An authoritative history of the overlooked youth activists that spearheaded the largest protests of the Civil Rights Movement and set the blueprint for future generations of activists to follow.
The largest civil rights demonstration in United States history was not the August 1963 "March on Washington," but the system-wide school boycott in New York City on February 3, 1964, when over 360,000 elementary and secondary school students went on strike and thousands attended Freedom Schools.
Some of the most iconic images of the Civil Rights Movement are those of young people engaged in social activism: the Little Rock Nine being escorted into Central High School in 1957 by soldiers--or children and teenagers being attacked in 1963 by police in Birmingham with dogs and water hoses. While the contributions of individuals like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or groups like the NAACP have been well documented, the significant and crucial roles of children and teens is rarely placed at the forefront.
The Young Crusaders tells the story of these unheralded young people who set the blueprint for today's youth activists and their campaigns to address poverty, joblessness, education inequality, racialized violence and discrimination. Properly recognizing their efforts will transform how we fundamentally understand the Civil Rights movement and the vital role the young have historically played in shepherding important social and educational progress to our society.
Autorentext
V. P. Franklin is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History and Education at the University of California, Riverside. He has served as the Editor of The Journal of African American History (2001-2018) and is the author of books including Living Our Stories, Telling Our Truths: Autobiography and the Making of the African American Intellectual Tradition, and co-author of My Soul Is a Witness: A Chronology of the Civil Rights Era, 1954-1965.
Inhalt
INTRODUCTION
Children and Teenagers: Foot Soldiers for Democracy
PART I: Freedom on Their Minds
CHAPTER 1
Youth and Civil Rights Activism Before the Brown Decision
CHAPTER 2
Grace Under Pressure: Children, Teenagers, and School Desegregation
CHAPTER 3
High School Students and Nonviolent Direct-Action Protests
CHAPTER 4
The Birmingham Children's Crusade and Southern Student Activism
PART II: The Quality Integrated Education Movement
CHAPTER 5
Freedom Day Boycotts: Chicago, Boston, and New York City
CHAPTER 6
Every Child a Freedom Soldier: Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Mississippi
PART III: From Civil Rights to Black Power
CHAPTER 7
Police Brutality, Black Self-Defense, and Student Activism
CHAPTER 8
Civil Rights, Black Power, and Increasing Youth Militancy
EPILOGUE
"Keep Stirring Up 'Good Trouble'"
Acknowledgments
Image Credits
Notes
Index