James Bevel, dead
Within a massive jabbing dump on the part of “revenire” in April, there was this:
i love the bevel stuff, sort of reminds of of the murder of martin luther king and how he was accused of having sex with women…
This was followed up immediately with:
lol, keep on trying jumper brigage
Which in the context of this weird ordeal meant a suggestion that I was slandering the good name of Lyndon Larouche with my “slandering” of the good name of James Bevel. (Or, as the case was, simply re-posting the news accounts of the testimony from his victims, and I suppose tying it to Bevel’s rationale for working with Larouche — eccentric ideas on education, apparently.)
His legacy in the civil rights movement was clouded when he was convicted in April by a Loudoun County, Va., judge for having sex more than a decade ago with one of his daughters, Aaralyn Mills, who was a teenager at the time. Prosecutors said the assault occurred in Loudoun County, when Bevel was working closely with the Virginia-based organization led by LaRouche.
The four-day trial divided members of Bevel’s large family, with relatives testifying for both the prosecution and defense. He was sentenced in October.
At that time, prosecutors revealed at least four other daughters had made similar allegations against him. The victims hoped for an apology and some reconciliation, but Bevel mocked the notion of an apology.
But his reputation is probably by then a little tainted, or at the very least has a bit of a bifrocation in terms of “before” and “after”, by dent of moving from associating with Martin Luther King, Jr to associating with Lyndon Larouche, Jr. — the 1992 vice presidential candidate, in fact. Incidentally, I may as well address revenire’s cries months after the fact (at the time, I was diverted in pondering the meaning of “I eat this blog for breakfast.”) Allegations of infidelity on the part of Martin Luther King, Jr. with consenting women don’t much concern me and transplant me to 1960s America and I’d let them remain the province of Jay Edgar Hoover. James Bevel and his incestual relations are a rather more serious infraction — in his case, done in the context of a supposed family “educational” program. Ironically the biggest crusade, on behalf of “the children”, during his time in the orbit of Larouche was “exposing the Franklin cover-up”, or better to say perpetuating a hoax — supposedly a massive Republican child molestation ring based which stretched all the way to the White House — a conspiracy which had renewed circulation when the former Nebraska state Senator, collaberating with Bevel in this conspiracy theory, stretched the story of white house “correspondent” and at times male prostitute/porn star Jeff Gannon  back to the first Bush White House as a member of this pedophile ring (skip to “update 3/26/05). It makes total sense? I guess these things tapping into the conspiracy well of people who want to believe, people who want to believe the worst about presidents named George Bush on one hand and people who want to believe the worst about causes of homosexuality on the other hand — and most importantly people who want to find secret orders in the workings of the universe in connecting “forgotten” or “hidden” histories beyond all sane comprehension. (Or, better still, fitting into this hypothesis.)
But these matters bring one part of his civil rights’ work in either stark relief or with an item of moral ambiguity — and in light of subsequent events, puts a rather bleak light on how he thought about these matters. The “Children’s Crusade”, which is characterized in the comments section here:
I remember when Bevel put the children in the civil rights protests; he drew strong criticism for it. No one thought it wise to put the children in danger like that, and they were right, as history shows us.Bevel knew it would not matter to Bull Conner that the children were there, and THAT is what got the world’s attention! I guess it’s true that it takes one to know one.
So Bull Connor brings out his fire hose and moes down the children. Public opinion turns a few screws more. And … you have a bunch of physically pelted children. At the hands of Bull Connor. But they put there by Bevel’s strategizing. Actually, I wonder if it would have worked best to cap the affair at high school students, who have a reasonable independence compared to elementary school aged to know what they’re getting into there. Bull Connor’s faux “Law and Order” is exposed still. Malcom X’s complaint “Real men don’t put their children on the firing line†is lessened. Kennedy’s hand remains forced. Well, it’s a thought anyway.
Unrelated, but I have to slide it somewhere: frequent candidate for crap Gerald Pechenuk pokes his head up here regarding a trajectory I wondered when someone would get to from Blagojevich in the realm of Illinois politics — in this case from John Schrag.
December 24th, 2008 at 9:29 am
The whole Bevel story is very, very sad–sad to see someone who started out with MLK winding up as an incestuous pedophile. What happened to his daughter (whom I knew) was a terrible tragedy. She was and I’m sure still is a great person.
Contemptible in all this is the LaRouche org’s reactions–from ignoring it, to claiming that it was a hoked-up charge designed to make LaRouche look bad (can you imagine?)–to making “jumper brigade” jokes (yawn).
The bottom line is that in Bevel’s obituaries no one’s saying “LaRouche allied himself with this weirdo,” but everyone’s saying in the obituaries that “Bevel allied himself with a weirdo”–or succession of weirdos. But LHL always get prominent mention.
Honestly, what a national ticket they made–LaRouche in prison at the time for tax fraud and mail fraud/loan fraud, and Bevel engaging in sexual molestation of his own underage child or children.
In his ramblings on law, trials, and convictions, LaRouche always used to protest the notion of a mens rea–the notion of the criminal mind. But by Jove, Lyn’s mind is among the most criminal I’ve seen.
On a lighter note: Factnet is back up!! For all you indefatigable readers.
December 29th, 2008 at 9:24 am
I’ve had half an eye out seeing if anyone anywhere at all delves even slightly into his Larouche career to the point of pointing to the “Franklin Cover-Up”. Here it is:
http://jeffellis.typepad.com/its_impossible_to_start_a/2008/12/some-thoughts-inspired-by-the-passing-of-the-rev-james-bevel.html
When you work to the fringe and you die the fringe part of your career isn’t much covered.
December 29th, 2008 at 11:11 am
The Franklin Cover-Up was one of the most scurrilous campaigns the LaRouchies ever ran–it involved the Rev Bev, as we used to call him, deploying himself to Omaha or Lincoln or somewhere in Nebraska to make a huge fuss about pederasty and Satanic child abuse and ritual murder, etc., based on the claims of a guy supposedly suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder and doing jail time (a guy named Paul Bonacci).
The Franklin Cover-Up book was written by a former Nebraska State Senator named John DeCamp, with tons of assistance from the LaRouche org. It’s crazy stuff, notable for its insistence that George H.W. Bush was involved in a child sex ring in Nebraska while he was President.
Anyhow, Bevel went to spearhead the campaign against Satanic child abuse (irony there, for sure), and took with him a female member of the org in Leesburg, whose name I’m not giving to save her from embarrassment. Those who remember remember. She left her husband and child behind in L-burg to hare off to Nebraska with the Rev Bev.
Who knows what went on there, but eventually she came back. So did Bevel. The Franklin scandal campaign was over.
The woman in question then turned her attention to becoming, as she claimed, a liaison between LaRouche and the Vatican. However, in NEC and NC meetings, LaRouche made brutal fun of her and her claims.
Life in the Labor Committee was always idyllic, yessiree.
Bevel wandered off to hook up with Farrakhan.