to be a slow start in birmingham, on april 12th, dr. king was arrested himself, and 50 others were arrested with him. dr. king was released by april 20th, by may 2nd, birmingham activists applied for a parade permit. the government said no. when may 2nd dawned, something happened in that city that day, it seems like the organizers did not expect. and nobody still can quite explain, which is that not only hundreds and thousands of people turn out to demonstrate in birmingham that day, permit or not. but thousands of the people who turned out that day were kids, children as young as 12, 10, 8 were out on the streets in huge numbers. and the police chief in birmingham at that time, when we talk about as a nation those scarring images of fire hoses and dogs being turned on peaceful protesters in the civil rights movement, it is not always remembered when we talk about those images to each other.