Woman tells Y'town students of her march for civil rights as child in Ala.

YOUNGSTOWN

Janice Wesley Kelsey, who participated in the 1963 Children’s March in Birmingham, Ala., visited Youngstown City Schools on Wednesday to tell her story of segregation and striving for equality.

Kelsey in the 1960s was told she wasn’t being treated the same as white students at their all-white school and that she was getting a second-rate education. That’s all it took for her to agree to join the march.

“I felt like I was being mistreated and didn’t realize [it] until someone told me,” Kelsey said. “I didn’t like being judged by the color of my skin.”

The Children’s March was an effort to end segregation and promote equal rights. Part of joining the march included learning songs about freedom and making a commitment to nonviolence.

In May 1963, Kelsey was one of thousands of children who stepped out of the 16th Street Baptist Church and walked across the street to Kelly Ingram Park. More than 1,000 of the children, including Kelsey, were arrested and taken to jail. Kelsey was 16 in 1963.

The following day, Bull Connor, Birmingham’s director of public safety, called out policemen with dogs and firefighters with fire hoses to turn on the children.

Read more of the story in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.