The Civil Rights Movement for Kids

A History with 21 Activities

Mary C. Turck

• Publisher: Chicago Review Press
• Year: 2000
• eBook ISBN:
  9781613740514
• Edition: 1

Surprisingly, kids were some of the key instigators in the Civil Rights Movement, like Barbara Johns, who held a rally in her elementary school gym that eventually led to the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court school desegregation decision, and six-year-old Ruby Bridges, who was the first black student to desegregate elementary schools in New Orleans. In The Civil Rights Movement for Kids, children will discover how students and religious leaders worked together to demand the protection of civil rights for black Americans. They will relive the fear and uncertainty of Freedom Summer and learn how northern white college students helped bring national attention to atrocities committed in the name of segregation, and they'll be inspired by the speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, and Malcolm X. Activities include: reenacting a lunch counter sit-in; organizing a workshop on nonviolence; holding a freedom film festival followed by a discussion; and organizing a choral group to sing the songs that motivated the foot soldiers in this war for rights.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Time Line
• Introduction
• 1: Let the Children Lead Early Days, the 1950s
• 2: Tired of Being Mistreated Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955-56
• 3: Nonviolent Resistance Student Sit-Ins, 1960
• 4: “If Not Us, Then Who?” Freedom Riders, 1961
• 5: Standing Up for Freedom From Birmingham to Selma, 1963-1965
• 6: “I Have a Dream” March on Washington, 1963
• 7: “Praying with My Feet” Religion and Civil Rights
• 8: “You May Be Killed” Freedom Summer, 1964
• 9: The Struggle Continues Late 1960s, Keeping On
• 10: Keep Hope Alive Civil Rights Today
• Bibliography
• Index