mind. According to the science, when we negate or leave out this point of love,
we then get off into our own ego, or into some kind of national or group religion.
Most people play at religion. They are not practicing the religion and the science
of Christ. As a result, you get all the whole disorder of man and nations.
When we don't deal with our personal, social or economic problems through
institutions like clinic, government and business, we are not able to maintain a
point of love. This has now been field tested. When you follow the science of
love, it causes society to follow logic and love to its logical conclusion and
freedom, justice and intelligence follows.
Reverend James L. Bevel
The first insight is that the world as it is in
its current form cannot be fixed, no matter
how profound or far-reaching the revolution
may be. The very bedrock of our modern
society is founded upon a species that has
always made decisions rooted in fear. In this
respect the whole civilization is rotten from
its core. The only way for a new future to be
created is to begin from scratch.
Richard Rudd, Gene Keys, page 383
7
We develop our sense of being individual by interacting
with our world and with specific models of individual
people. Once we can maintain the integrity of our
awareness and move into these inner fields of open
potential, we can enter into the final section of natures
agenda; development of autonomous awareness.
Autonomy means self-sufficiency. Only when we are no
longer dependent on our bodies and the outer world for
sustenance are we truly autonomous.
Our biological development has been seriously disrupted
through our ignorance of any goal or direction for
post-biological development. We have created an all
pervasive cultural dysfunction. Having no concept of
normal functioning, we propose as a model for our
children our own dysfunctional state; thus dysfunction is
mirrored back from every direction. Taking our
abnormality as our norm, we look on human life as a
sequence of mounting crisis, disasters and problems.
If your years up to now have been a bad dream, all we are
asked to do is leave that dream behind. The post-
biological path to maturation is a process of waking up.
In no way are we required to go back into that dream and
straighten out its mess. Once we make the shift to the
new agenda, we can walk away from that dream
(nightmare) with impunity.
Joseph Chilton Pearce, From Magical Child To Magical Teen
8
THEOLOGICAL PRESUPPOSITION
The earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof, and the world and those who dwell
therein. And God created man in the same image and likeness of itself to have dominion
over the earth; male and female they (Man) were created, and God blessed them and
said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and assume stewardship
responsibility over the whole earth.
9
THE DEFINITION AND PURPOSE OF MAN
Man (male/female) is a living soul, created by the Creator to reflect the image and
likeness of the Creator, which is love, truth, righteousness and justice. Man is thus
that which is created by the Creator to manifest love (being committed to the freedom
and growth of self and others), truth (honoring the right knowledge of reality),
righteousness (doing the right thing, the right way, for the right reason and getting the
right result) and justice (giving what is needed and receiving what is needed). These
are Divine Attributes, which are reflected through human character when the person
maintains the four definitions and purposes upon which the character of man rests.
Those definitions are; the definition of man; the definition and purpose of sex; the
definition and purpose of correct diet and the definition and purpose of work.
The purpose of man's existence is to exercise stewardship responsibility over the earth
which is naturally done when man simultaneously works for his/her health, interest,
rights and needs and that of others.
Reverend James L. Bevel
Person To Bevel: Dont you know the Klan is after you?
Bevel: No, Im the one thats after them. Theyre the guys who
are breaking the law. If somebody was violating the Klans rights
to the same extent that ours are being violated, Id be helping the
Klan
10
SELFHOOD: WHO ARE YOU REALLY
"The true value of a human being is determined primarily
by the measure and the sense in which he has
attained liberation from the self."
Albert Einstein
Freedom from the self means freedom from all the neurotic, toxic fear-based
emotions such as hate, envy, egotism, blame, prejudice, jealousy, hate,
repression, greed, possessiveness, guilt, malice, resentment; the fear of
intimacy, loss, loneliness, abandonment, success, failure, power, commitment;
the need to control others; and all obsessions, dependencies and addictions. All
of these are delusions and the purpose of our human existence is to cast off all
delusions. When delusions are eradicated pure love, our true nature comes to
the surface.
We were all born into a world that had fear based programming that we
inherited from our parents, teachers and others. This programming is related
to what happened in the past and carries with it a host of fear-based emotions.
You say, I am jealous. You have to separate what you feel from who you
really are. You're not the jealousy. The jealousy is programming from the past
that you inherited. The jealousy is a fear-based emotion. It represents the
false-self. By detaching yourself from the feeling, through a process of self-
observation you will be able to let the jealousy past through you, or you can
use EFT (The Emotional Freedom Technique) to eliminate the jealousy
altogether.
You are as you believe. Your beliefs create the experiences you have. Beliefs
are a result of what you have been taught. Many of them are faulty and
destructive. These beliefs do not allow you to experience happiness and
success. When you change your beliefs, you change your experiences. This is
the power inherent in all people.
There is no vitality to the past except the life our minds give to it. The
only thing the past is good for is to keep us stuck in the old patterns from
which were trying to liberate ourselves.
Our personal histories are the parts of our lives
which hold us where we are.
Swami Chetanananda
It takes courage to live in the now and give up the past. Rehashing the past is
like sifting through garbage. There is always a past that is flowing from a now
experience so we must become diligent about clearing our past in order to get
the most out of our present experiences. Take the time to examine your beliefs,
11
your reactions, your concerns and your behavior. You have to be able to
recognize what is happening before you can change it.
If you continue to indulge your neurotic fear-based emotions, you will continue
to draw to you the situations that contain them. For example, if you hate
someone, you will continue to draw the hated person or someone like them into
your life until you release the fear. Universal Law states, Where your
attention goes your energy flows. So you attract what you are, and what you
concentrate on into your life. You always attract the same qualities that you
possess. Be the peace that you want.
All of us arrive on earth with souls in
perfect form, but from the moment of
birth we are assailed by deforming forces
from within and without We are assailed
by racism, sexism, economic injustice
and other social cancers and from within
by jealousy, resentment, self-doubt, fear,
and other demons of the inner life. We
dont have to collaborate with the things
that can damage our souls.
Parker Palmer
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We would have never gone to Selma, and there would not have been a
Voting Rights Bill today if James Bevel had not conceived of the idea. Jim
Bevel was the originator of the idea of the march from Selma to
Montgomery. Dr. King could not have done the things he
did unless he had a James Bevel.
Dr. Ralph David Abernathy,
Co-Founder SCLC, Close friend and confidante of Martin Luther King Jr.
I'd say 98% of the plans and activities in Selma were Bevel's.
The Selma Movement was Bevel's baby.
Reverend James Orange, Project Coordinator, Organizer SCLC
James Bevel is a young Baptist minister who has been involved in the civil
rights movement since the lunch counter sit-ins in Nashville, TN in 1960. He
quickly became known for his abilities as an organizer, particularly of youth,
and his eloquence as a speaker. In 1962, he joined SCLC as a close aide of
Martin Luther King, Jr., until the latters assassination in 1968.
As a civil rights leader, Bevel has received little publicity, though he had
the charisma to have been on the front pages of newspapers all around the
world. But he has never sought publicity or projected his
own personality into the public arena.
Julius Lester, Author, Evergreen Magazine, May, 1971, p.4
I went to a meeting at this church, and they announced about this
important mass meeting, something we wasnt use to, and said James Bevel
would be speaking that night. James Bevel did speak and everything he
said, you know made sense.
Fannie Lou Hamer, Voting Rights Activist and Civil Rights Leader
I don't think we would have had a movement without him. He played a
very important role, and that role was translated into
a successful movement.
Ambassador Andrew Young, Civil Rights Leader, U.S. Ambassador
Even the March on Washington was Jim Bevel's idea.
Dr. Bernard Lafayette,
Co-founder the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
He was a great philosopher, an unbelievable philosopher.
WHO IS JAMES L. BEVEL
13
Bevel could do more with young people than any
human being on the face of the earth.
Reverend Hosea William, Civil Rights Leader, Organizer SCLC
We were trying to map out some strategy about what we were going to do
to retaliate, and thats when Rev. Bevel came and stood up on the car to
speak to us. He said that we were brave in the dark, we were going to shoot
somebody in the dark or hit somebody on the head in the dark. He
challenged us to do something in the light, if we had the guts. He said we
could take that energy and go to the bus station and buy a ticket in the main
waiting room which was on the white side. He said we could take that
energy and go buy a Coke in the restaurant where it was suppose to be open
to the public. That was in 1961, when the Freedom Rides were just coming
into Mississippi.
Stranger At The Gate, A Summer In Mississippi, Author, Tracy Sugarman
Reverend Bevel was the real creative genius of that period.
I was inspired by Jesus, Gandhi and James Bevel.
Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Civil Rights Leader, Founder Operation PUSH
As a historian who has focused on James Bevel's career in the 1960s Civil
Rights Movement, I'd like to correct the data referring to Bevel as a top
lieutenant of Martin Luther King Jr. Rather than being any type of
underling, Bevel and King held a meeting in 1962 and agreed to work as
equals. From that point on James Bevel initiated, directed, and strategized
SCLC's major movements, as well as teaching their participants the science
and art of nonviolence and how to carry it out.
The ongoing but discredited habit of giving James Bevel less credit than
historically accurate remains interesting. Imagine Madison and Adams forever
praised but Jefferson not mentioned, or Gehrig without Ruth, or Paul
McCartney without a fellow musician/songwriter named John. This still remains
true about Bevel and King, although the truth has emerged. Historian David
Garrow affirms much of it, and even Taylor Branch, in his book At Canaan's
Edge confirms it when he quotes King as saying about the ill-fated Memphis
actions: You don't like to work on anything that isn't your own idea. Bevel, I
think you owe me one.
For accurate summaries of James Bevel's work, see my papers on the internet or
obtain my 1984 paper, with '88 addendum, in David Garrow's 1989 book We
Shall Overcome Volume II.
Randy Kryn, Historian, December 5, 2008
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The Bevel story does revise the history of the civil rights
movement and it needs to be told.
Robert St. John, (Author & Broadcaster) in a letter to Randy Kryn
Someone who really shakes things upthis man was there. He was
committed. He trained these people. He trained many of the so-called leaders
that you see out there today.
Alton Maddox, Jr., Esq.
Former Director of the National Conference of Black Lawyers Juvenile Defense Project.
I heard preacher after preacher. The fourteenth sermon was the best.
James Beveldelvered the greatest speech I have ever heard in my life.
Gary Wills, Author, Under God
James Bevel was a pioneer for an American Revolution. Its the bad boys
who cause revolutions. A person would have to be a tad bit insane to go up
against Jim Clark, Bull Connor, police dogs and fire hoses. The culture of
slavery created post-traumatic stress syndrome of slavery. The affect of the
plantation system was disconnection. America and its structures had no
avenue for healing. Only novelty can get you out of slavery. Bevel was born
into slavery and inherited all the slave tendencies. His work was designed to
bring healing to the nation.
Dr. Nkosi Ajanaku, Esquire, Future America Basic Research Institute,
www.futureamericatoday.com
You (James Bevel)were like an angel to me. God sent you to me to
talk about a day of atonement.
Minister Louis Farrakhan, Leader of the Nation of Islam
Rev. Bevel was the one who really came up with the idea of the
National Day of Atonement.
Minister Benjamin Chavis Muhammad
Ivebeen touched by the words of Reverend Bevelwe thank him for
that most powerful, powerful message.
Secretary of State Colin Powell
There is nothing you can do to repay this man for what he has
fought for, and securedfor you.
Dr. Abdul Alim Muhammad
James Bevel was a blessing in my life in so many ways. He challenged me
to grow up and take responsibility as female man; to give up the curse of
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irresponsibility (blaming others for my shortcomings); to make primary
decisions and to think for myself and be Man (male/female) created in the
image and likeness of God, and give up being woman, created out of the
imagination of Adam in Genesis in the Holy Bible. Even though we
experienced many breakdowns in our relationship, we stayed together for
over fifteen (concentrated) years and continued to communicate and work on
projects together. Today, I think I may be one of the first free females, as a
result of the challenges he made to my conditioning, that made slavery
comfortable. James Bevel was a master at breaking down the ego so that it
had no hiding place and getting at those idiosyncrasies that we learn to hide
under, that keep us from being real and authentic human beings. He was
able to do this because he had worked so hard on uprooting the nigga in
himself to eradicate the common fears that caused immobility and ill
motivation.
I can say unhesitatingly that here was a truly remarkable man, a rare
specimen of humanity forged from the muddy waters of the Mississippi Delta,
where manhood was outlawed and sentenced to death. James Bevel raised
himself out of the murk and mire of his environment and worked tirelessly
to uproot vestiges of his slave past and conditioning. His successful efforts
are evidenced by the humongous contributions that he made to humanity.
Here was a man who gave unselfishly to anyone who was in need. There was
never a question of what do I get for helping you when he was asked for help.
He just gave. He was always accessible to anyone who sought his assistance.
His life was dedicated to removing any impediments that would hinder him
from serving God. Being human he erred, but his intent was always to do his
best and to give his all in a spirit of love.
Helen L. Bevel, Bevel, Student of Nonviolence, Wife and Mother of Six
James Bevel fathered the following children. Bonny Shellman (Betty Biggins),
Don Glenard Bevel-El (Barbara Jean Talley), Jacqueline Harris (Evelyn
Harris), Sherrilyn Bevel and Douglass Bevel (Diane Nash), Chevara Orrin
and Bacardi L. Jackson (Sue Orrin), Segena Ponder (Annelle Ponder),
Masavia N. Greer (Mary Greer), Shalay H. Bevel, James L. Bevel, Jr.,
Jamese L. Bevel, AmiRa Bevel and Enoch Bevel (Helen Edmond), Stephen
Jackson (Stormy Jackson), Jamerica Bevel (Erica Henry). Bevel has
numerous grandchildren. May his tribe increase.
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TIMELINE OF JAMES L. BEVEL
1936 - 1972
Born, October 19th to Illie and Denise Bevel in Ittabena, MS, on Joe Pieus
Plantation. He had seventeen siblings. Attended Palo Alto St. John Christian
School
Moved to Cleveland, OH, and attended Raleigh Junior H. S. and graduated
from East Technical High School
Received B. A. from the American Baptist Theological Seminary, Nashville,
TN
Licensed to preach
Ordained into the ministry.
Pastor, Chestnut Grove Baptist Church, Dixon, TN 1959-1961
Attended class on nonviolence taught by Reverend James Lawson
Co-organizer, Sit - In Movement, Nashville, TN (which led to desegregation of
lunch counters)
Chairman, Nashville Student Movement and Director, Open Theatre
Movement (which led to desegregation of theatres)
Co-initiated continuance of Freedom Rides under the auspices of SNCC (the
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) after CORE called them off (led to
ICC Ruling Against Segregation in Interstate Commerce)
Chairman of the Nashville Freedom Riders
Co-organized SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee)
Graduated from the American Baptist Theological Seminary, Nashville, TN;
Director of SNCC Mississippi Delta Project; developer, Ruleville and Greenwood,
MS Voter Registration Project
Field Secretary in Mississippi for SNCC
Director of the Mississippi Project out of which came COFO and the Mississippi
Freedom Democratic Party.
Co-organized the Mississippi Free Press along with Paul Brooks and Medgar Evers,
Jackson, MS
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1957
1959
1961
1961
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1963
17
Married Diane Nash and had two children, Sherrilyn and Douglas. They divorced in
1968.
Field Secretary SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) MS.
Wrote the original proposal for the Mississippi Delta Ministry Project
Developer, Ruleville, MS Right To Vote Movement, Greenwood, MS
Recruited Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer and others to join the movement
Became the Director of Direct Action and the Director of Nonviolent Education for
SCLC.
Architect of the 1963 Children's Crusade in Birmingham, Ala. Originated the idea for
D Day, which consisted of student demonstrations where masses of students
became involved in the Birmingham Movement to make it a success (led to passage of
the Civil Rights Act)
Gave birth to the idea of a March on Washington, although he did not participate.
Co-wrote the original proposal for the Selma Right-To-Vote Movement
Developed and directed the Selma 1965 Right to Vote Movement (led to passage of
the Voting Rights Act); received the Rosa Parks Award for Selma Movement from
SCLC. He is called the Father of Voting Rights.
Developed and directed the Chicago Open Housing Movement and tenet union,
Chicago, Illinois (led to Supreme Court Ruling Against Segregation in Housing).
Took a leave of absence from SCLC and became Director of the Mobilization to End
the War in Vietnam (led to draft resisters movement and U. N. protest
demonstration of 1/4 million people)
Director of Nonviolent Education, Poor Peoples Campaign, Washington, DC
Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. Assassinated in Memphis, TN April 4, 1968.
Associate Director, Environmental Mental Health, Jefferson Hospital, Philadelphia,
PN (Received 2nd Place Award for best mental health program by Educational TV)
Announced that James Earl Ray was an innocent scapegoat and did not kill Dr. M.
L. King, Jr. and persuaded SCLC to defend him under the leadership of Reverend
Ralph David Abernathy. The King family were offended by the idea and
denounced Bevel. Bevel was tricked to a suppose to be board meeting of SCLC
held at the Metropolitan Psychiatric Hospital in Atlanta, Ga., and agreed to stay if
1964
1965
1966
Jan.
27,
1967
1968
1969
18
one of his lieutenants stayed with him. They did stay and three days later Bevel
was released after observation and evaluation by the director, who said there was
nothing wrong with him and that he was simply attaining full consciousness.
Word had spread that he had been in a mental hospital and people began to call
him crazy because he had been in the hospital. Years later, Mrs. Coretta Scott-
King and her family joined Reverend Bevels movement to free James Earl Ray
(the scapegoat), because they too realized that he was innocent. Rev. Bevel
advocated justice for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his family, because Dr. King
was a Drum Major for Justice "and should not get anything less.
Reported that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. visited him, and he asked Dr. King the
following. In that you said we as a people would get to the Promised Land, where
is the roadmap? At which point Dr. King provided him with the Six Institutional
Development Process Roadmap to the Freedom Land.
Helped form the Coalition to End the Murder of Black People, Chicago, IL, after
the death of Michael and Johnny Soto.
Studied for Masters of Theology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
Strategized the movement to get Black History put into the curriculum in schools
on the Westside of Chicago, IL.
Director & Co-founder of the House of MAN (Making A Nation), Mental Health
Clinic, Baltimore, MD, with Herman ONeil
Married Patricia Churchill, his second wife. They were divorced in 1972
Worked with Reverend Curtis Burrell, Director of the Kenwood-Oakland
Community Organization (K.O.C.O.) to address gang violence on the south side of
Chicago
Dis-illusioned by the denial of his work in the movement and all the credit going to
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he received a compilation of books, magazines, and
newspaper articles attesting to his work in the civil rights and nonviolent
movement as researched by Helen L. Edmond
Participated with Helen L. Edmond in recording hundreds of hours of lectures,
institutional (church, business, government, clinic, home and school) meetings,
commentaries on the movement, sermons, private sessions and more. They
married and had five children.
1971
1972
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2006
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The introduction of Birminghams children into the
campaign was one of the wisest moves made. It brought
a new impact to the crusade and the impetus that we
needed to win the struggle. Jim Bevel had the inspiration
of setting D Day, when the students would go to jail in
historic numbers.
Why We Cant Wait, Martin L. King, Jr.
When the four little girls were killed in a Birmingham
church bombing on September 15, 1963, Reverend Bevel
decided that it could not be ignored. He could see the
inter-relatedness of the bombing and the movement actions
being carried out in Birmingham. Bevel decided to step up
the action of the nonviolent movement. His overriding
thought was to provide Black people with a tool that they
could use to nonviolently protect themselves. He decided that getting the
southern Black people the right-to-vote would go a long way in providing
this protection. On the day of the bombing, he and his wife Diane Nash
drew up a plan for getting the right to vote. He sent his wife Diane
Nash-Bevel to present the proposal to Dr. King, asking for his and SCLCs
support for such a plan.
My former husband (Jim Bevel) and I, cried when we heard about the
bombing, because in many ways we felt like our own children had been killed.
We knew that the activity of the civil rights movement had been involved in
generating a kind of energy that brought out this kind of hostility. We decided
that we would do something about it, and we said that we had two options.
First, we felt confident that if we tried, we could find out who had done it,
and we could make sure they got killed. We considered that as a real option.
The second option was that we felt that if blacks in Alabama had the right to
vote, they could protect black children. We deliberately made a choice, and
chose the second option. We weren't going to stop working until Alabama
Blacks had the right to vote.
Diane Nash-Bevel interview in Voices of Freedom, p. 173
HISTORY OF THE
SELMA RIGHT-TO-VOTE MOVEMENT
Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a
tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite
thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
Matthew 5;38-39
But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for
of such is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 19;14
20
Kings SCLC gave serious consideration to a national civil disobedience
campaign (the right to vote proposal) drafted by Reverend James L. Bevel
and his wife Diane Nash-Bevel, Field Secretary of SNCCbut a week
later was forced to reverse itself when virtually every other civil rights
group rejected the idea.
House Divided, Lionel Lokos
Selma, Alabama, is the seat of Dallas County. It is also the unofficial economic,
political, and cultural capitol of the western portion of Alabama's Black Belt (similar
to Greenwood, the political center of the Mississippi Delta). The County was 57%
Black in 1961, but of the 15,000 African-Americans old enough to vote only 130 -
less than 1% - are registered - and some of those few actually live and work
elsewhere. More than 80% of Dallas County Blacks lived beneath the poverty line.
Most of them worked as sharcroppers, farm hands, maids, janitors, and day-laborers.
Only 5% of Dallas County Blacks had a high school diploma, and more than 60%
never had the chance to go to high school at all because neither Alabama nor the
local school board saw any need to educate the "hewers of wood and drawers of
water." By contrast, 81% of Dallas County whites lived above the poverty line and
90% had at least a high school education.
In the rural counties surrounding Selma, the Black majorities are even larger - over
80% in some cases - and in many of them not a single African-American is
registered. Adjacent Wilcox County is 78% Black and has not had an African-
American voter since the end of Reconstruction, neither has next door Lowndes
County which is over 81% Black.
Judge James Hare dominated Dallas County politics, and the county was
sometimes referred to as a "political plantation," with Judge Hare as master and
Sheriff Jim Clark as whip-cracking overseer. Hare was a self-proclaimed
"expert" on racial eugenics. He asserted that the Blacks living in Selma were
descended from Ibo and Angolan slaves who (in his publicly-stated opinion)
were genetically incapable of achieving an IQ of higher than 65. Jim Clark is
a brutal, hard-core racist, whose strategy for maintaining rigid segregation is to
violently beat down and arrest anyone who dares question the established order.
And through bribery, intimidation, and blackmail, Clark built a network of
Black snitches who would inform on their neighbors.
In addition to his paid deputies, Clark relied on his Sheriff's posse of more than
two hundred armed volunteers - some of them members or supporters of racist
organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan. Possemen wear cheap badges issued
by Clark, construction helmets, and khaki work clothes. They are armed with
shotguns, pistols, and a variety of hardwood clubs including ax-handles.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Matthew 5;4
21
Originally formed after World War II to oppose labor unions, the posse's mission
was to defend white-supremecy and supress all forms of Black protest. The
posse wasnt limited to Dallas County. Clark would send them on missions far
and wide. In 1961 some were part of the mob that beat the Freedom Riders in
Montgomery, others rushed to join the massive violence in Oxford Mississippi
when James Meredith integrated 'Ole Miss in 1962, and Bull Connor called
them in to help crack the heads of student protesters during The Birmingham
Campaign of 1963.
Supporting Hare and Clark was Selma's powerful White Citizens Council
composed of bankers, businessmen, politicians, landlords, clergy, and other
pillers of the community. The Council stood ever vigilant against any attempt
to undermine the "Southern way of life" which they defend with economic
terrorism - firings, evictions, foreclosures, blacklists, and business boycotts.
Together, Judge Hare, Sheriff Clark, the posse, the Citizens Council, and the
snitches created an interlocking reign of economic, judicial, and violent terror
that imprisoned Dallas County Blacks in an iron grip of fear.
Judge Nathan Hare had an illegal and unconstitutional injunction in effect in
Selma. It prohibited Black leaders and freedom organizations from meeting
with three or more people at one time to talk about civil rights or voter
registration. Organizing and registration efforts were thus crippled. There had
been no public meetings, no protests, no mass registration efforts since the
injunction was issued six months earlier. Hare's order was being appealed, but
the case was moving through the courts very slowly with no end in sight.
I'd actually heard about Selma before [deciding to work there]. It was
during the Freedom Rides when the bus I was riding ... was stopped by
state police who said it needed to take another route ... because there was
a white mob waiting in Selma and they couldn't protect us. I'm saying to
myself, 'Oh Lord - even the State Troopers are scared of that city.' But
even remembering that, I decided I'm going to work in Selma ... and get
married. Colia who I married was not afraid of anything. And we married.
Our honeymoon was going to be Selma.
Bernard Lafayette
Bernard and Colia Lafayette went to Selma, in February 1963 to begin a
voter education effort. Throughout the spring their monthly Dallas County
Voters League clinics drew an average of forty people, and by mid-June
they were able to draw seven hundred people to a mass rally at which James
Bevel of SCLC spoke.
Protest At Selma, David Garrow
Love your enemy, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate
you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.
Matthew 5;44
22
Strong local leadership developed in Alabama, in that
the NAACP was banned. Local leaders and Rev.
Bernard & Colia LaFayette of SNCC were already
laying the groundwork in Selma, when Bevel arrived.
Although Selma had been declared "off
limits" as an organizing district by the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
earlier, Amelia Robinson, with her
husband, S. W. Boynton, had labored for
the right to vote in that area for over thirty
years prior to the campaign of 1964.
Mrs. Amelia Boynton Robinson
The one thing SNCC did not have to do in Selma was identify and develop
grassroots community leadership. As I said, this was a self-contained
community, and its Dallas County Voter's League had a mighty impressive
group of leaders. Some proud, fearless black leaders who, against all
odds, had never quit and never backed down. Nuff respect. They were
mostly professional people: ministers like the Reverend Mr. Lewis and
the Reverend Mr, Reese; Dr. Jackson, who I believe was a dentist;
tough-talking, indefatigable attorney J. L. Chestnutt; and of course, the
president, Mrs. Amelia Boynton, a former teacher and widely respected
leader.
Mrs. Boynton was a gracious, elegantly spoken lady. A teacher deeply
committed to her people's uplift; Mrs. Boynton had been president of the
Dallas County NAACP. When the NAACP was outlawed in Alabama, she
didn't miss a beat. She merely led the membership into the Voters League
and became president of that. She was demure, highly "cultured," and quite
unintimidatable. The entire Boynton family were warriors. Her husband
also had been a highly respected leader, who managed with the ingenuity
of his widow to continue the fight literally from his grave.
Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael)
Violence, jail, and economic terrorism was not able to entirely suppress
the spirit of resistance in Selma. The Boynton family (Sam, Amelia, and
their son Bruce) were not intimidated. While a student at Howard Law
School, Bruce Boynton was arrested for using a white-only lunch counter
The Courageous Eight
Ernest Doyle, Henry Shamon,
Marie Foster, F. D. Reese, James
Gildersleeve, Amelia Boynton, J.
D. Hunter and Ulysses Blackmon
Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil:
for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Psalms 23:4
All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who
are the called according to His purpose.
Romans 8:28
23
at the Trailways bus station in Richmond VA. He filed Boynton v. Virginia,
the landmark Supreme Court case that overturned segregation in interstate
travel and formed the legal basis for the Freedom Rides in 1961.
After several months and no support from SCLC leadership, Reverend
Bevel decided to move on the plan without the consent of Dr. King or SCLC.
He took some of his staff to Alabama and started organizing people and
resources to bring the plan to fruition. Official approval of the voting rights
movement didnt come until November, 1964, just after the presidential
election.
Our Direct Action Department, under the direction of Rev. James Bevel,
then decided to attack the very heart of the political structure of the state
of Alabama and the Southland through a campaign for the right to vote.
The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., Martin Luther King, Jr.
First the government was asked to remove all barriers that kept blacks from
voting. The Congress was petitioned, the state of Alabama and Governor
George Wallace were petitioned. This way of asking and engaging in clear
communication before any demonstrations began, was proof that the barriers
to voting did exist.
As director of nonviolent education, James Bevel had the responsibility of
educating and demonstrating nonviolence.
But at one, the Ward Four meeting held in the back of Brown Chapel, they
got a reception from an SCLC staff member named James Bevel. Bevel
was on Dr. Kings executive staff, and was in charge of the SCLC workers
in the city; although short and unimposing in appearance, he was one of
Organizer
Rev. James Orange
Organizer
Dorothy Tillman
Administrator
Rev. Richard Boone
Co-Author
Diane Nash
Historian
Charles Fager
Bevels Direct Action Staff/SCLC
Organizer
Rev. Harold Middlebrook
SCLC staff not pictured: Andrew Marrisett, Willie Bolden, Lester Hankerson
SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) organizers who were already in
Selma: Reverend Bernard LaFayette, Colia LaFayette, John Love, Worth Long, Avery
Williams, Prathia Hall, Silas Norman, and Maria Varela.
The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in
His way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord
upholdeth him with His hand. I have been young, and now am old; yet
have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his sreed begging bread.
Psalm 37:23-25
24
Kings most eloquent and fiery spokesman known especially for the vigor
and force of his denunciation of racism. Before a small dumfounded
audience, Bevel stood up and ordered the deputies to leave. One of them
raised a camera to take his picture and he angrily told him to stop and
repeated the order to leave. The deputies were wary of getting involved in
such surrounding, and they left. The news of this unprecedented act of
defiance quickly spread around the city.
Selma, 1965, Charles Fager
Past experiences had taught Bevel that once a campaign was started, it had
to be completed. He had come to Selma, with his staff to gain the right to
vote, realizing that they would be offered everything but that. He however,
was resolved that nothing less than the right to vote was acceptable. Next
an injunction was issued by Judge Thomas.
...the injunction represented a major attempt by the white leadership
to head off the demonstrations in Selma. It contained what seemed to
be real concessions, which would open up the voting rolls to larger
numbers of Black citizens. Even the SCLC workers werent sure at first
what its impact would be. Andy Young told the people at Brown Chapel,
when they heard it was imminent that, In every battle there are many
rounds, and this round may have come to an end. We may have a little
breathier.
James Bevel who had tossed the deputies out of a ward meeting, was the
main preacher at the mass meeting that night, and he was in a combative
mood! The order, he said, may make it more difficult for us to do some
of the things we have done before, and we might be cited for contempt of
court. But I dont mind being cited for contempt because Negroes were
born under an injunction in Alabama. If Judge Thomas plans to connive
around with letters of the law in order to deny us our rights, he has a bad
dream coming. We mean to vote and have representation in government,
and we will settle for nothing less. Im saying here and now," he finished,
that we must be prepared to fight and die for everything that is ours. And
there is going to be rabble rousing all over Alabama until we get the right
to vote.
Selma, 1965, Charles Fager
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in haven is perfect.
Matthew 5:48
Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with
all boldness they may speak thy word. Acts 4:29
25
The only act of violence was when Mrs. Annie Lee Cooper, a 224-pound,
54-year-old African-American woman, threw a punch to the jaw of Selma
Sheriff Jim Clark and knocked him off his feet. Clark had hit her in the
back of the neck with his billy club when she had been standing in line for
hours at the Dallas County Courthouse in an attempt to register to vote.
I saw Jim Clark fling Mrs. Boynton around like a leaf a day or two before.
Clark was larger than I on the outside, but I was larger than he on the
inside. The altercation started. ... Jim Clark could not take me down alone.
The town sheriff and I were going at it blow for blow, punch for punch,
and lick for lick, with our fists. It was a plain old street brawl. Suddenly
he cried out to his deputies: "Don'y' an see this nigger woman beatin'
me? Do some'um." At the urging of the sheriff the others came to his aid.
All four of them closed in on me.
Clark took his nightstick and prepared to land a blow. Before he knew it,
I had his arm and held it back with a tight grip. Clark brought his billy
club over my face. He managed to put enough power in his swing to graze
me across the upper part of my eye with the nightstick. The blow stung
and was hard enough to draw blood. It struck me over my eye. I was
fiercely holding his hand so he could not strike me again. I heard Dr.
King urging the marchers to stay calm. He was afraid the marchers were
going to turn violent while watching the Policemen attack me. It was four
against one. It took everything each of the four had to manhandle me.
The deputies wrestled me down onto the pavement, as the crowd looked
on. Clark planted his knee in my stomach, as the deputies had me on my
back. That was the only way he could have gotten his knee in my stomach.
He stood no chance of wrestling me to the ground alone. The deputies
rolled me over on my stomach and handcuffed my hands behind my back.
They lifted me to my feet and took me to the paddy-wagon. I was taken
through an alley in town. While walking through the alley, Clark took his
billy club and landed a blow on my head. It was a fierce lick. The blow
cracked my skull. ...
I remained locked up in the town jail the rest of the day. About 11 pm one
of the deputies came to my cell. Jim Clark was nearby sleeping off his
drunk. He was a heavy drinker. The deputy said: "I'm going to let you go
before Sheriff Clark wakes up in a drunken stupor and decides to kill
you."
Annie Lee Cooper
26
Mrs. Cooper was down in that line, and they havent told the press the
truth about it. Mrs. Cooper wouldnt have turned around and hit Sheriff
Clark just to be hitting. And of course, as you know, we teach a philosophy
of not retaliating and not hitting back, but the truth of the situation is that
Mrs. Cooper, if she did anything, was provoked by Sheriff Clark. At that
moment, he was engaging in some very ugly business-as-usual action.
This is what brought about that scene there.
Dr. Martin L. King, Jr., at Brown Chapel
No matter how justified, retaliatory violence on the part of
demonstrators weakens the Movement because, then [the press] don't talk
about the registration. We want the world to know they ain't registering
nobody!"
Reverend James Bevel, at Brown Chapel
Bevel took SCLC to Selma with one goal in mind, to win a strong federal
voting rights law that would provide for executive branch enforcement of
southern Blacks constitutionally guaranteed right-to-vote. Again and again
they were offered everything else.
Over the weekend there was quiet negotiations between Black and White
leaders over the use of an appearance book. A number of the local
leaders, including Reverend Reese, were momentarily persuaded that the
opening of the appearance book a week early would constitute an
important sign of good faith on the part of the Whites, and the Whites
believed that the Black leaders had agreed to end demonstration once it
became available.
Selma, 1965, Charles Fager
The instituting of an appearance book was not the equivalent of federal
protection of voting rights and to end demonstrations or take a breather
would have left Black people at the mercy of the already riled up Ku Klux
Klan and the White Citizens Council. There was a position of no
compromise in the movement. This circumvented people who were not
totally committed to nonviolence or who didnt understand it from giving
in to less than the goal, the right to vote.
But things didnt work out as the Whites had hoped. The SCLC staff in the
city particularly James Bevel, argued vehemently that the appearance book
was just another White mans trick, a delaying tactic like so many others
and no concession at all. On Monday morning, February eighth, they held
Wisdom is better than weapons of war; but one sinner
destroyeth much good. Ecclesiates 9:18
27
a press conference to denounce it, and to call for the holding of registration
in other locations as well, the appointment of deputy registrars, some of
whom would be Black and the elimination of all voting requirements except
age and residence. Bevel said he would lead a group to the courthouse to
make explicit their boycott of the book.
Selma, 1965, Charles Fager
As a result of the visibility that came to Reverend Bevel when he would not
go along with other Black leaders concessions when they were fooled by
the White mans tricks, he was severely beaten, and received a concussion.
He was jailed on the day of the appearance book protest.
James Bevel, had been beaten insensibly by sheriffs deputies and had
sustained a concussion of the brain. Bevel was chained to his bed.
Selma, 1965, Charles Fager
Not only was Bevel chained to his bed, he was the target of unremitting abuse
and degradation. He was also watered down and stripped of his clothes and
caught viral pneumonia in an unheated cell. His wife serving him divorce
papers caused this inhumane treatment to come to light, as her lawyer found
Bevel near death. This was Dianes strategy for getting help for her husband.
She was not actually divorcing Bevel. She managed to get him transferred
to an infirmary where he is shackled with iron chains to a bed until she is
able to get them removed.
The first real causality of the Selma movement was the
shooting and subsequent death of Jimmie Lee Jackson in
Marion, AL. His murder threatened to destroy the nonviolent
movement, as people began to purchase bullets from
neighboring states. (In 2007 [42 years later ] former trooper
James Fowler was indicted for Jackson's murder. In 2010 he plead
guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to six months in jail. None of the
other whites involved ever faced charges for the police-mob violence in Marion.)
Give not that which is Holy unto dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before
swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn
again and rend you. Matthew 7:6
I send unto you prophets and wise men; and some ye shall kill and
crucify.. behold your house is left unto you desolate. Blessed is he that
cometh in the name of the Lord. Matthew 23:34
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which
is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1
28
The Black community had armed themselves in Marion, and were ready
to kill some policemen or White people. I (Bevel) convinced them that
they should march instead and that, that would keep the question of the
right to vote before the nation and would force President Johnson not to
join the southern White folks in crushing the movement under the pretense
of upholding law and order if some white folk were killed. This would
have caused a restriction of travel and thus we would not have been able
to keep the people at the courthouse. This was a tactical maneuver in the
question of the right to vote, aimed at bringing the whole state government
and the rest of the nation into the movement.
Interview with James Bevel, by Helen L. Edmond
As ministers we felt it was important to make a pastoral call to the family
of the slain Jimmy Lee Jackson, to have prayer with them and give them
spiritual encouragement. Jimmy was a young man who was the bread
winner for the family and was now dead. He had a sister, a wife, and
mother who had been beaten. Before leaving the Jacksons, Bevel asked
the family, What do you think we should do? Do you think we should
continue to march? Cager Lee Jackson said, Oh yes, we have to march
now, I have nothing to lose, Ive lost everything I had. So Bevel said,
If we march would you march with us? He said, Yes, Ill march. So
on our way back from the Jacksons house, Bevel said, Im going to
march, and Im going to march all the way to Montgomery. He asked,
Do you think Ill get anyone to march with me? I said, Im just one
person, but Ill march with you. So Bevel at the mass meeting that very
same night made the announcement that he was going to march all the
way to Montgomery. He asked, "How many people are going to march
with me?" The whole church (Zion United Methodist Church) stood up."
Account by Dr. Bernard LaFayette, Co-founder of SNCC
Who killed him? He was murdered by the brutality of every sheriff who
practiced lawlessness in the name of law. He was murdered by the
irresponsibility of every politician from governors on down who has fed
his constituents the stale bread of hatred and the spoiled meat of racism.
He was murdered by the timidity of a Federal Government that is willing
to spend millions of dollars a day to defend freedom in Vietnam but cannot
protect the rights of its citizens at home. ... And he was murdered by the
cowardice of every Negro who passively accepts the evils of segregation
and stands on the sidelines in the struggle for justice.
Martin Luther King, Jr., at Jimmie Lee Jacksons funeral
If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man
minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all
things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and
dominion forever and ever. Amen. I Peter 4:11
29
Dr. King endorsed Bevel's proposal for a march from Selma to
Montgomery demanding justice for the murder of Jimmy Lee Jackson and
to confront Wallace over voting rights. But SNCC opposes the SCLC plan.
They see it as a dangerous grandstand play by King that will do nothing
for the local people. John Lewis disagrees, "I knew the feelings that were out
there on the streets. The people of Selma were hurting. They were angry. They
needed to march. It didn't matter to me who led it. They needed to march.
Lewis stands alone and is outvoted. The SNCC meeting does agree that SNCC
members can participate in the march as individuals, but not as SNCC
representatives. SNCC sent a letter to King stating that: We strongly believe
that the objectives of the march do not justify the dangers ... consequently
[SNCC] will only live up to those minimal commitments to provide radios and
cars, and nothing beyond that.
Marches began in Selma, AL on
March 7, 1965. About 600 black and
white civil rights protesters passed
through Selma and began to cross the
Edmund Pettus Bridge spanning the
Alabama River. They were met on
the other side by a large force of
Alabama state troopers, who ordered
the marchers to return to Selma.
When the marchers refused to turn
back, the troopers attacked, some on horseback, knocking down people
and beating them with billy clubs. This was all filmed by TV news cameras
and shown that evening to a shocked American public. The third march
was approved by Governor George Wallace on March 21, 1965.
Dr. King's speech [in Montgomery] was impressive as usual, but the
remarks of James Bevel got closest to the whole point of the struggle.
Waving up at the capitol, Bevel said, Those police up there on the steps
know we belong inside. Thirty-four percent of the seats in there belong
to us. We don't want these steps. We want the capitol.
Black Activism, Robert H. Brisbane
For Bevel, the march to Montgomery was not the end of the SCLCs
Alabama Project, but only the beginning. But once the march was
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and loce
the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye
cannot serve God and man. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought
for your lifebut seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His
righteousness; and all things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6
30
completed, Bevel returned to his original plan. In fact, in light of the
momentum developed by the march, he decided its sights should be raised;
the Black citizens of Alabama should not settle for simply a federal voting
law, he felt, they should demand the impeachment of Governor Wallace,
the resignation of both houses of the state legislature, and a new, federally
supervised election for all state offices. To reinforce the impact of the
mass arrest in Montgomery, Bevel wanted SCLC to institute a nationwide
boycott of the states industries and products, to add economic chaos to
political disruption as the campaign heated up. The weekend after the
rally at the capitol, Dr. King announced that he would call for a boycott
of Alabama products and industries; and ask the federal government to
withdraw its funds from programs in the state.
But there was resistance to this program within SCLC, led principally by
Hosea William. Williams urged Dr. King to give him command of all the
SCLC field staff, including those in Alabama, to help implement SCOPE.
SCOPE was given a budget of $480,000. This meant putting an end to
Bevels Alabama Project. SCLCs SCOPE Project did not turn out nearly
as well as its sponsors had hoped. Everybody was waiting for the [voting
right] bill to be passed. With almost a half million dollars to play with,
SCLCs legendary disorganization became an industry in SCOPE.
Selma, 1965, Charles Fager
SCLC pulled out of Selma and the people of Selma and the Blackbelt were
left to suffer under the racist tricks and ploys of those elected officials who
had a 400 year jump start on keeping them oppressed. In addition the state
constitution was founded on the oppression and enslavement of African
Americans. The mayor of Selma in 1965 was Mayor Joe Smitherman and
he served as mayor until 2003 (38 years). He maintained the racist policies
in new ways. In an interview with local Selma residents it was reported
that people were encouraged to keep their children out of school and receive
crazy checks. One young lady said, that her mother use to beat her when
she voiced a desire to go to school. She became a resident of a mental
institute.
Had Bevels plan to hold new elections for all public officials been
implemented Mayor Smitherman would not have served for forty more years
and the people would have been able to move forward towards true
democracy in the state of Alabama. To this day African Americans continue
to suffer under the cruelty of unsavory politicians and unjust laws.
On January 14, 2014, the city council of Selma voted to award land to the
Wherefore by their fruit ye shall know them. Matthew 7:20
31
Daughters of the Confederacy, for building of a statue to honor Nathan B.
Forest (Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan) in a African American
neighborhood and African American members of the council voted for this.
The Voting Rights Act, is a landmark piece of
federal legislation in the United States that
prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was
signed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson on
August 6, 1965. Johnson opening the way for
greater political participation by blacks in southern
politics. He also established an Office of Economic
Opportunity, increased educational spending, and
established the Medicare and Medicaid programs
to benefit the poor and elderly.
For with a country as with a person, "What is a man profited, if he shall
gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ?"
There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no
Northern problem. There is only an American problem. And we are met
here tonight as Americansnot as Democrats or Republicans--we are
met here as Americans to solve that problem.
This was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded with a
purpose. The great phrases of that purpose still sound in every American
heart, North and South: "All men are created equal""government by
consent of the governed""give me liberty or give me death." Well, those
are not just clever words, or those are not just empty theories. In their name
Americans have fought and died for two centuries, and tonight around the
world they stand there as guardians of our liberty, risking their lives.
Those words are a promise to every citizen that he shall share in the
dignity of man. This dignity cannot be found in a man's possessions; it
cannot be found in his power, or in his position. It really rests on his right
to be treated as a man equal in opportunity to all others. It says that he
shall share in freedom, he shall choose his leaders, educate his children,
and provide for his family according to his ability and his merits as a
human being.
Wednesday I will send to Congress a law designed to eliminate illegal
barriers to the right to vote.
This is one Nation. What happens in Selma or in Cincinnati is a matter
of legitimate concern to every American. But let each of us look within
our own hearts and our own communities, and let each of us put our
32
shoulder to the wheel to root out injustice wherever it exists.
But even if we pass this bill, the battle will not be over. What happened
in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section
and State of America. It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for
themselves the full blessings of American life.
Their cause must be our cause too. Because it is not just Negroes, but
really it is all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry
and injustice. And we shall overcome.
President Lyndon Baines Johnson, Excerpt, Voting Rights Speech
The Voting Rights Act is a complex piece of legislation that was developed
in response to the failure of earlier legislation to remedy discrimination
in voting. It strengthened judicial remedies, but also provided for direct
Federal action through a variety of administrative remedies to counter
immediate and potential barriers to full and effective minority political
participation. The Voting Rights Act was adopted in 1965. By making
these practices illegal, the act seeks to give all Americans a fair chance
of electing representatives. The Voting Rights Act has been used by
communities across the country to challenge unfair election rules, and
create more inclusive governments. The Act prohibits discrimination
against African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and Native
Americans. Since 1964, the number of black elected officials nationwide
has increased from 300 to more than 9,100.
Reverend James Bevel and Diane Nash received the SCLC Rosa Parks
Award for having conceived, initiated and successfully executed the Selma
Right To Vote Movement.
Thousands of African Americans have been elected to office since the
signing of the Voting Rights Act. They have shuned nonviolence and many
have neglected the needs of the people and pursued self-interest while in office.
Many gains have been lost as a result of this.
When a mans ways please the Lord, He makes his enemies to be at
peace with him. Proverbs 16:7
Let your light shine that men may see your good works and give glory
to your Father in Heaven. Matthew 5:16
L-R Diane Nash, Dr. King, James Bevel, Rosa Parks
Diane Nash & Rev. Bevel receive the Rosa Parks Award
from SCLC for initiating and successfully executing the
Selma, AL Right-to-Vote Movement
33
Barack H. Obama was elected 44th president of the U. S., on 11/4/08. He
was elected to a second term on 11/6/12.
Forty-six years prior to Mr. Obamas
election, it was predicted that this would
occur.
"The Irish were not wanted here. Now an
Irish Catholic is President of the United
States. There is no question about it, in the
next forty years a Negro can achieve the
same position."
Attorney General Robert Francis Kennedy, 1962
In June of 2013, the Supreme Court declared a provision of the Voting
Rights Act unconstitutional. With the understanding of government as
a living principle (beyond racist politics and self-promotion), voting as only
one aspect of government, a statesman as the servant of the people for
the public good, and precinct council government as the new frontier,
African American people will be able to establish and maintain full equality
and obtain justice.
s
So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Romans 14:12
Eyes have not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man, the things which God hath prepared for them that Love Him.
I Corinthians 2:9
Let your light shine that men may see your good works and give glory
to your Father in Heaven. Matthew 5:16
Other casualties in Selma.
Mrs. Viola Liuzzo - On the evening of March 25,1965, while transporting marchers
back and forth between Montgomery and Selma, on a lonely stretch of road in Lowndes
County, a carload of Klansmen pulled up alongside Liuzzos Oldsmobile and fired two
bullets into Liuzzos skull.
Reverend James Reeb - While in Selma on March 9, Reeb was attacked and beaten
by a white mob armed with clubs. He suffered massive head injuries, and died in a
Birmingham hospital two days later.
Commentary in bold print by Helen L. Edmond-Bevel.
Information about Selma, AL was taken from Civil Rights Movement Veterans website,
http://www.crmvet.org
34
Annie Lee Cooper
John Jackson
Charles Mauldin
JoAnne Bland
Barbara Howard
Princella Howard
Charles A. Bonner
Bennie Ruth Johnson
Veronic Smith
Mattie Atkins
Willie Neal Avery
P. H. Lewis
John Hewlett
Bessie McMeans
Sheyanne Web
Rachael West
Bruce Carver Boynton
Margaret Moore
Reverend Lorenzo Harrison
John Hulett
Jesse Farrior
William Cosby
Matthew Jackson
Elzie McGill
Frank Harrison.
Lonnie Brown
Monroe Pettway
Willie Ed Pettway
Timothy Myers
Roman Pettway
C. J. Adams
Reverend S. L. Johnson
John Head
William M. Branch
John Chambers
Vassie Knott
Annie Brown
Elmer Hawkins
Wendell Paris
Leonard Hatter
Tommy Jackson
Reverend J. J. Simmons
Theresa Burroughs
Carrie Johnson
William Harrison
Oliver Pringer
Martin Ruffin
Virginia Cole
Jesse Dixon
Lena Frost
Malloy Jones
Ann Braxton
Robert Jones, Jr.
Carl Jones
Henry Haskins
Ervin Harris
Child Volunteers
SNCC Volunteers
SCLC Volunteers
CORE Volunteers
COFO Volunteers
FOR Volunteers
NAACP Volunteers
Quacker Volunteers
Alabama Volunteers
Mississippi Volunteers
Southern Volunteers
Northern Volunteers
Foreign Volunteers
Church, Mosque, Temple Volunteers
Thanks to the thousands of
Unknown and Unsung Foot Soldiers
The foot soldiers were students, laborers, housewives and others who filled in the
battleground, namelessly, behind the more celebrated leaders. They are those
marching, waving pickets, ducking water hoses, going to jail, but never with a page
of their own to recognize their fearless and heroic efforts.
FOOT SOLDIERS
35
CHURCHES & ORGANIZATIONS
In The Struggle For Human Dignity
SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee)
SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference)
CORE (Congress of Racial Equality)
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
NAACP Legal Defense Fund
Dallas County Voters League
Alabama Improvement Association
Perry County Civic League
Brown Chapel AME Church, Selma, AL
Tabernacle Baptist Church, Selma, AL
First Baptist Church, Selma, AL
Zion United Methodist Church, Marion, AL
Countless other churches and organization throughout the United
States are not listed here and deserve to be recognized.
36
PROPOSAL FOR THE RIGHT TO VOTE
September 15, 1964
By
James L. Bevel and Diane Nash
PROGRAM FOR ACTION IN ALABAMA
SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE (SCLC)
Alabama Movement for Political Enfranchisement
PRESUPPOSITONS - The people of western culture and white people in particular are sick, and the
whole world needs for them to be healed and free. They are without excuse; a few know this. Their
becoming and their freedom depends on them taking seriously the wisdom of western culture and their
being able to act our of it, as seriously as have black Americans. They need some leadership, but much
more they need help along the way towards doing their own thinking and acting.
INTENTIONS OF PROJECT: 1) To build mutual confidence among concerned white people in
Alabama; 2) To enable them to learn to discern issues; 3) To allow the context for them to bring to speech
and deed the provocation for practical impact; 4) To discover what internal authorities are causing these
people to mis-construe the revolution in their day.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION - This one month experiment is aimed at answering the questions: Is it
possible to get a movement begun and grounded in white middle class America in order that it can sustain
itself by its own autonomy and motion? The experiment has three phases: 1) the gathering and collection
of persons; 2) the presenting and discussion of data (knowledge); 3) the observation of intellectual abilities
and skills in the appropriating of the knowledge.
The gathering of the persons will require the efforts of field staff to do leg work and re-establish
relationships with known contacts. This work will require to weeks time and financial resources for
traveling and communications.
The presentation of knowledge can be described as follows: 1) the bringing to mind appropriate material;
2) the objective is to enable the persons (missing page).
INTRODUCTION:
In the building of a movement from the point where we are now, there are certain steps and activities that
must be carried out.
Listed below are some activities which, if carried out, would unite the people of Alabama, prepare them
for suffering, in a prolonged nonviolent campaign, appeal to the conscience of white people in Alabama
and the nation, and keep the opponents and participants informed. Such a campaign would not allow the
objective to become obscured. It would eventually lead to the education and enfranchisement of nearly
all people outside of Alabama to become active in the cause. This program will only be effective if it is
carried through to its conclusion.
I. ADULT PREPARATION
The meeting for all of the Alabama affiliates that will be held on March 4 and 5 will serve as the imitation
for the project. At this meeting an action program should be outlined for the affiliates and adopted by
them.
37
The office has to keep in mind that the affiliates by and large are not action orientated; therefore it is
unreasonable to expect that once an action program is submitted to them that they would automatically
go back home and carry it out. Since past experience has taught us that students are the ones who usually
provide the man power, the home office must keep in mind that our main responsibility is reaching,
organizing and preparing the students in Alabama for action with the assistance of the adults, of course.
II. STUDENT PREPARATION
Field secretaries should start contacting high school and college students and organizations introducing
them to and getting their commitment to the program. The students should be organized into groups
electing their leaders and starting training programs. They should work with adult groups wherever
possible.
There should be several state-wide or regional student meetings for the purpose of building cohesion and
enthusiasm.
III. COMMUNITY PREPARATION
The white and Negro communities should be reached to the farthest extent to which we are capable
A. People to people tours by Dr. King, Rev. Abernathy, and Rev. Shuttlesworth should be taken.
There should be three kinds of meetings in each community:
1) a meeting with students & adult leaders
2) a student mass meeting
3) a regular mass meeting
B. Letters to white and Negro ministers and other strategic leaders should be mailed regularly,
constantly defining to them the issues and the movement.
C. Pamphlets, leaflets, stickers, buttons and paid newspaper advertisement should be freely used.
D. Mass meetings should be going on in almost every community. The right to vote as a fight
should be kept constantly before the people the affiliates can accept the major responsibility for
this
IV. NEGOTIATION
A. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and all of its affiliates and all organizations within
the state should send a letter to Mr. Wallace and all appropriate state officials akin; that all laws
be repealed and tactics stopped that tend to discourage and disenfranchise any citizens who are
21 years of age. An effort to contact these officials and talk with them personally should be
made. Another letter should be sent to the state board of elections and county boards of election
and county registrars, asking them to register any legal resident 21 years of age who applies.
B. President Johnson should be requested in writing to insure voting rights for anyone 21 years old
who is a resident of his locate and to promptly send federal officials to an area where testimony
is given to the effect that any 21 year old citizen is being denied the right to vote. The federal
official should be empowered to register any person who is being illegally denied.
V. DEMONSTRATIONS
There are two types of demonstration that we probably should consider: mass demonstrations in one
city and demonstrations in many places simultaneously.
The advantages of concentrating in one city are:
1. The romance of leaving home to go demonstrate would detract more Negro males.
2. The news media could cover more thoroughly and effectively one city than many.
3. Extensive coverage would tend to prevent brutality, or if it occurred it would be well covered.
4. Because we lack many well trained leaders it would also help in maintain discipline.
38
5. It would be more dramatic to have 5 or 6 thousand people in jail in one city rather than in many cities
across the state in smaller numbers.
The advantage of demonstrations in many places are:
1. They would directly involve more communities.
2. They would keep the brunt of the entire resources of the state from falling on one place; it would split
their forces.
3. They would help keep the state off balance in trying to anticipate what will happen next and where.
4. More leaders would probably be developed.
It seems to me that both of these approaches can be used at different times. Although the kinds of
demonstrations will be varied (Picketing, sit-ins, mass-marches on the capitol, etc.) the results will probably
be jail-ins, therefore, it is important to involve large numbers of people who are committed to staying in
jail for at least 4 or 5 months. It should also be noted that once the leaders get out of jail the morale drops
and people get restless and want to get out also. Because so much energy, money, time and effort are
dissipated in arranging bonds, the movement loses its soul force. It also loses the opportunity of holding
the nations attention and pricking the conscience of the opponent and the nation.
VI. FINANCES AND NATIONAL ACTION
Its a known fact that once real action starts, people begin to raise money in the north and they hold large
mass rallies for the movement. The rallies should also be used to get people involved at a much deeper
level. Since we will be demonstrating in the south for the right to vote, it would be easy to inspire people
to put on mass voter education and voter registration drives in large urban centers. There should be
literature (pamphlets, etc) prepared by the movement that will help direct voter education in the north.
TITHING
The concept of tithing as expressed by the Jewish prophets was that man should at least five ten per cent
of his earning back to the source that gave him whatever he had earned. So the prophets reasoned that
God gave food, then ten per cent should be given back to God. This concept was also carried into business
if as well. Therefore, if a man harvested ten bushels of wheat, he was expected to save ten per cent for
seed. That is, he was to replant at least one tenth of his harvest. This of course meant that farmers would
always have new crops.
This concept of tithing should be adopted by any nonviolent movement or organization. The organization
should put at least ten per cent of its earnings back into the source that produced it. If the young people
of Alabama, because of their nonviolent action and commitment made it possible for an organization to
earn a certain amount of money, then that organization should put at least ten per cent aside to be used
for putting the weapon of nonviolence back into the hands of other young people in Alabama. If this was
done then the organization would never have to worry about FLUNKING.
The organizations that worry about flunking in a tough situation or worry about whether the people will
respond in a time of crisis are those organizations that ask wherein have we robbed Him? Of course the
answer is in tithing and offering, and therefore the organizations have become impoverished for they
lack the responding nonviolent human resources in which they have failed to re-invest.
If it becomes necessary for Dr. King, Rev. Abernathy to remain in Alabama over a period of time, Wyatt
Walker, and CT Vivian could take the major responsibility of raising funds.
It would be helpful if Bayard Rustin and Walter Fauntroy organized mass marches in Washington (Capitol)
and New York (UN).
39
VI. IMPLEMENTATION OF PROGRAM
A. Headquarters in Montgomery or Birmingham should be set up almost immediately.
The office should be responsible for:
1. Coordination the staff.
2. Getting out mailings and other literature and correspondence
3. Materials, such as pamphlets, films, projectors, books, etc.
B. Staff
Several of the field secretaries should be sent to Alabama to work full time. Their jobs
should be carrying out the adult, student and community preparation as se forth in I, II,
and III of this memo.
The field secretaries should be responsible for setting up the meetings for Dr. King, Rev.
Abernathy and Rev. Shuttlesworth
CONCLUSION:
We should expect to be vigorously involved in the struggle of this campaign for at least eight months.
We should keep in mind that the objective of this particular battle is enfranchisement of Negro people in
Alabama; therefore, the most important part of this battle is to actually see that obstacles are removed and
to get members of Negroes in Alabama registered This is our responsibility. Only then will the staff
be free to go home. We must keep in mind that unless we can in fact get Negroes registered, we cannot
stop bombings of churches, unjust court proceedings, police brutality, etc. We must also keep in mind
that unless large numbers of Negroes get registered, there will not be the climate for peaceful, large scale
school integration, integration of public commendations and employment of Negroes on many city, county
and state jobs.
Watch your thoughts, they become your words.
Watch your words, they become your actions.
Watch your actions, they become your habits.
Watch your habits, they become your character.
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.
Author Unknown
40
SELF KNOWLEDGE VS. SELF CONCEPT
Constantly, we are challenged by men of wisdom to know ourselves. For without
self-knowledge nothing else can be known. For all knowledge must be the extension
of self-knowledge.
We do not exist in history, we exist in our biology, and from the biology comes the
psychology, and from the psychology comes the ecology, and from the ecology comes
the sociology, and from the sociology comes the anthropology, and from the
anthropology comes the theology. So to the degree that we are ignorant about our
biology, to that same degree we are ignorant about the remaining ologies. When we
do not have self knowledge, we cannot express knowledge about the other ologies; we
can only express opinions or beliefs.
The expressions of opinions and belief come from our self concept. Self knowledge
is the knowledge of what Man, He and She is in space, energy, motion and elements
as they live in obedience to God. Our self concept is our image of ourselves as we
perceive ourselves in society.
Self concepts make us compete with others. It makes us defensive, arrogant and
resentful. It makes us brag and show-off. It keeps us trying to prove that we are worthy
to others. It keeps us constantly fearful of failure. When we become slaves to our
self-concepts, we fall prey to every advertiser and salesman who can detect an aspect
of our insecurity.
Self-knowledge gives us knowledge of our Source (God). It gives us knowledge of
our purpose and the knowledge to carry out our purpose. Self knowledge gives us real
confidence for the confidence is anchored in self knowledge and reality. Self
knowledge causes us to know our needs and the needs of our family, race, community
and world. Self knowledge causes us to educate ourselves to initiate, develop, maintain
and administrate our six human and community institutions. Self knowledge gives us
the knowledge of others, thus we have the insight to cooperate and share, for the good
of our and others health, interest, rights and needs.
The struggle to know the self, our Source, our purpose and the means for carrying out
our purpose is what gives us our authenticity. It affirms our commitment to truth.
Reverend James Luther Bevel
41
Precinct Council, government of, for and by the
people is the new frontier.
Reverend James L. Bevel
MAN AS GOVERNMENT
In order to intelligently participate in your ward, city, county, state, nation or United
Nations, you must responsibly participate constitutionally in your precinct. Paying
taxes and casting ballots are empty irresponsible acts if these are to the exclusion of
precinct responsibility and accountability. The voter and tax payer cannot hold an
elected official accountable if they dont have the knowledge and means to hold them
accountable.
Freedom is not a gift that can be given by another, nor is it something that can be won
by murder or war. Freedom is a gift to those who have the faith to accept their definition
and purpose as man (male/female) and the courage to face the lies and perversities that
developed in the self as a result of having denied their true definition and purpose.
The precinct council is made up of the people in the precinct who come together to
take responsibility for Gods definition and purpose for man, and to address the health,
interest, rights and needs of themselves and each other in democratically run institutions
and communities. The precinct council will have six major institutions and
communities. The precinct council will have six major committees and as many
subcommittees as is necessary to address all of the questions, issues, problems and
needs of the people in the precinct.
The primary purpose of the precinct council is to create a sane, peaceful, and
knowledgeable populace in the precinct. The policy of the precinct is to be set by the
general body, and polices will be experimented with, in the appropriate community
institutions (Worship center, government, business, clinic, home and school).
Because of the nature of problems in the inner cities and because of the devastating
effect historical and present day tyranny has had on each of our development, it is
recommended that people who vote to constitute a precinct council enroll in a
Nonviolent Clinic.
The precinct council is mans expression of love for God, self and fellow man. For
when we love God, we will seek to know and do the will of God, and we will seek to
carry out the purpose for which we were created. If we love our children and neighbors,
then truly we must create order and contexts so that constructive work and cooperation
can go on.
The tyrannical forces are always competing with each other for military dominance
over each other and people, however, we are called to serve God and the health,
interests, rights and needs of all, and we must not get involved in supporting tyranny
42
Constitutionality is the sum total of all law that sustains man in a
state of integrity, and allows man (individually and collectively)
to attain to definition and purpose.
With the loss of constitutionality, an individual becomes an animated
personality without the ability to comprehend their own or anyone
elses health, interest, rights and needs. Freedom is lost by an
individual to the exact degree to which the person compromises or
contradicts the definition and purpose of their being.
Reverend James L. Bevel
in any form.
As we build our precinct councils, the clearer it will become to all tyrants of the futility
of this misguided misconduct, for as it is written, When the perfect is come, the
imperfect will pass away. We need not fight the imperfect; we need to manifest the
perfect.
Reverend James L. Bevel
43
THE LAWS GOVERNING A
NONVIOLENT MEETING
1. At the meeting, anyone is allowed to speak. They can only discuss
what they and their Creator intend to do. They cannot discuss the
misconduct and misfortune of other people, unless they show how that
misfortune and/or misconduct creates separation, and unless they explain
what they did or are doing to cause reconciliation in the situation, i.e.,
discuss a healing method for every disorder and misconduct. Otherwise it
will be classified as gossip. All flattery is pseudo gossip, an attempt to
sophisticate gossip.
2. All references to history should be to prove that there is an intelligent
life force that has created all things to live in harmony with each other on
earth. (If historical references dont prove the above then the person has a
false sense of history which should not be allowed.)
3. Each person must willing to honestly discuss their position, disposition
and proposition.
4. The person speaking must be willing and open to let anyone at anytime
question their motives and intentions.
5. If one is not prepared to speak under these terms, they must listen, and
be contemplative, for they are not yet ready to speak.
6. The songs and music must be the same as the speech.
7. Prayers must be within the framework of the Lords Prayer and
Davids 23rd Psalm. The Lords Prayer is a private request and the 23rd
Psalm is the public expression of it. Any prayer vibrations less than this is
an outside show to an unfriendly world.
Reverend James L. Bevel
44
America is built on the true definition and purpose for which God created man. At the
core of America are the righteousness of God, and the responsibility of man to uphold
that righteousness. This is why no cause in America is as strong as a civil rights
movement that addressed the responsibility and rights of citizenship. In other words,
love is the fulfillment of the law and when we love and work for the health, interest,
rights and needs of all Americans and all mankind, the very best comes out of America
and Americans. This being true, the loving, righteous, serious, scientific and
courageous regardless of gender, race, religion or age can give leadership in this nation,
whether it be through the electoral process or through social, education or religious
movements.
America was theologically conceived when God said, let us make man in our image
and after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the earth. So God created man
in His own image. In the image of God created he them male and female and named
them Man when they were created.
America was sociologically born as she broke the chains of colonial rule and declared
that all men were created equal and that they all have the inalienable right to life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness. After the declaration of 1775 and the confrontation of
1776 and the reconstruction of 1787 (we the people in order to form a more perfect
union...), a new nation was born from a colonial mother and a divine father. Within
her were character flaws like slavery, indentured servitude and the disenfranchisement
of female man. These flaws being in conflict with her divine nature erupted in the
confrontation of 1863 which led to the Emancipation Proclamation of 1865 and the
subsequent malice towards none and charity for all and a nation of the people, by the
people and for the people never to perish from the earth.
Still clinging to her colonial nature but having lost the flaws of slavery and indentured
servitude, she still had the blemish of segregation and disenfranchisement based on
gender and race. Segregation and disenfranchisement being in conflict with her Divine
nature led to the confrontation of the 1960's. So God called forth the youth of the
nation to use the Divine tool of nonviolence to address the blemishes of segregation
and disenfranchisement and this began the healing process of America.
Now we are faced with the third reconstruction that will take America and all
Americans to the Promised Land seen from the mountaintop by the late Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr.
What will this look like? It will be a movement that will teach the American people
and youth to be prayer mates rather than playmates. It will lovingly and lawfully work
to put prayer and education in every American public school in the form of nonviolent
education. It will work to help put legally sanctioned precinct councils in each precinct
with six democratic committees of church, government, business, clinic, home and
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
By Reverend James L. Bevel
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school so that all citizens can have a government tool through which to volunteer their
gifts, skills, talents and time and to provide a government laboratory for our youth to
apprenticeship in self government. It will commit our theology, constitutional
democratic republic and free enterprise economy to science and make it available to
all deprived and oppressed people of the world.
Presently, our local and national communities are going through a very serious crisis.
The basis of this crisis is an obsolete educational system that does not produce graduates
who are skilled in developing and maintaining character, institutions and communities,
because of the predominate villain/victim psychology that could prove to be disastrous
to mankind. For as needs go unfulfilled and problems continue to go unsolved, the
frustration of citizens and elected and self appointed officials become more intensified.
Given the predominating psychology of villain/victim we do not look for cause and
solution, but instead assume that someone is the cause and thus seek someone to destroy
or punish. This dynamic uncorrected will lead to escalated internal and international
class and race wars.
The immediate need is a scientific nonviolent research and educational center that
would research the problem, educate the people to the problem and educate people to
use the science of nonviolence as an effective social tool for bringing about social
change.
The long range need is a nonviolent movement that brings to social consciousness the
contradictions of our present educational system and struggle until school boards,
administrator, teachers, students and parents comprehend, understand and agree on the
need for character and community development education. This is a process that teaches
children and adults to initiate, develop, maintain and administrate their six human and
community development institutions of church, government, business, clinic home and
school.
Nonviolence being the science of applying intelligent thought to the fulfilling of need
and the solving of problems, needs a clinical and educational process in order to get
people to understand it and effectively use it.
Presently most people think of nonviolence as a religious concept that flows from great
personalities from time to time. As a result much lip service is paid to nonviolence,
but very little, if any effort is put into understanding and teaching it as a science.
The present misunderstood events in the south are also the reason nonviolence is not
understood as a science. The research, clinical and educational processes that were
used in the Sit-in Movement, Open Theater Movement, Freedom Rides, Mississippi
Project, Birmingham Movement, Selma, Alabama Movement, Chicago Open Housing
Movement and the movement against the Viet-nam War are not known, because the
press promoted Dr. King as the source and cause of the movement. However a
systematic search of history would immediately dispel that assumption.
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It is not my intention to minimize the commitment and effectiveness of Dr. King as a
student and practitioner of nonviolence. I simply want to clarify the fact that the success
and outcome of those social movements was the result of nonviolence having been
scientifically employed in the given situations.
Nonviolence simply understood rests on the premise that man is born for a purpose and
that that purpose can be known, understood, attained and maintained without violating self
or others. Furthermore, one who is about their purpose has the power to heal and educate
those who for whatever reason may be engaged in a violation. Nonviolence is based on
the law of truth and original cause. That is, if we know the problem and cause, we can
bring forth a solution by healing and educating. It brings personal and social errors to
consciousness and creates a non-threatening context and environment so that the error can
be understood and corrected and a just solution can be negotiated.
The reason that violence in all forms (spiritual, tongue, attitudinal, militaristic) is
destructive is because it causes people to have secrets, causing them to misinterpret
self, situation, events, circumstances and people and is designed to destroy the idea
making capacity of a person.
When man violates definition, he/she cannot execute their duty, obligation and
responsibility to self and others. This reality was comprehended by Yeshua ben David
(Jesus) when he said, Man must live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of
God. and man ought always pray and not faint. We accept these statements to be
self-evident truths. Therefore, we must conclude that definition must be understood
and respected and methods must be congruent to definition and purpose.
So when we look at the prayer that Yeshua taught and his statement that man ought
to always pray, we can see the logic and reality in the principle.
By taking prayer out of the mystic realm and putting it on a scientific basis, we can be
vigilant about our health, interest, rights and needs. How then do you stay in prayer?
You stay in prayer by initiating, maintaining, and administrating a church, government,
business, clinic, home and school and by asking questions, getting answers, making
decisions and doing work in each of your six institutions. In this process spirit, mind,
emotion and body will be exercised and all needs fulfilled and all problems solved in
the appropriate context.
Our Father Theology Church
Thy Kingdom come Sociology Government
Give us our daily bread Ecology Business
Forgive us, as we forgive Psychology Clinic
Lead me not into temptation Biology Home
Deliver me from evil Anthropology School
PRAYER SCIENCE INSTITUTION
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In that we do not have an intelligent self regulated social order, we must ask the
question, What false assumption do I have and what is the missing factor? Presently,
we approach all our problems assuming that someone else is the problem, rather than
seeking to know our own false assumptions, the areas in which we are deficient in
knowledge, and how we contribute to the creation of the problem in our personal and
social life and work towards a solution.
Many will debate the relationship to flesh eating as being the source of man's present
social crisis, but it does not take much to see what happens when we agree to prey
upon animals for food and people for economic gain and sexual pleasure. It is this
agreement that causes us to be unable to build a scientific institutional social process
that will fulfill needs and solve problems peacefully. For when we prey upon animals
and people we violate definition and what we do after that contradicts our purpose,
and out of this grows conflict, which leaves needs unfulfilled and problems unsolved.
This leads to fear, defensiveness, attack and counter attack.
The immediate need is for a scientific nonviolent research and study center for the
following purposes.
1. To recruit and educate people to the methods and science of nonviolence.
2. To research the constitutional violations.
3. To educate the general public to the nature and cause of the constitutional violations.
4. To disseminate information and educate the general public to the use and methods
of nonviolence.
5. To teach leaders and groups the science of solving problems and resolving conflict
through the use of nonviolence.
6. To teach leaders and groups the science of character and community development
education.
7. To develop, print and disseminate nonviolent educational material.
If you have love and a sense of history, who knows whether you have come to the
present moment for just such a times as this to bring peace on earth and goodwill
towards all.
Nonviolence must be advanced order for peace on earth to become a reality.
Nonviolence is the science of freedom.
Its either nonviolence or nonexistence.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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THE NONVIOLENT CLINICAL PROCESS
By Reverend James L. Bevel
The Nonviolent Clinical Process is designed to assist people in removing blocks to
truth and love, which keep them in a state of internal and external violence. The
Nonviolent Clinical Process when used with the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)
is designed for males and females of all ages, as a tool for discovering the authentic
self and for achieving wholeness and selfhood, which leads to real and lasting peace.
The problem of violence will not be resolved until:
1) Our child rearing practices change to produce people with self-respect, high
self-esteem instead of deep core fear, guilt and shame.
2) Adults commit to their inner healing work, which involves healing the wounded
aspects of the self that resorts to fear, hate and violence when threatened.
The process is based upon the understanding that all misconduct comes from ignorance
and illness. Correction of misconduct within ourselves and others is achieved through
diligent application of clinical and educational processes to root out the cause of the
misconduct.
The law of clinic is: Forgive me as I forgive. It is a scientific equation that is
equivalent to the principle that whatsoever I reap, that shall I sow. Therefore, one must
enter the clinic confessing errors and injuries to self and others and come to learn how
to forgive injuries and errors made by others. It is only in a state of confession (studying
to know the fissure of ones character and comprehending the source of that fissure
that they are able to heal themselves.
One starts the process by agreeing not to accept any assumptions, true or false, but to
initiate a series of questions that produce scientific evidence to the validity or invalidity
of all assumptions. Scientific evidence is that which is grounded in the basic logic of
love and truth, which can be examined, known and built upon. One must not come to
the clinic attempting to bring charges, evidence and proof that they have been violated
by others, for this will circumvent the process. No clinical work can go on with the
assumption of others violating you. The clinic is not a place to wage war with others,
be vindictive, competitive and above reproach. These all lead to the bitter fruits that
do not allow one to maintain an integral work relationship, kept one disconnected to
Source. Rather than claiming that it is the unrighteousness of others and their inability
to recognize your righteousness that prevented you from working, you must admit that
it is you who is disconnected to Source, it is you who is a liar, and it is you who is angry.
Thus you have been ignoring the law that whatsoever I sow, that shall I also reap.
Realizing that this is a result of a lack of wisdom, one must still the mind and meditate
on the words of truth.
Thus a questioning process begins. In that I am in pain, what law or principle am I
violating? What law or principle am I ignoring? What is the specific nature of my
violation? How am I injuring myself? How am I injuring others? What is the source
of my ignorance? What is the source of my illness? What false assumptions do I hold?
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What false actions and attitudes have I initiated, developed, maintained and
administrated, based upon those false assumptions? How am I paralyzed? What work
processes are frozen as a result of my paralysis?
As the questions come, the answers come. It is your sincerity and comprehension that
there are no secrets, that allows the truth about all things to be known and brought to
consciousness. When you learn what laws and principles you are violating, you do
not judge yourself, but investigate and correct them using therapeutic methods and
techniques. Thus Physician heal thyself. is a reality. For if you do not initiate a
process of correcting and making amends for the errors that you have committed, who
in the universe has the power or the authority to do so for you. Sure others can lock
you up and punish you, but restoration is not accomplished and your gifts, skills, talents
and time are lost to the human community.
FOREWORD
Nonviolence is the science of applying love and truth to the solving of problems. The
Nonviolent Clinical Process (NCP), is based on the clinical findings of the 1960s
Civil Rights and Nonviolent Movement, and is developed to deal with the aftermath
that has come as a result of segregation and disenfranchisement. Segregation and
disenfranchisement left attitudes and dispositions in people that is the cause of
non-communication of authentic needs and thus contradictory decision making
processes are still in place in both private and public institutions that lead to violence
and abusive tendencies, as people attempt to suppress their anger and fear. With an
understanding of this process, any person or community can radically and quickly bring
about a solution to any problem that hampers the character and human development
process.
This process was used during the movement of the 1960s, here in America as
nonviolent scientist analyzed, defined and addressed themselves to the social ills of
segregation and disenfranchisement.
The movement used three systems of law:
1. Psycho-analytical Law
2. Theological Law
3. Constitutional Law
The use of these three systems of law brought solutions to the problems they were
applied to, namely the removal of the legal barriers that restricted the natural social
mobility of black people.
This process causes the unconscious to be made conscious by interpreting all false
statements and misconduct for what they are, and by showing there source and origin.
The unconscious is then translated into a conscious, logical form and is able to negotiate
a new social agreement that does not violate either party involved is worked out.
Nonviolent Steps To Problem Solving
1. Perception of a problem
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2. Do an analysis of yourself to determine the way in which you are contributing
to the problem.
3. Remove all anger and fear from the self. (EFT can be used effectively for this).
4. Do a historical analysis of the false definitions that created the problem and
which causes the misuse and abuse of people and energy.
5. Do an analysis of the social institutions that reinforce the false definitions that
uphold the problem (the decision making process of institutions are reflections of the
people who run them.)
6. Determine what real human need is and the necessary conduct that would fulfill
the need.
7. Apply constitutional law to restrain and or rejoin those who cause injury as a
result of their false definitions and misconduct.
8. Advocate need educationally and legislatively.
Nonviolent Hypothesis and Operations
Hypotheses:
The Creator had an original intent in the creating of MAN (male/female).
The Creator has a definition for MAN.
The Creator has a purpose for MAN.
Facts:
1. The male man misperceived the creation of the female man.
2. The male man falsely defined the female man.
3. The female man misinterpreted the diet for man.
4. The misinterpretation of female man false definition and incorrect diet, created a
state of guilt and shame in both the male and female.
5. The state of guilt and shame led to hiding and deceit.
6. The state of hiding and deceit, did not allow cooperation to take place between the
male and female.
7. The inability to cooperate led to fear, distrust, competition, jealousy, false worship
and murder.
Hypotheses:
There is a point of truth and a place of love at which to begin in order to arrive at
justice, while revealing all hidden factors and contradictions, and further revealing
principles, ways and means. Mental fragmentation, emotional debris, concepts, false
beliefs, and opinions which are ingrained, do not allow definition and purpose to be
known qualities.
Therefore, the point of truth and place of love are not comprehended or experienced.
This being true, reasoning is not possible and without reason, democratic government
is impossible. Democratic government is based on indisputable self-evident truths,
and understanding and agreements arrived at and shared in consciousness.
Facts:
The principle of Christ known and applied brings one to consciousness.
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1. Seek first the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof and all things will be
added unto you.
2. Man must live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
3. Man must always pray and not faint.
4. Man must do the Will of the Creator.
Principle One:
By seeking first the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof, man loses the
illusion of society and discovers that s/he is the creator in space, energy, elements and
motion, as the Creator is the creator of space, energy, elements and motion.
Principle Two:
By living by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, man discovers
definition, purpose, principles, and ways and means to facilitate work.
Principle Three:
By staying in prayer and not fainting, man brings the six intuitive drives of principle,
order, work, health, life and knowledge to scientific consciousness.
Principle Four:
By doing the Will of the Creator, man applies the scientific consciousness of
theology, sociology, ecology, psychology, biology, and anthropology to space, energy,
elements and motion, causing the defining, initiating, development, maintenance and
administration of a church, government, industry/business, clinic, home and school.
The Basic Operation of Nonviolence
Nonviolence does not begin with accusations, charges and blaming. It begins with
confession, repentance, forgiving and inquiry.
Sample Scenario
A male and female meet and both have areas of illness and ignorance out of which
flow irrational thoughts, incoherent language, and illicit conduct. This creates a state
of reactionary actions. The irrational thoughts, incoherent language, and illicit conduct
of the male aggravate the illness and ignorance in the female causing a secondary
reaction of irrational thoughts, incoherent language and illicit conduct. In this state,
no questions can be asked and answered, no problems can be addressed and
solved, no issues can be aired and resolved, and no needs can be comprehended
and fulfilled. A cold or hot war thus ensues. The person that has the most physical
strength or who has amassed the greatest technology dominates the other. (In this
example we will assume that the female is being dominated.)
If the female would (rather than react to the illicit conduct coming from the male)
address her own illness and ignorance, she would be able to bring self-knowledge,
health and intelligence when addressing the illicit conduct of the male and further
address the illness and ignorance of the male, rather than being a secondary reaction,
the female would become a primary, responsible person.
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Being the primary, responsible person, the female would be the authority, give
leadership and be able to create a context by which both could address the illness and
ignorance, the irrational thought, incoherent language and illicit conduct. Thus, the
male and the female would be brought to a state of cooperation for the good of both,
rather than stay in a state of illness and ignorance while working against themselves
and each other.
In cases where the female feels inferior to the male, the female will mimic the male,
compete, seek victory over him and thus lock herself into a permanent secondary,
reactionary state of oppression. In nonviolence, the one who gets injured, violated or
oppressed, must assume the position of healer or educator, and become the authority
in a new, cooperative relationship. If the female does this, the male would be trusting
and if and when the female acts out of illness and ignorance again, their example of
how to respond would have been learned by then and he would be able to assume the
role of the responsible person in a cooperative relationship.
Violence is a symptom reflective of mental and emotional disorder. This disorder
comes about when a person cannot translate inner feelings and promptings into
thoughts, then translate thoughts into a meaningful language that develops a plan that
is then translated into a meaningful language that develops a plan, that is then translated
into the acquisition of work skills and tools that creates a meaningful work process
that enhances life, and fulfills real human needs.
The only true experience a human being has is in the now, as time, space, elements
and motion happen, even though the person has the mental power to recall the past and
project into the future. The ability to experience the present tense through the human
body is dependent upon the activation of all the senses. We can only interpret reality
based on what is now known. The senses that allow for this experience are those of
feeling, sound and thought. Most people however are only aware of the senses of sight,
hearing, smell, taste and touch, while the other three senses are not brought to
consciousness and used in the process of living. When the awareness is focused on
eight senses, it is at this point that we become aware of our potential for self
development, creativity and purpose. We thus, conclude that violence is the result of
eight sense people operating on only five (or less) senses, relegating them to the
physical realm.
The purpose of The Nonviolent Clinical Process is to help people become consciously
aware of their eight senses and how to effectively and meaningfully use them to solve
problems of violence in themselves, their families, their communities, the nation and
the world. Until an adult person is actively caring for his/herself, and aiding in a process
of human and community development, the person cannot be considered well, because
a void exists that allows for secondary activities.
The human being is both the subject and object of life happening and each person must
get to know themselves in this manner. Man as subject and object, must have the
ability to completely act with enough verbs and adverbs to describe the action and
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enough adjectives to use as tools in times of trouble.
The acquisition of language skills is thus primary to the process of human development
and health. Language is mathematical in that it is logical when spoken in truth with
love. Native Americans had a saying about the melanin deficient race, they speak
with forky tongue, and have a hard heart. The forky tongue "signifies a person who
says one thing and does another, or a liar, and the hard heart "means one who is
incapable of feeling, that is one who is out of touch with their inner being and their
own creative powers. A person in such a condition is driven to survive at the expense
of others. As a result these people tell and live lies in order to subdue other creative
people who have created things that allow them to live happy, fruitful, abundant,
harmonious lives. The forky tongued-hard hearted "person in their inability to create,
must thus steal, murder, pillage, rape and destroy, for they are incapable of creating
that with brings peace and the fulfillment of real needs.
The ability to speak a language (create sounds) is dependent upon a persons ability
to tune into self and speak from the heart, and not from memorizing words and their
meanings. The word language comes from landgauge "which is the ability to
accurately ascertain what one needs in terms of that which is provided by our land
(food, clothing, shelter, transportation, energy, communication and tools), in order to
carry on a work process. Language is thus logical, reasonable, truthful and loving and
without a language, it is impossible to discuss the past, plan for the future, or discuss
the present in a meaningful way except in fear-based emotional terms.
Music another sound produced by man has the quality of rhythm, which is also a quality
inherent in nature. The body harmonizes with music through dance or motion. Those
people who are incapable of maintaining harmony and rhythm with music are usually
the same people who are incapable of speaking a truthful language. They are also
incapable of harmonizing with the rhythm of nature and thus create destruction in terms
of air and water pollution, soil, erosion, ozone layer depletion, endangered species,
destruction of the rain forest and diseases and epidemics of various proportions.
The present society has been incapable of harmonizing with nature or people of other
cultures. As a result the plans, actions and outcomes of this society lead to the social
problems plaguing the world.
This is a brief introduction to the Nonviolent Clinical Process. It is printed
in its entirety in The Nonviolent Right To Vote Almanac, which is available
at lulu.com
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In educating young people on the basics of nonviolence, James Bevel constantly
emphasized that real learning begins within ones own being. Perspective on oneself
is essential to any meaningful liberation and that in turn affects others.
The first step is always dealing with yourself. We did not assume that segregation was
caused by white people. We assumed that segregation was the result of an illicit
relationship between us and white people. So we said, okay, the first person we have
to clear up is our self. If you call me a boy and I say yes sir, then Im a boy. So
Ive got to stop my boyism and my yes isrism, so that I can address you for being
a bully. So if I dont address me first, I dont have the means by which to address you.
Thats straight across the board. People say, go to the back of the bus, and we went;
so were crazy. So, we have to acknowledge that we are crazy. To go to a back door
because someone suggests it to you, means you are crazy. So, the first thing we do, is
stop being insane, because we have to confess first. Youve got to confess, then youve
got to repent. That is, the foolishness that you are doing, youve got to stop doing it.
We were holding up segregation. So we assumed that responsibility.
The next move was to say to the other guy, Look, what youve been telling us to do
is incorrect. We are no longer going to do that. We have corrected some things within
ourselves. We suggest that you correct some things within yourself. So, were going
to witness. Our witness will be in the form of sitting-in until you stop falsely defining
us and decide that we are not going along with your previous false definitions of us.
Now the advantage of that is simply this. If you get rid of being a cowardly black
boy/man, you can address a white mean bully, because you have some data that you
didnt have before. So you say, Look, we were wrong. I was a boy and you are a
bully. Now Im going to be a brother and youve got to be a brother. Now that I have
worked through my psychological disorders, and my fear, hostility and resentments, I
have some information that will help you work through yours.
So now you come to the guy with new data that comes from correcting yourself, and
that is what makes it work. If you dont come with this new data, you cant make it
work, because youre going to aggravate the person or confuse the situation. Its a
science.
Reverend James L. Bevel
This dialog was taken from an anonymous interview.
FROM BOSS/BOY TO BROTHER/SISTER
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THE TWELVE LAWS OF
NATURAL EDUCATION
True education is designed to facilitate a structure
for the orderly fulfillment of these basic laws.
INDEPENDENCE
1. To Be. To Know The Self. To Stand Alone.
Self-Knowledge
2. To Know Your Environment and its Resources
Self-Awareness
3. To Know The Laws, Limitations & Boundaries Of Your Environment
Self-Control
4. To Know Your Place In The Environment
Self-Acceptance
5. To Creatively Express Yourself In Your Environment
Self-Expression
6. To Be Of Service To Your Environment
Self-Responsibility
INTERDEPENDENCE
7. To Know Another/Others
Self-Love
8. To Join Resources, Gifts, Skills And Talents With Others
Self-Unification
9. To Create Laws of Exchange And Reciprocity With Others
Self-Liberation
10. To Create Institutions With Others
(Worship Center, Government, Industry/Business, Clinic, Home, School)
Self-Empowerment
11. To Creatively Express With Other Through Institutions
Self-Confidence
12. To Reap The Harvest, Truths, Fruits Of The Previous Cycle And
Prepare To Begin Again With Greater Wisdom And Understanding
Self-Regeneration
COPYRIGHT 2007 Myeka
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NONVIOLENCE
AS A CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE
The principles found in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) formulated by
Jesus the Christ guided the direction and decisions of the movement. Here is
an outline of these principles which have the power to transform unjust
American policy without the use of violence.
Matthew 5:11-12 Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you
and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be
glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets
who were before you.
Matthew 5:21-22 You have heard that it was said to the men of old, You
shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment. But I say to you
that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment;
whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says,
You fool! shall be liable to the hell of fire.
Matthew 5:38-39 You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a
tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, Do not resist one who is evil. But if any
one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also
Matthew 5:43-44 You have heard that it was said, You shall love your
neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies and
pray for those who persecute you
Matthew 6:14-15 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly
Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses,
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Matthew 7:3-5 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do
not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your
brother, Let me take the speck out of your eye, when there is the log in your
own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you
will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.
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THE NONVIOLENT COURT
The Nonviolent Court seeks to understand the cause of misconduct to
eliminate its effects.
Following are some of the tents of the Nonviolent Court:
s Recognizes two enemies of the state; ignorance and the illness it creates.
s Offers two solutions; education and healing.
s Seeks to restore those who break the law to a state of wholeness and peace
of mind.
s Seeks to restore those violated to a state of health (forgiveness and peace of
mind) and wholeness
s Operates from a holistic viewpoint in addressing any violent action or
violent human behavior
s Does not punish
s Recognizes that punishment causes people to lie and hide their error, thus
an understanding of the cause is unattainable
s Acknowledge that all people are born with a pure essence and that
environment, family, economic conditions, education or the lack thereof, and
institutions shape and condition individuals to engage in violations against
self and others
s Recognizes that violence is an illness that starts as a
psychological/emotional conflict in the mind
s Recommends mental and emotional remedies to deviant behavior
modification and elimination
s Recognizes that the violence that exists in individual is also in the society
s Recognizes that in order to end the problem of violent human behaviors,
the root must be eliminated. If the root is not addressed, then the problem
remains. The problem is not criminal, family, tribe or national or some other
form of social violence. The problem is human violence and human violence
means psychological and emotional violence (toxicity)
s Asks the questions: Is it possible to bring an end to psychological and
emotional violence?
s Recognizes that every form of violence whether it is the violence of war,
terrorism, murder, rape, anger, hatred, incest, or jealousy has a single root
cause and thus has a single solution
s Recognizes violence as a state of fragmentation, separation and division
s Recognizes psychological identification that consists of various thoughts
(culture, opinions, mental images, beliefs, rationalizations, judgment,
methods, plans, theories, conclusions, concepts and all that makes up the
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total conditioning of the mind) personal opinions, ideas that define and which
influence and direct the decisions you make are all past conditionings or the
playback of memory
s Recognizes emotional toxicity that fosters past conditioning as fear, anger,
hate, shame, blame, guilt, sadness, remorse, jealousy, lying, cunning, hurt,
selfishness, greed and envy
The Nonviolent Court thus seeks to view human violence and its
perpetrators in light of the societal conditioning and the elimination of toxic
emotions and psychological biases assisting individuals to connect with their
original essence.
As we raise our consciousness and activate our light body, we
realize we are our own creators made, or making ourselves,
in the image and similitude of the one Creator. Indeed, since
in a hologram the part contains the whole, we are the one
Creator. By learning this truly transformative lesson, we
return to unity consciousness while mastering physicality. In
other words, we achieve god-realization as the light of soul
descends into a divine or soul body healed of duality and
freed from the instructional cycle of karma.
Conscious Healing: Book One on the Regenetics Method , by Sol Luckman
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PRECINCT COUNCIL THE NEW FRONTIER
It is in fact truth that sets people free, and any lie not detected, error not corrected
and any liar not suspected are the enemies of truth, freedom and justice.
Any person asked how many branches of government we have, will respond
three, which is the patented lie. This is the lie that has kept the American people
enslaved to tyrants for two hundred years, victims of chattel slavery,
disenfranchisement, racial segregation, wage slavery and discrimination. These
irrational practices are possible and new and even worse social abuses will
manifest as long as the people believe that there are only three branches of
government.
Because of the nature of man as spirit, mind, emotion and body and the reality
of nature as space, energy, elements and motion, a just constitutional democratic
republic of necessity must have four active branches of government, the
legislative, the executive, the judicial and the people (precinct council) as a
organized force to present on a consistent bases, their legitimate needs,
problems, interest and will. As long as the people do not know or understand
themselves as the fourth branch of government, they will be a foolish crowd
that is polled, manipulated and intimidated into all kinds of irrational actions
that are against their health, interest, rights and needs.
Man (male/female) is a four dimensional being of spirit, mind, emotion and
body. The universe in which man lives is a four dimensional reality consisting
of space, energy, elements and motion. Therefore, in order for man to
comprehend their health, interest, rights and needs and to appropriate their gifts,
skills, talents and time to cooperate with each other in the enterprise of being
fruitful and multiplying, there has to be a four dimensional government system
that allows love, truth, equality, justice and other principles to be a functioning
administrative reality. It follows therefore, that a one, two or three dimensional
government cannot appropriately serve the needs of four dimensional beings
living in a four dimensional universal system.
The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s culminated in the 1965 Right to Vote
legislation. This legislation removed the last vestige of disenfranchisement from
every segment of the American community. While this legislation gave great
opportunity, it also has created a crisis that is even greater. By enfranchising
a large segment of the American community who do not have a theological or
constitutional base (manhood or nationhood consciousness), we have allowed
for the exercising of privileges without the responsibility for freedom. The
franchise in the hands of a people who have no theological, constitutional or
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industrial base is a danger to a constitutional democratic republic.
The disenfranchisement of one segment of the American community effectively
disenfranchises the whole community as it was prior to 1965. This
disenfranchisement blinds the total American community to manhood and
nationhood consciousness.
It allows the republican aspect of the government to develop while stifling the
democratic aspect. While representative government is doing very well, peoples
involvement in government is doing poorly.
It must be remembered that America is a constitutional democratic republic,
with a system of law that allows the people to lawfully govern their own affairs.
It is not, however, a system of law predicated on the assumption that the majority
rules, neither is it predicated on the assumption that the elected officials rule.
It is the law itself that establishes the rule.
Therefore, we have America, a constitutional democratic republic system of
law that allows people to govern their own affairs, however, it is a lack of the
peoples involvement that allows special interest groups to lobby and put undue
pressure on the elected officials without the counter balance of a process to
allow the people to keep continually before the law makers the constitutional
interests, rights, and needs of the people. The people pay taxes, vote, and
complain, but the people do not have a legitimate context or mechanism within
which to formulate their own authentic constitutional rights, interests, and needs
and subsequently to have these rights, interests and needs presented to the law
makers and law making bodies. In this sense, the democratic aspect of the
government is lacking. In order to address this need, we the people in order to
form a more perfect union shall organize precinct councils in every precinct in
order to address the questions, issues, problems and needs in each precinct and
collectively as precinct council governments present the formulated needs,
interests and problems to the appropriate law maker and lawmaking body for
appropriate action.
The basis for the precinct council is manhood and nationhood consciousness,
and the responsibility that derives there from. Manhood consciousness is
accepting the fact that man is created in the image and likeness of God. When
this fact is accepted and no one is related to on anything less than this fact, then
manhood consciousness evolves. This manhood consciousness leads to
nationhood consciousness, the fact that God created man for a purpose, and that
this purpose is attained and maintained under a system of constitutional law.
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From manhood and nationhood consciousness comes the responsibility to
legislate, adjudicate, execute and administrate our health, interests, rights and
needs by asking questions, getting answers, making decisions and doing work.
We then evaluate to determine whether the work done did in fact fulfill the
needs, foster the health, facilitate the interest and protect the rights of the people.
The precinct council being a constitutional democratic republican body is there
to address the problems, questions, issues and needs of the people.
Void of the science of self-government, no person or nation can have peace,
health, freedom or natural wealth.
Reverend James L. Bevel
If there is beauty in character, there will be harmony in
the home. If there is harmony in the home, there will be
order in the nation. If there is order in the nation, there
will be peace in the world.
Chinese proverb
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PRECINCT COUNCIL AN IDEA
WHOS TIME HAS COME
The founders of this nation having rejected every known assumption of false
authority, created a government based on the definition and purpose of man,
with the authority to govern and elect officials, exercised by the people. If we
accept the idea that freedom in the American context is an expanding and
extending phenomenon, then we can readily see how the precinct council is the
new frontier in the American Freedom Movement.
Our constitution is set-up on the principle of the definition and purpose of man.
However the government only works for those who come to understand their
definition and purpose as man. To better understand our constitution, it is
necessary to understand the theological pre-supposition upon which it rests.
That pre-supposition is And God said, let us make man (male-female) in our
image and after our likeness to have dominion over the earth.
It is this pre-supposition that produced the conclusion that we hold these truths
to be self-evident that all men are created equal.
In that all of us have the same responsibility "to be in the image and likeness
of God, and to exercise dominion over the earth," then all of us must have the
knowledge and context to collectively and cooperatively assume this
responsibility and exercise authority.
America is a constitutional democratic republic, a body of law that governs the
people and the state that is administered by the people themselves.
Therefore, when problems arise, the people must turn to themselves and the
laws that govern the state and themselves. The theological pre-supposition, the
constitutional proposition and come up with a solution that is in keeping with
the presupposition and the original constitutional proposition, that is just too
all citizens.
The precinct council with its major institutional committee, and its subsequent
minor committees, I the context, that puts government in the hands of everyone
who accepts and understands their definition and purpose as man. Learning the
definition of the church, government, industry/business, clinic, home and
school, and learning how to use each to address personal and problems and
ones health, interest, rights and needs and public problems, questions, issues
and needs is the knowledge that is necessary.
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The process can begin as soon as they decide that the context is workable and
that there are problems, questions, issues and needs that are unaddressed and
obviously must be addressed by themselves. The people will enter a prayer
study, work agreement in the precinct, which is the precinct council. The
precinct council is not political. It is governmental. That is, it does not exist
for any candidate or party, it exists as a precinct governmental mechanism to
solve problems, resolve issues, fulfill needs and answer questions, and to help
people address their health, interest, rights and needs at the precinct level.
The precinct council is a constitutional democratic, republican mechanism and
has a scientific body of knowledge that when known and correctly utilized,
heals and educates the citizens; stabilizes, brings prosperity and order to the
community.
The present conditions of the world demand that social living and self-
government be reduced to science and taught to all people as a right of life. so
that all living people can correctly assume responsibility for the definition and
purpose of man and participate in the science and business of democratic
government.
The American form of government takes into account three realities. 1. A
system of law that governs the health, interest, rights and needs of a person or
people. 2. The will and consciousness of a community in defining and thinking
through and acting on problems, questions, issues and needs, that affect the total
community. 3. A system of law that derives from persons and communities
that can be legislated, adjudicated, executed and administrated correctly and
justly that is known as the state.
Therefore, in order for a person or a people to grow based on the definition and
purpose of man, the person and people must scientifically understand the three
above realities. In order for science to be taught, there must be a correct theory,
a class context for thinking through and providing the logic of the theory, a
laboratory for testing proving, adjusting and application of the theory, and an
apprenticeship context where one can work and serve.
The present condition of the world is reflective of people seeking privileges,
advantages, success and survival while being ignorant of the scientific
knowledge of addressing their health, interest, rights and needs, and the issues,
problems, question and needs facing the community.
The precinct council is proposed as a laboratory context for learning and testing
the science of constitutional democratic republicanism. As the science is learned
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and applied, the precinct council will be the
self-governing context and mechanism
through which the legitimate health, interest,
rights and needs of the people are processed
into our city, county, state and national
legislative bodies, in order to circumvent the
present day interest groups from invalidating
and corrupting our legislative process with
anti-human, anti-community and anti-
national interest bills and legislation.
It will also be the mechanism by which the
individual citizen can be called to
accountability as well as the elected
legislative, judicial and executive officers in
all levels of government.
The precinct council will be a constitutional
democratic, republican. It will exist for the
sole purpose of helping the individual think
through their health, interest, rights and
needs, and help the people in the precinct to
discover, define, clarify and address lawfully
the problems, issues questions and needs of
the people as a whole in the precinct.
As the precinct council is initiated as a
volunteer act by people in the precinct, the
people who initiate such actions should
lobby to have the city council and the
congress to enact constitutional development legislation so as to aid in creating
a local and national consciousness of the need for precinct council, and to get
the necessary city, county, state and federal input in the venture of creating
precinct councils throughout our nation.
Because each person has six intuitive drives which are; principle, order, work,
health, life and knowledge, the precinct council should have six major
committees of (church, government, business, clinic, home and school), so that
any and all personal and social problems have a conscious constitutional context
in which to be discussed, clarified, appropriately defined or correctly worked
on within the committee of the precinct council.
As the precinct council
is initiated as a
volunteer act by people
in the precinct, the
people who initiate
such actions should
lobby to have the city
council and the
congress to enact
constitutional
development legislation
so as to aid in creating
a local and national
consciousness of the
need for precinct
council, and to get the
necessary city, county,
state and federal input
in the venture of
creating precinct
councils throughout
our nation.
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What then is a precinct council? The people in the precinct must work
collectively on their health, interest, rights and needs to address the problems,
issues, questions and needs facing their precinct and the broader community.
Why are precinct councils needed? To educate people to the science of
self-government. To provide the context and mechanism for self-government
at the smallest governmental unit in our social system. To provide the means
by which the citizen can hold themselves and their elected official accountable.
For if one has no way to hold self accountable, then one is not in a position to
hold others accountable.
The fact is that everyone with an unsolved personal or social problem lives in
a precinct. Because every citizen must be involved in solving problems for self
and community, and must serve the interest of his/her fellow citizens and the
nation. Because every junior high school, high school and college student needs
a defacto government laboratory to test, apply and prove the proficiency and
productivity of a constitutional democratic republic. Because self-government
must be practiced daily by all citizens if it is to survive. Because the mechanism
for massive creative constitutional volunteer ism is one of the greatest needs
facing our nation.
How will the precinct council work? The precinct council will work as a
democratic community, with six major committees that also work
democratically. Republican work is by majority rule and democratic work is
by consensus, so that all of the gifts, skills, talent and time of the members of
the body can work to fulfill needs and solve problems. In a democracy there
are not winners and losers, there is dialogue, discussion, education, research,
study and prayer, until the truth of a question, problem, issue or need is
understood by the group based on goodwill and truth, and collectively take
appropriate, agreed upon actions.
During the sixties the nonviolent principle was applied by people operating in
the capacity of the precinct council. The nonviolent principle and method is a
democratic process that relies totally on truth, knowledge, and reasoning. It
respects the inalienable right of man in deed as well as in creed. It was this
respecting man in deed as well as in creed that gave insight into the science of
government. Nonviolence allows a person to overcome the assumption of an
enemy, thus forcing one to identify, define and solve personal and social
problems from a spirit of love. In this the nonviolent movement and the precinct
council are alike.
The assumption that government derives its authority from the consent of the
governed, causes us the people. to defer our responsibility and authority to
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govern to elected officials. The definition of government does not allow its
authority to be derived from the consent of the people. Its authority is inherent
in the resumption of the science of human and community development and
this authority can never be transferred or deferred. There can never be a
substitute for people identifying social problems and out of love, volunteering
to address them on a daily basis. With this understanding, the question becomes
how? How do the citizens who agree to engage in the science of character and
community development go about their work in a national constitutional
democratic republic?
The precinct council is the self-directed, creative goodwill of the people.
Therefore the most important thing in self-government is truth and truthfulness.
When truth and truthfulness is not the bases of self-government, then harmony
and unity are lost.
The precinct council is based on the intrinsic value and innate worth of the
human being. Therefore, the precinct council cannot for any reason violate the
value or worth of any human being. The precinct council by respecting the
intrinsic value and innate worth of each person will work for the scientific
education, institutional sovereignty and economic independence of all citizens
in the precinct.
People will begin to ask for instructions on how to set-up a precinct council.
They will begin to ask for city guides, county guides, and state and federal
guides, because they are afraid to trust their own and neighbors ability to meet,
pray, think, plan and create. There are no guides for the precinct council, just
as there was no guide available for the founding fathers. They had to study,
think, pray and we to will have to study, think, pray and trust God.
As precincts begin to organize, they will be able to share knowledge, insights
and information for solving problems and all of us will grow anew. All of us
will lose the illusion that there is an oppressor, and we will begin to overcome
the crippling effects of the historical errors in thinking that government derives
its authority from the consent of the people. We will begin to understand that
we must take the imitative to call a precinct council meeting. That we must
begin new industrial initiatives, based on real needs. We will begin to see that
our business committee will need at least seven industrial development
committees (food production, tool making, construction, textile, energy,
communication and transportation). We will begin to stop thinking that
someone has more authority than ourselves. We will awaken to the reality that
we the people must organize the precinct council in order to create a more
perfect union. We will begin to see that without our precinct councils we can't
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hold ourselves or our public official accountable. We will begin anew to thank
God for our founding fathers that left us the precious gift of self-government.
Let us share our thoughts, efforts, misgivings, successes, setbacks and victories
in the months and years ahead, as we think through and create across America,
constitutional democratic precincts.
Reverend James L. Bevel
To the Negroes of the state (Mississippi) was issued a warning
that the Democrats were preparing, through means of the
constitutional convention, to shape the election law to their own
needs and then the policy of crushing out the manhood of
the Negro citizens was to be carried on to success.
J. S. McNeilly, "History of the Measures Submitted to the Committee on
Elective Franchise, Apportionment, and Elections in the Constitutional
Convention of 1890,in Mississippi Historical Society, Publications, VI
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October 16, 1995
MILLION MAN MARCH
"THE WORLD DAY OF ATONEMENT"
(AT ONE MENT),
THE 8 STEPS OF ATONEMENT
ONE: POINT OUT THE WRONG
If I have unknowingly wronged, or mistreated anyone , please bring it to
my attention. I am but a phone call away.
TWO: ACKNOWLEDGE THE WRONG
If I have wronged you and you point out my wrong , then I can and will
acknowledge it.
THREE: CONFESS THE FAULT
I will take ownership of it, making no excuses for it, confess it to my
Creator first, and then to you.
FOUR: REPENT
I will utilize everything in my power to repudiate that offensive act and
do it no more.
FIVE: ATONEMENT AND RECOMPENSE
I will make a sincere good faith gesture to make amends, and make
amends to you.
SIX: FORGIVENESS
I will ask forgiveness from my Creator first, then from you because by
offending you I have offended the Creator who's essence animates you.
Hopefully the Creator will put it in your heart to forgive myself.
SEVEN: RECONCILE AND RESTORE
At this point I pray that our relationship will be healed, as we move on in
a positive wholesome way.
EIGHT: A MORE PERFECT UNION
The atmosphere of love and goodwill, saturates our lives, laced with
compassion and empathy, and cemented with unity and solidarity
returns to then become contagious to the entire community.
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SIX PRINCIPLES OF NONVIOLENCE
Principle One: Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people
Nonviolence is an active force confronting evil.
It is aggressive spiritually, mentally and emotionally.
It is always persuading the opponent of the righteousness of a just cause.
It is only passive in its non-aggression toward its enemy.
Principle Two: Nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding
The end of nonviolence is redemption and reconciliation.
The purpose of nonviolence is the creation of The Beloved Community.
Principle Three: Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice not people
Nonviolence recognizes that the enemy is ignorance and illness.
The nonviolent resister seeks to defeat evil not people.
Principle Four: Nonviolence holds that suffering can educate and
transform
Nonviolence accepts suffering without retaliation.
Nonviolence accepts violence if necessary, but will never inflict it.
Nonviolence willingly accepts the consequences of its thoughts, words and
deeds.
Unearned suffering is redemptive and has tremendous education and
transforming power.
Suffering has the power to convert the enemy when reason fails.
Principle Five: Nonviolence chooses love instead of hate
Nonviolence repudiates violence of the spirit, tongue and body.
Nonviolent love is spontaneous, unmotivated, unselfish and creative.
Nonviolent love gives willingly, knowing that the return might be hostility.
Nonviolent love is active, not passive.
Nonviolent love is unending in its ability to forgive in order to restore
brotherhood/sisterhood and community.
Nonviolent love does not sink to the level of hate.
Love for the enemy is how we demonstrate love for ourselves.
Love restores community and brings justice.
Nonviolence recognizes the fact that all life is interrelated.
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Principle Six: Nonviolence believes that the universe is on the side of
justice
The nonviolent activist has deep faith that justice will eventually win
Nonviolence believes that justice is a universal principal.
THE EIGHT BEATITUDES
"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn,
for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure of heart,
for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
Gospel of St. Matthew 5:3-10
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BEVELIAN NONVIOLENCE
8 Step Process
1. Purification
Purge yourself of all ill intention and toxic emotions (anger, grief, hate,
sadness, embarrassment, a need to rush, etc.)
2. Observation/Recording
Access the situation. Determine what is a constitutional violation. Keep
records of when the violation took place and who was involved.
3. Investigation/Examination/Evaluation
Has a constitutional violation takes place? If so what is it? Do a test to
determine that the violation is real and to determine exactly who the
participate.
4. Recommendation
Clearly inform the violator/s of the violation and what must be done to end it
and make amends.
5. Education
Inform others of the violation, violators and recommendations offered.
6. Communication
Keep all avenues of communication open for asking and answering questions,
dialogue, brain storming and negotiations.
7. Demonstration/Confrontation
If the violation persists, demonstrate by operating as a free person. This may
entail letter writing, boycotts, mass gatherings, marches, sing-Ins, etc.
8. Reconciliation
When the violator/s end their violation/s enter a process of atonement and
forgive them, make peace and join together in a spirit of goodwill and love.
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