A Drop of Midnight: A Memoir

by Jason Timbuktu Diakité

Sunday, May 5, 1963, was the last day in the series of demonstrations by children against racism and segregation in these very neighborhoods in downtown Birmingham. The first day, hundreds of children were arrested. The prison cells were filled with children, from first graders to high school students. On the second day, the demonstrators—children—were bruised by water cannons and attacked by angry police dogs. But that didn’t scare off the demonstrators, whose marches became known as the Children’s Crusade. Children continued to demonstrate the next day. On the fourth day, the march led to the prison where all the children who had been previously arrested were being held. Only then did the local politicians agree to sit down at the negotiating table, and a few days later, they reached an agreement stating that the city’s public transportation would not be segregated by race, and that the imprisoned children would be released. The protesters, however, ended up expelled from school. The courage shown by Birmingham’s children gave the civil rights movement national support and international attention. Just as I helped myself to the last bite of deep-fried cutlet and gulped down the last drops of bottomless iced tea, one of the older white men bends down toward a black boy sitting in a high chair at what looks like the grandparents’ table. “You’re a beautiful little boy, aren’t you? Yes, you are. He’s a precious one.” He beams at an older black woman who was certainly in elem...