Wednesday, January 24, 2007
The Civil Rights Movement Through Literature
As educators we introduce children to the leaders of the civil rights movement. And the civil rights movement was graced with extraordinary individuals who provided vision and inspiration. But it was also comprised of thousands of heroes whose names are largely unknown to history; people who stood for justice in countless ways as they went about their daily lives.
One way to broaden children’s awareness of this time in our history is to share stories that echo their own lives or the lives of those around them; stories about “everyday” people, even children.
The following are titles published within the last few years that tell the stories of courageous individuals who did not accept injustice. We have the following books in our library.
In A Sweet Smell of Roses, Angela Johnson writes about two young African American sisters who join a freedom march during the civil rights movement.
In Grandmama’s Pride by Becky Birtha, six-year-old Sarah Marie experiences segregation for the first time. Every summer, Mama, Sister, and Sarah Marie take the bus down south to visit Grandmama. The three of them sit in the back of the bus, because, as Mama says, it is the best seat. Later, on a walk into town, the girls don't drink from the water fountain because Grandmama says she'll make fresh lemon-mint iced tea when they get home. Throughout the summer, Aunt Maria teaches Sarah Marie how to read. Then Sarah Marie notices signs in town she hadn't been able to read before, like the one on a bathroom door that says "White Women" and another that says "Colored Women." Sarah Marie faces a hard realization about the segregated South of 1956. But in the fall she reads about events happening in places like Clinton, Tennessee, and Montgomery, Alabama. And by the next summer, when they go back to visit Grandmama, they all sit in the front of the bus.
In 1965, third-grader Sheyann Webb and her friend Rachel West help change America by singing and marching for civil rights with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Singing for Doctor King by Angela Shelf Medearis.
Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-ins by Carole Boston Weatherford tells of the 1960 civil rights sit-ins at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, as seen through the eyes of a young Southern black girl.
Jacqueline Woodson’s picture book The Other Side is set around the middle of the twentieth century, in a town where a fence marks the literal dividing line between black and white. African-American Clover watches with interest the young white girl, whose name turns out to be Annie, playing on the other side of the fence each day. Before long, the two girls are chatting through the fence, and soon sit on top of the fence side by side. Woodson’s story gives children an understanding of our society prior to the civil rights movement.
The School Is Not White! A True Story of the Civil Rights Movement by James Ransome tells the Carter family’s struggle to integrate an all-white school in Drew, Mississippi, in 1965.
Mississippi Morning by Ruth Vander Zee tells the story of a boy who discovers a shocking truth about his father. At the same time he becomes aware of the racial hatred that exists in his community.
A Bus of Her Own by Freddi Williams Evans is based on real events that took place in a rural community in Madison, Mississippi in 1949. A community of African-Americans joined together to buy a bus for their children to ride to get to school. At this time African Americans attended separate schools from whites and didn't have transportation to and from school.
When their school is burned to the ground, the people of Chicken Creek rebuild in Freedom School, Yes! by Amy Littlesugar. Freedom schools like this one helped African-Americans learn about people and places important to their heritage. In 1964, the Mississippi Summer Project brought 600 volunteers to the state of Mississippi to help black students at last learn about their own rich heritage.
These books could be read all year long to help children see how individuals can make differences in our world. I hope you will share these titles with your students. ¶ 11:53 AM
One way to broaden children’s awareness of this time in our history is to share stories that echo their own lives or the lives of those around them; stories about “everyday” people, even children.
The following are titles published within the last few years that tell the stories of courageous individuals who did not accept injustice. We have the following books in our library.
In A Sweet Smell of Roses, Angela Johnson writes about two young African American sisters who join a freedom march during the civil rights movement.
In Grandmama’s Pride by Becky Birtha, six-year-old Sarah Marie experiences segregation for the first time. Every summer, Mama, Sister, and Sarah Marie take the bus down south to visit Grandmama. The three of them sit in the back of the bus, because, as Mama says, it is the best seat. Later, on a walk into town, the girls don't drink from the water fountain because Grandmama says she'll make fresh lemon-mint iced tea when they get home. Throughout the summer, Aunt Maria teaches Sarah Marie how to read. Then Sarah Marie notices signs in town she hadn't been able to read before, like the one on a bathroom door that says "White Women" and another that says "Colored Women." Sarah Marie faces a hard realization about the segregated South of 1956. But in the fall she reads about events happening in places like Clinton, Tennessee, and Montgomery, Alabama. And by the next summer, when they go back to visit Grandmama, they all sit in the front of the bus.
In 1965, third-grader Sheyann Webb and her friend Rachel West help change America by singing and marching for civil rights with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Singing for Doctor King by Angela Shelf Medearis.
Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-ins by Carole Boston Weatherford tells of the 1960 civil rights sit-ins at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, as seen through the eyes of a young Southern black girl.
Jacqueline Woodson’s picture book The Other Side is set around the middle of the twentieth century, in a town where a fence marks the literal dividing line between black and white. African-American Clover watches with interest the young white girl, whose name turns out to be Annie, playing on the other side of the fence each day. Before long, the two girls are chatting through the fence, and soon sit on top of the fence side by side. Woodson’s story gives children an understanding of our society prior to the civil rights movement.
The School Is Not White! A True Story of the Civil Rights Movement by James Ransome tells the Carter family’s struggle to integrate an all-white school in Drew, Mississippi, in 1965.
Mississippi Morning by Ruth Vander Zee tells the story of a boy who discovers a shocking truth about his father. At the same time he becomes aware of the racial hatred that exists in his community.
A Bus of Her Own by Freddi Williams Evans is based on real events that took place in a rural community in Madison, Mississippi in 1949. A community of African-Americans joined together to buy a bus for their children to ride to get to school. At this time African Americans attended separate schools from whites and didn't have transportation to and from school.
When their school is burned to the ground, the people of Chicken Creek rebuild in Freedom School, Yes! by Amy Littlesugar. Freedom schools like this one helped African-Americans learn about people and places important to their heritage. In 1964, the Mississippi Summer Project brought 600 volunteers to the state of Mississippi to help black students at last learn about their own rich heritage.
These books could be read all year long to help children see how individuals can make differences in our world. I hope you will share these titles with your students. ¶ 11:53 AM
