We were saved for a purpose: To tell our story
In March 2025, Floyd Armstrong gave Kids in Birmingham 1963 an oral history interview about growing up in Birmingham, Alabama in “a civil rights family.” As the sons of a barber who was “committed to the struggle,” Floyd and his brother Dwight, as elementary school-age children, marched in the Birmingham Children’s Crusade and were jailed for several days in May 1963. That September, the Armstrong brothers were the first Blacks to integrate an all-white school in the city of Birmingham—Graymont Elementary School. They knew the civil rights leaders personally, including Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and the NAACP lawyers who prepared them for the challenges they faced at that school. Just a few days after their historic action, on September 15, 1963, Klan members bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, killing four young girls and sparking whites to murder two young African American boys. Floyd is certain, he says, that the violence was meant for his family, but that, “We were saved for a purpose: To tell our story.”
In this 37-minute recording, Floyd Armstrong covers these themes:
His childhood and the decision to be the first to break school desegregation in Birmingham, nine years after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling outlawed segregated schooling in the U.S. (at 00:28) – Floyd says it was a wonderful time growing up, despite it being “unsafe to be Black, especially if you were involved in the movement.” He describes his parents’ disagreement about whether to join the suit to attend Graymont School and neighborhood opposition to the idea; and speaks of the strain he and his brother faced each day, having to sit alone at an assigned lunch table and having teachers who didn’t care about their education. Though they were turned away the first day they tried to enroll, on September 9, 1963, the school was ordered to accept the brothers.
Marching in the Children’s Crusade and spending several days in juvenile jail. (at 12:21) – Over their mothers’ disagreement, Floyd (age 11) and his brother Dwight (age 9) marched in the Children’s Crusade of May 1963. Floyd speaks of the value of the Freedom songs and the joy the young people felt to be marching for freedom. Of Bull Connor, the city’s Commissioner of Public Safety, Floyd says, “I’ve never seen a meaner man.” The Armstrong boys spent “4 or 5 days” in a juvenile jail. He explains why he has “never hated white people.”
The opportunity to know Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. (at 18:00) – Floyd, whose father worked closely with Birmingham’s civil rights leader, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, says: “I will never see a braver man in my lifetime than Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. Never.” Floyd describes visiting the Shuttlesworth home after it was bombed and says that Shuttlesworth “had to push Dr. King” to get “more militant” for equal rights for Blacks in Birmingham. He speaks of what it was like to be close enough to see Rev. Shuttlesworth personally, and to have the pastor’s encouragement as Floyd and Dwight became the first Black students to desegregate a school in the Birmingham system. “We were always told we were making history.”
His father’s determination to win rights for Blacks. (at 25:07) – Floyd describes his father, James Armstrong, Sr., a barber, as “a tough task master” and also a man who was “deeply committed to the struggle.” He served in the military in World War II and then “came back to segregation.” He was turned away many times before he was finally allowed to register to vote. Floyd says his father’s thinking was, “I went to fight for this country, I’m going to enjoy some of the rights that I’ve earned.” Floyd isn’t sure he could have done that, saying, “…it just makes me feel proud that they loved this country more than this country loved them.”
More about marching in the Children’s Crusade. (at 29:45) – Floyd recounts seeing Bull Connor and dogs, but the fire hoses did not come out the day that he and his brother were arrested. The neighbors were opposed to their participating, “said we were stirring up trouble.”
How the “calling” to be a child activist shaped his life. (at 32:38) – Having recounted the hard experience of being jailed and the isolation of being only one of two young Blacks to integrate an all-white school, he reflects, “It was a calling. We were chosen.” They were “more equipped to handle that kind of abuse,” having been brought up in a civil rights family. “It changed me in the sense that it grounded me to principles this country stands for, that my faith stands for.” Thankful that friends and neighbors guarded the Armstrong family’s home against attack, Floyd says, “I’m not supposed to be here. We’re supposed to be dead.” He says, “We were saved for a purpose: To tell our story.” Floyd Armstrong says he hopes that someone might hear his message and what they went through and go out and register to vote, because, “Change is possible in this country…I’ve seen the change,” and, “If you know your history, then we’re not going to repeat that.”