During the 2021-2022 academic year, we collaborated with the 6^th grade social studies teacher at the i3 Academy in Birmingham, Alabama to thematically teach African Americans’ struggles for civil rights. To accomplish this, we selected trade books to highlight key individuals and groups of people who influenced the fight for civil rights from Reconstruction through the 1960s. For this newsletter, we are highlighting a one-week project exploring the Birmingham Children’s Crusade. This one-week project used the picture book Let the Children March (Clark-Robinson & Morrison, 2018). For the students at the I3 Academy, the Children’s Crusade is local history.

Unfortunately, local history is often overlooked and relegated to the sidelines of history education (Clarke & Lee, 2004). Whether one lives in a place where significant events in U.S. history frequently occurred (e.g. Washington, D.C. or New York) or in a community where seemingly little has transpired (e.g. suburbs throughout the nation), there are actually numerous opportunities to examine how U.S. history has impacted those living in the community (Marino, 2014). In exploring their local history, students are provided an opportunity to connect their experiences and community with the larger historical narrative (Clarke & Lee, 2004). Local history projects also provide opportunities to actively engage students in authentic historical inquiry (Bischof, 2015). Ultimately, finding opportunities to include local history within the larger U.S. history curriculum provides the teacher a way to help students connect with the past and to see themselves in the curriculum.

For the 6^th grade students at the i3 Academy, the Birmingham Children’s Crusade, which occurred in the early May of 1963, is local history. In fact, some of the students’ grandparents participated in the 1963 march. As we have mentioned in previous newsletters, more than 90% of the students at the i3 Academy this past academic year are African Americans. The story of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade offered a unique opportunity to personalize the study of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Not only is this a local history story, describing places that are familiar to the students, but it is also a story about people like them, African American children living in Birmingham, Alabama.

The project began with students reading an oral history by Melvin Todd to contextualize the racial discrimination found in Birmingham during the 1960s from Kids in Birmingham 1963 website (Kids in Birmingham 1963, 2022). Following their reading of Mr. Todd’s story, the students participated in a virtual interaction with him using Zoom to discuss the racial discrimination he encountered. The teacher followed this interaction with a read aloud of the trade book Let the Children March (Clark-Robinson & Morrison, 2018), which provides a solid overview of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade. A second reading of this trade book was done for students to explore the content in more depth. The teacher asked some analysis prompts during this second reading of the trade book. The following are some of the analysis prompts that the teacher used.

1. Why were the parents hesitant to march? Use evidence from the trade book to support your arguments.

2. Why did the children volunteer to participate in the march? Use evidence from the trade book to support your arguments.

3. How did the actions of the children that participated in the Children’s March cause change in Birmingham? Use evidence from the trade book to support your arguments.

These analysis prompts allowed students to deconstruct content about the Birmingham Children’s Crusade addressed in the trade book.

            The one-week project on the Birmingham Children’s Crusade closed by students creating their own protest poster to support those that participated in this seminal event with Birmingham’s civil rights history. It was arranged for Mrs. Janice Kelsey, a participant of the  Birmingham Children’s Crusade, to be present to help the students as they created their protest poster. Mrs. Kelsey provided the students with first-hand knowledge of her experiences participating in the Birmingham Children’s Crusade. The students were highly engaged in their conversations with Mrs. Kelsey and demonstrated their content knowledge about issues discussed in this one-week project about the Birmingham Children’s Crusade (Image 1).

            The students’ protest posters offer a window into how they saw both the Birmingham Children’s Crusade, and in some cases, the racially charged realities of life in today’s U.S. The two posters we highlight in this newsletter both focus on the events of 1963, but they do so in two different ways. The first (See image 2) is a drawing of seven African American students with the following slogan “When the leaders act like kids, the kids act like the leaders.” This slogan does not appear anywhere in the picture book. That said, the student beautifully captured the big idea of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade, the children of Birmingham were the leaders in May 1963, fighting against the “childish” ideas of the city’s white leaders (e.g. Bull Connor). The second poster does not include a drawing (See Image 3). However, its slogans, “2, 4, 6, 8 we need to integrate” and “Bring your toothbrush” are poignant. Neither slogan appears in the picture book. However, the call to integrate mimics the segregationists’ often chanted call to stop school integration (National Park Service, 2022). The slogan reminding marchers to bring their toothbrushes, as they are likely to spend the night in jail, was shared by African American DJs in the days leading to this march (National Public Radio, 2013). Again, neither of the second poster’s slogans were in the book; however, they are clearly aligned with the events of the 1950s and 1960s struggle for civil rights. This suggests that the student had a firm grip on the events of the era, as evidenced by the blending of slogans found in other sources. Yet, when the slogans are put together, they perfectly capture the ideas of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade.

NCSS (2013a) argues that students need learning experiences that equip them with the knowledge and skills to be actively engaged democratic citizens that work to address issues in their communities. This one-week project allowed students to see what Dimension 4 of the C3 Framework looks like by examining how African American children in Birmingham took civic action in 1963 to confront racial discrimination in this city that led to change throughout the United States (NCSS, 2013b).  Learning about such events, especially when they involve children who look like them and live in the same area, allows students to realize that they, too, have agency. In a democratic republic, citizens are change agents in their local community, state, nation, and world.

References

Bischof, L. (2015). The lens of the local: Teaching an appreciation of the past through

exploration of local sites, landmarks, and hidden histories. The History Teacher, 48(3), 529-559.

Clarke, W.G., & Lee, J.K. (2004). The promise of digital history in the teaching of local history.

 The Clearing House, 78(2), 84-87.

Clark-Robinson, M., & Morrison, F. (2018). Let the children march. Clarion Books.

Kids in Birmingham 1963. (2022). Melvin Todd.

            https://kidsinbirmingham1963.org/category/melvin- todd/?doing_wp_cron=1658948617.9591469764709472656250

Marino, M.P. (2014). Looking for history in “boring” places: Suburban communities and American life. The History Teacher, 47(4), 489-509.

NCSS. (2013a). Revitalizing civic learning in our schools.

https://www.socialstudies.org/position-statements/revitalizing-civic-learning-our-schools

NCSS. (2013b). The College, Career, and Civic Life Framework for Social Studies State

Standards: Guidance for enhancing the rigor of K-12 civics, economics, geography, and history. Author.

National Park Service. (2022, January 24). Little Rock Central High School: Crisis timeline.

https://www.nps.gov/chsc/learn/historyculture/timeline.htm.

National Public Radio. (2013, June 21). Shake, rattle, and rally: Code songs spurred activism in Birmingham. https://www.npr.org/2013/06/21/194238559/shake-rattle-and-rally-code-songs-spurred-activism-in-birmingham