Civil Rights Movement for Kids: A History with 21 Activities
Acknowledgments I would like to acknowledge a few of the important people in my life whose influence inspiration advice and questions have made this a better book Thanks first of all to Howard and Millie Turck my parents and to Chuck and Helen Henrie my uncle and aunt whose examples and words taught me early in life to value diversity and to work for justice Thanks to my husband Ron Salzberger and to my children Molly and Macy for their patience with the need to sometimes subordinate family schedules to the demands of deadlines Thanks to Cynthia Sherry and Lisa Rosenthal whose editing has made this a far better book Thanks also to my agent Jeanne Hanson who first suggested that I write this book and then shepherded the book proposal through the acceptance process Finally I wish to acknowledge my great debt to those people active in the Civil Rights Movement who made this book both possible and necessary and especially to the often unsung heroes and martyrs including Daisy Bates Septima Clark Ver non Dahmer Fannie Lou Hamer Jimmy Lee Jackson Barbara Johns Viola Liuzzo Chuck McDew Diane Nash Annell Ponder C T Vivian and many others far too numerous to list
Time Line Barb Toe Johns speaks l School President Kerry asking for goal ints at one education 1948 1951 1954 1955 1956 1957 1959 Rosa Park sys as to refuses to houses and by give up her career of the Supreme Court In recent the bus Act of Bloody Sunday becomes tegration assassinated tunteered Summer educed from time and water alerts BCS Registrations ontgomery Freedo des In 1960196119621963 1964 1965 1966 1968 Ray Bridges ensive that esty elementary Burningham assassinated the Kre Later dies it It roles in assassinated career with Michael essassinated iteis esseeinmates Voting High banking four teaceticict of 1965 girls Forty pers to Generation becomes less COile war wly under Student sit is begin at sessinated Medgar Everstr Kartin assassinated Luther King miss the
Introduction The struggle for civil rights for African Americans exploded dra matically in the 1960s As black children in the south faced hos tile white mobs to enroll in school the nation watched their bravery on the evening news Television showed fire hoses turned on nonviolent demonstrators police dogs tearing at human flesh churches bombed and children killed as the strug gle between racism and resistance engulfed the country The quiet heroism of black men women and children inspired those who watched from a distance Soon many young people and some who were older streamed south to join in the civil rights struggle The southern Civil Rights Movement recognized its greatest leader in the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr Like many move ment leaders he based his commitment on his deep Christian faith In a brilliant synthesis Reverend King combined the non violent resistance tactics of Mahatma Gandhi with the prophetic Jewish cry for justice of Rabbi Abraham Heschel and his own Christian preaching on love of enemies Even when he was beaten and jailed his family threatened his home bombed Rev erend King refused to respond with violence or hatred By the thousands people followed his example and committed their lives to a nonviolent loving struggle for justice Black and white Christian and Jewish they found common ground in the Civil Rights Movement High school and college students of all races traveled south as Freedom Riders peacefully violating law and custom as they rode side by side in the back and the front of Greyhound buses Daring young people led the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee SNCC in organizing and teaching in freedom schools in lunch counter sit ins and in voter registration
Daring young people led the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee SNCC in organizing and teaching in freedom schools in lunch counter sit ins and in voter registration drives And then the struggle moved north In northern cities like Chicago and Milwaukee white mobs screamed spit and threw rocks at peaceful marchers who sought to integrate all white neighborhoods Although Chicago had no laws separating white from black children in schools residential housing segregation kept black and white families and children apart as effectively as the segregation laws of Mississippi and Alabama This movement is not a part of history but a part of present day political reality In this book children will revisit the early days of the Civil Rights Movement Each chapter includes profiles of civil rights leaders These profiles introduce significant women leaders like Septima Clark and Diane Nash as well as famous men of the movement Each chapter also provides activities for children Activities range from a Freedom Feast to a one act play recreat ing a lunch counter sit in Chapter One Let the Children Lead describes segregation in the United States before the Civil Rights Movement This chapter highlights the early struggle for integrated schools and introduces heroes of the movement beginning with teenage Bar bara Johns and six year old Ruby Bridges Chapter Two Tired of Being Mistreated introduces Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr The exciting success of the 1955 1956 Montgomery Bus Boycott demonstrates the success of united action and the early stages of a public mass movement In Chapter Three Nonviolent Resistance Student Sit ins 1960 young people again take center stage as they stage dra matic nonviolent protests that capture the attention of the entire
