While celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) Day I think of all of those involved in the civil rights movement. I think of the young people of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the women who organized, protested, and taught, as well the children of the movement. What were the names and faces and contributions of the people who committed their lives to equality along with MLK? Though we celebrate this day as MLK Day; who made up the community that surrounded him? Who were the roots of the movement, and who helped carried out it’s mission day after day?
Many of us are familiar with MLK’s work, but less so with the people and entities that supported him.
Martin Luther King Jr.
MLK gives his world-renowned "I Have a Dream Speech" during the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, attended by hundreds of thousands of people and nationally televised.
Photo by David Erickson: Photo Source
Today my thoughts are on the community. MLK Day is indeed our opportunity to reflect on how everyone- all ages, backgrounds, abilities, orientations make our lives better. Or how varying parts of the community strive to make a difference. Perhaps as the adults in the lives of young people, in the coming weeks you could make time to speak to them about how they can contribute to and support social change.
As I sit and reflect on the life and legacy of MLK, I can’t help but think about the young people surrounding the movement. I began to think of my own children and the students I’ve had the immense privilege of working with over the years. One of my 14 year old daughters asked me just yesterday, “what are acts of service”? I explained to her that it's what she, alongside her sister, have done every year through volunteer work at the library, the mentorship programs, and most of all sharing their gift of music with their community. What stood out to me was that though my daughters participate in ‘acts of service’, they weren’t entirely aware that they were contributing to their community.
Acts of Service as a concept may not be in the forefront of young people’s minds but it is part of their daily lives. In fact, children and young adults were a vital part of the Civil Rights Movement and were architects in its design, for example, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC pronounced as snick).
SNCC
SNCC protestors kneeling outside of the segregated swimming pool in Cairo, Illinois in July 1962. John Lewis, a seminal figure in the civil rights movement, is pictured on the left.
Photo by Danny Lyon: Photo Source
The creation of this group stemmed from the 1960 Greensboro, NC sit-in where four black 18-year-old college students refused to leave the ‘whites-only’ restaurant counter, bringing young people into the civil rights movement. Another example of SNCC’s efforts included ‘freedom rides’ to combat Jim Crow laws that segregated blacks and whites in public spaces across the American South.
Ella Baker Circa 1944
Advised by one of the Civil Right’s Movement’s most prolific organizers Ella Baker, SNCC members were to practice the power of nonviolence to obtain equal rights, using the American constitution as a focal point to demand that its promises could be lived out by all it’s citizens.
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“The major job was getting people to understand that they had something within their power that they could use, and it could only be used if they understood what was happening and how group action could counter violence…”
Can Children Really Make a Difference?
As parents, educators, librarians, and community members, we as adults support our young people in countless ways. But today I am moved to ask, how can children support their communities? At every age, in our homes, apartments, on our blocks, in our school, shopping at grocery stores, waiting for buses, playing in the parks, and even voting together; we rely on the contributions of young people in many different ways. During the Civil Rights Movement there were young people such as Freeman A. Hrabowski, who at age 12 was inspired to march in the Birmingham Children’s Crusade of 1963 in support of integrating schools. Hrabowski was primarily interested in gaining access to more resources in the schools he attended. This drove him to join others in his community with a common goal. Throughout the remainder of his childhood and into adulthood, Hrabowski worked to support equality in education.
Freeman A. Hrabowski - Oral History Interview
Another example of children making a difference during the Civil Rights Movement was Marilyn Luper Hildreth, who at 8 years old attended an NAACP youth council meetings where they discussed and came up with plans to help in the movement. For example Marilyn suggested that she along with her mother Clara Luper, a very involved activist and supporter of the movement, sit in at their local drugstore. Hildreth’s plan was to sit there as long as it took to be served as a patron. The goal was to integrate the drugstore and change the laws that kept Black people out of White owned businesses. These acts done by people as young as 8 years old along with the adults in their community resulted in the desegregation of stores and eventually dismantled the institution of Jim Crow laws.
Marilyn Luper Hildreth - Oral History Interview
MLK day is an opportunity for educators to create moments in their lessons to encourage their students to reflect on how they can affect impactful change in their communities. Feel free to share this information about how young people contributed to one of the largest social justice movements of all time.
References:
Image: [Marchers with SCLC sign for the Savannah Freedom Now Movement, during the March on Washington, 1963] by Trikosko, Marion S.
SNCC: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. National American Museum of African American History & Culture.https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/sncc-student-nonviolent-coordinating- committee
Who was Ella Baker. Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.https://ellabakercenter.org/who-was-ella-baker/
Youth in the Civil Rights Movement. Library of Congress.https://www.loc.gov/collections/civil-rights-history- project/articles-and-essays/youth-in-the-civil-rights-movement/
Edited by: Helina Seyoum
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