Survivors of Birmingham ‘Children’s Crusade’ thank FDNY officers

They were kids in Birmingham, Alabama, 60 years ago – getting hosed down by firefighters, attacked by police dogs and ultimately arrested and jailed during a historic march to protest segregation called the “Children’s Crusade.”

On Monday, four of the roughly 5,000 protesters, now elderly, will be in New York to thank officers of the FDNY for going against Birmingham city officials and its fire department for attacking its own citizens back in 1963.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James, City of New York Council President Adrienne Adams and FDNY Lt. James McCarthy of Uniformed Fire Officers Association will hold a press conference Monday at FDNY Engine Co. 1, Ladder 24, 142 West 31st Street at 2pm with the once-young protesters.

“The fire department’s role is to save life and protect life and property. not to infringe on people’s civil rights and their opinions,” McCarthy, president of the UFOA, told The Post Saturday.

“There was a proclamation at our monthly meeting back then and they voted to say the fire department should not be used in this manner.”

At the time, Birmingham officials ordered fire hoses and police dogs be turned on the elementary, middle and high school students who were marching for social change.

Boys’ shirts were ripped off, and young women were pushed over the tops of cars by the force of the water. When the students crouched or fell, the blasts of water rolled them down the asphalt streets and concrete sidewalks.

On May 2, 1963, when much of the country, especially the Deep South, was still segregated, hundreds of Birmingham children marched non-violently from the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church to downtown Birmingham.

The brutal response from white segregationists shocked the world, and galvanized support for passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

“It’s always been a proud moment for the union,” McCarthy said. “We have the proclamation framed in the president’s office. It was a time of great turmoil and there were mixed opinions but we had a strong opinion. It was about the union taking a stance and doing what was right.”