Teaching Our Children About Civil Rights

Photo courtesy of History.com

My kids play with anyone without question. No matter what color hair or skin; regardless of their parents’ preference to vaccinate or choice of religion or method of education. They don’t care. What they care about is that the kids they play with are friendly and inclusive and compassionate.

As I prepare my research for a forthcoming children’s nonfiction book about the Civil Rights Movement I am reminded that there was a time when it was commonplace to draw dividing lines based on skin color. When schools were segregated and children were limited to friends who looked the same.

We made so much progress. Sadly, too often, I find moments and news stories and interactions between educated adults indicating that we’ve somehow taken disturbing backward steps. Here are a few moments to remind us of the hard work, determination, and heartbreak that defined the Civil Rights Movement:

August 28, 1955 – Fourteen year old Emmett Till was murdered for whistling at a white woman.

December 1, 1955 – Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus because she felt she deserved a seat just like everyone else. This sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted for one year and ended in the desegregation of public transportation.

September 4, 1957 – Orval Faubus ordered National Guard troops to block the doors of Little Rock’s Central High School to prevent nine African American students from entering. President Eisenhower sent in Federal troops to escort the nine students into class on September 25^th. Unwilling to integrate, Governor Faubus closed the schools to everyone, whites included, for the 1958-59 school year.

May 1963 – Children of Birmingham, Alabama and surrounding communities marched in protest. Eugene “Bull” Connor ordered local police to bring out the police dogs and spray the protesters with high-powered hoses. Hundreds of children were arrested and held for a week.

August 28, 1963 – The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom brought nearly 300,000 blacks and whites together in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Martin Luther King delivers his famous “I Have A Dream” speech. One man roller skated all the way from Chicago.

September 15, 1963 – Birmingham’s 16^th Street Baptist Church is bombed by white supremacists, killing four young girls: Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Denise McNair.

I urge you to talk about these events and others like them with your children. Share with them the importance of civil rights, freedom, and kindness and compassion for everyone. Here are a few excellent children’s books about the Civil Rights Movement to share with your kids.