11 Resistance & Persistence: Student Action in the Civil Rights Movement
Karli Olsen
Introduction: Teaching Through Rather Than About
If the purpose of social studies education is to create socially conscious and politically engaged young people, our instruction in the classroom must show students how they can engage with the world on a local, national, and global level. The majority of our students cannot vote because of their age, and students lack engagement with our political and social institutions because of this and other factors. Therefore, it is incumbent upon educators to show students all of the levers of power that they can access to impact the social and political issues about which they are passionate. Teaching through Black history means showing students not only what happened in the civil rights movement, but showing students how it happened and how they, like the students in Birmingham Children’s Crusade of 1963, also have the power to create change.
Framework
LeGarret King’s (2020) framework of Black Historical Consciousness(pdf) invites us to consider teaching Black history with particular regard for the historical moments, movements, and events that are especially significant to Black people. King invites educators to consider the lens through which we teach Black history. Does our teaching center the voices and perspectives of Black people? Or are we teaching and studying history from a Eurocentric perspective? Whose voice is at the center of our teaching? Within King’s framework, this lesson is focused on three areas: Power, Oppression, & Racism; Black Agency, Resistance, and Perseverance; and Black Joy. With respect to Power, Oppression, and Racism, the videos used to introduce this unit and the Kelly Ingram Park virtual tour introduce students to the purpose of the fight for civil rights: What are foot soldiers and leaders of the civil rights movement fighting for (and against)? This lesson also demonstrates how existing power structures, such as the Public Safety Commissioner of Birmingham at the time, responded to action by Black leaders, students, and foot soldiers.
Black Agency, Resistance, and Perseverance is at the center of this unit. The virtual tour centers the agency and action of the foot soldiers of the movement, particularly the students and children who participated in the Children’s March of the Birmingham Campaign. It contextualizes their participation within the broader strategy of the movement and the outcome of their direct action.
Black Joy is present in the lesson through the first-person accounts from student foot soldiers and the use of protest music featured in the media (audio and video) used and performance tasks throughout. In the summative performance task, students will incorporate their knowledge of all three areas of Black Historical Consciousness to create an original protest song.
Pedagogical Applications
Students will use inquiry to analyze both primary and secondary sources to understand the critical role of foot soldiers, particularly students and children, in the civil rights Movement. Students will also analyze a current primary source on student activism and compare and contrast that with what they learn about student action during the Birmingham Campaign. (A present-day primary source is provided, but teachers are encouraged to find a source from their own school or community.) After analyzing a protest song from the civil rights era, students will create an original protest song for the 1963 Birmingham Campaign or a current issue of their choice.
Connections to Oregon State Social Science Standards:
- HS.10 Explain the roles and responsibilities of active members of a democracy and the role of individuals, social movements, and governments in various current events.
- HS.61 Analyze and explain persistent historical, social and political issues, conflicts and compromises in regards to power, inequality and justice and their connection to current events and movements.
| Essential Question |
How can people who cannot vote affect public policy? |
|---|---|
| Standards |
|
| Staging | |
| Supporting Question 1 |
How did students and children participate in the civil rights movement? |
| Formative Performance Task |
Students in the civil rights Movement: Kelly Ingram Park Virtual Tour |
| Featured Sources | Kelly Ingram Park Class Presentation Slides (pptx) |
| Supporting Question 2 |
How are students and children impacting public policy in our local community? |
| Formative Performance Task |
Student Protest in Our Community Discussion |
| Featured Sources | Student Protest Presentation Slides (pptx)
Article: Student-led protest takes on racism, police brutality (pdf) |
| Supporting Question 3 |
What obstacles do foot soldiers in social and political movements face? How do they respond to those obstacles? |
| Formative Performance Task |
Civil Rights Song Analysis |
| Featured Sources | |
| Summative Performance Task | |
| Potential Civic Engagement |
|
Lesson Narrative
Supporting Question 1 and the associated Formative Performance Task will provide students with historical context about the role of student foot soldiers in the civil rights Movement. It will use a guided virtual tour of Kelly Ingram Park that includes audio and photographic content as well as discussion questions.
Supporting Question 2 and the associated Formative Performance Task will introduce students to a current or recent student action. An example primary source and discussion questions are provided, but teachers should select a source that is local and relevant to their student population.
For Supporting Question 3 and the associated Formative Performance Task, students will analyze a protest song popular in the civil rights movement and connect it to their historical knowledge. Ultimately, students will write an original protest song for either the 1963 Children’s March or for a current issue of their choice, such as the one introduced in the second Formative Performance Task.
Overview and Description of the Essential Question
The essential question here is how can people who cannot vote affect public policy? This question is of particular relevance to our students. As they learn about the world in our classrooms, they often receive a perspective that does not engage their capacity for civic engagement. Much of their education about civics and about the civil rights movement is centered around voting. Nearly all of our students, however, cannot vote. Some of our students will never be able to due to their citizenship or other status. Teaching students about the impact of young people in the civil rights movement demonstrates directly to our students that they can impact the course of history regardless of their age or voter registration status.
This lesson is anticipated to take place over the course of two 90 minute class periods, with Supporting Questions 1 and 2 to be conducted in one session, followed by Supporting Question 3 and the Summative Performance Task in the second class session. Opportunities for civic engagement and extension would take place over subsequent class periods.
Staging the Question
Begin by asking students: who participated in the civil rights movement? Elicit student responses. Expect limited answers and mention of civil rights leaders such as The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks. This is consistent with the heroified (Loewen, 2018) version of history that pervades social studies education.
Introduce the concept of the foot soldiers of the movement. Foot soldiers, as defined by University of Georgia Foot Soldier Project for Civil Rights Studies, are those “whose names may not be familiar, but whose dedication to the cause of equality and civil rights formed the backbone of a movement that brought about sweeping changes in the nation’s history” (n.d., para. 2). Most participants in the civil rights movement were foot soldiers, not leaders.
Play the video from Atlanta History Center, The Children’s March: Birmingham Children’s Crusade (video). As you watch, ask students to think about the overarching essential question: How can people who cannot vote affect public policy?
Question 1: How did students and children participate in the civil rights movement? – Kelly Ingram Park Virtual Tour
Begin by watching the History Channels, Children’s Crusade of 1963 (video) embedded on slide 2 to show first-person accounts from student foot soldiers.
Orient students using the map on slide 3, which shows the location of Kelly Ingram Park and 16th Street Baptist Church relative to one another. Students will take a virtual tour of Kelly Ingram Park using the slides in Kelly Ingram Park Class Presentation Slides (pptx) In person, visitors are invited to dial in to learn more about the historical context behind each of the art installations, memorials, and statues featured in Kelly Ingram Park. The slides include links to these guided audio recordings, images of the statues in the park, and primary source images that inspired them. Ensure that students understand they are to listen to the recordings and examine the image before moving on to the discussion questions for that site. All images hyperlink to the original web location so students can interact with the images. Show how to use the hyperlinks and arrows to work their way to each slide and the associated discussion questions.
Students can work in groups, with a partner, or solo to navigate the virtual tour and answer the Kelly Ingram Park Class Questions (docx) document. Teachers may choose to have students write answers to the discussion questions, or simply discuss them in groups/with a partner.
Question 2: How are students and children impacting public policy in our local community? – News Article & Discussion
Introduce the second supporting question. Teachers should select a primary source, like the news article provided in the example, to show current or recent students engaging in direct action (protest, lobbying, etc.) to impact public policy. Examples should be local and relevant to the students in class. After reading an example like the newspaper article on Student-led protest takes on racism, police brutality (pdf), in the aftermath of George Floyed, the teacher should facilitate a discussion guided by the discussion questions provided on slide 3 of the Student Protest Presentation Slides (pptx). Think-Pair-Share in partners and small table groups is an effective structured student talk strategy for eliciting more student participation, but teachers should use their judgment and select a structured student talk strategy that is best for their students.
Question 3: What obstacles do foot soldiers in social and political movements face? How do they respond to those obstacles? – Song Lyrics Analysis
Introduce the song, Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around. The song is referenced in the video from the Staging the Question section of the lesson from The children’s march: Birmingham children’s crusade (video) . Provide students with a copy of the Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around (docx) lyrics sheet. Teachers may choose to support student learning using the video Sing With Us, The Children’s March: Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around (video) as background information about the song produced by the Atlanta History Center. This video also introduces some of the vocabulary terms in the song, which may be appropriate for students with limited English proficiency. As with many protest songs, multiple versions exist from a variety of sources. This particular example was selected for its length. While students work, it is suggested that you play the song for your class. Many free versions exist on Youtube, such Ain’ Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round (video) rendition by Sweet Honey in the Rock.
Students should connect the obstacles that seek to turn marchers around (segregation, Jim Crow, jail cell, etc.) referenced in the song to the historical knowledge they gained by watching the videos and in the Kelly Ingram Park Tour. Students should cite textual evidence from the song and from the sources presented in class. Students are asked to connect the lyrics to student participation in the civil rights movement as well as a current-day event, setting the stage for their summative performance task.
Summative Performance Task
For the summative performance task, use the Create a Protest Song (docx), students will apply their knowledge of the experiences of foot soldiers and/or their passion for a current civil rights issue to write an original protest song. Students are presented with two options, both of which connect to previous learning.
Option #1: Imagine you are a teenager who has decided to participate in the Children’s March in Birmingham, AL in 1963. You have been tasked with writing a protest song that will be sung as you march the streets of downtown Birmingham.
Option #2: Choose a current day civil rights issue. Imagine you are a teenager who has decided to participate in a Children’s March on that issue. You have been tasked with writing a protest song that will be sung as you march the streets of your local community.
Potential Civic Engagement
This lesson lends itself to multiple extension activities that demand civic engagement from our students. Students may:
- Organize a local Children’s March on an issue of their choice
- Teach their original protest song to other students
- Collect oral histories from family, peers, or those connected to the issue/action in Performance Task 2 (the article Conversations With The Past: Creating Oral History at Home Atlanta History Center provides a useful and adaptable framework)
- Explore oral histories from other collections
Conclusion
When creating opportunities for civic engagement among high school students, the possibilities are boundless. After completing this lesson sequence, students will walk away knowing that young people, like them, were integral to the success of the civil rights movement. This knowledge will, hopefully, inspire them to follow in the footsteps of student foot soldiers of the civil rights movement, propelling them toward a lifetime of civic engagement. By teaching through Black history, we imbue our students with the knowledge and tools to make change in their own community.
If you or your students are interested in historiography and developing their historical thinking skills, consider digging more deeply into oral histories. If your students are interested in a particular civil rights or public policy issue, consider allocating class time for them to organize a direct action campaign, such as letter writing, lobbying, or a nonviolent protest.
Image Attributions
American Society of Landscape Architects Alabama Chapter. (n.d.) Kelly Ingram Park. Alabama ASLA.https://web.archive.org/web/20221216203421/https://www.alabamaasla.com/portfolio_page/kelly-ingram-park/. All rights reserved.
Historic American Buildings Survey, C., Rayfield, W. A., Windham, T. C., Windham Brothers Construction Company, L. L. Samms And Sons Company, Shuttlesworth, F. L. […] Clark, S. C., Lowe, J. (1933). Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Sixth Avenue North, Birmingham, Jefferson County, AL. Alabama Birmingham Jefferson County, 1933. McPartland, M., trans Documentation Compiled After [Photograph]. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/al0966/. Public domain (CC0).
Historic American Buildings Survey, C., Rayfield, W. A., Windham, T. C., Windham Brothers Construction Company, L. L. Samms And Sons Company, Shuttlesworth, F. L. […] Clark, S. C., Lowe, J. (1933). Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Sixth Avenue North, Birmingham, Jefferson County, AL. Birmingham Jefferson County Alabama, 1933. McPartland, M., trans Documentation Compiled After [Photograph]. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/al0966/. Public domain (CC0).
Highsmith, C. M. (2010a). Kelly Ingram Park, Birmingham, Alabama. Alabama Birmingham United States, 2010. March 3 [Photograph]. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/2010636980/. Public domain (CC0).
Highsmith, C. M. (2010b). Sculpture dedicated to the foot soldiers of the Birmingham civil rights movement. Kelly Ingram Park, Birmingham, Alabama [Photograph]. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/2010636981/. Public domain (CC0).
Alabama Media Group (1963). Police dog attacking Walter Gadsden, a student at Parker High School, during a civil rights demonstration in downtown Birmingham, Alabama [Photograph]. Alabama Department of Archives and History. https://digital.archives.alabama.gov/digital/collection/amg/id/14478/rec/3. All rights reserved.
Highsmith, C. M. (2010c). Kelly Ingram Park, Birmingham, Alabama.highsm 05112 [Photograph]. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/resource/highsm.05112/?r=-0.919,-0.02,2.837,1.468,0
Highsmith, C. M. (2010d). Kelly Ingram Park, Birmingham, Alabama.highsm 05056 [Photograph]. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/resource/highsm.05056/
Alabama Media Group (1963). Civil rights demonstrators being arrested on 3rd Avenue North in downtown Birmingham, Alabama, during the Children’s Crusade [Photograph]. Alabama Department of Archives and History. https://digital.archives.alabama.gov/digital/collection/amg/id/206452/rec/16. All rights reserved.
Alabama Media Group (1963). Firemen spraying civil rights demonstrators with fire hoses in downtown Birmingham, Alabama [Photograph]. Alabama Department of Archives and History. https://digital.archives.alabama.gov/digital/collection/amg/id/14127/rec/5. All rights reserved.
Alabama Media Group (1963). Firemen spraying civil rights demonstrators with fire hoses in front of the Parkview Inn in downtown Birmingham, Alabama, during the Children’s Crusade [Photograph]. Alabama Department of Archives and History. https://digital.archives.alabama.gov/digital/collection/amg/id/206443/rec/6. All rights reserved.
Highsmith, C. M. (2010e). Kelly Ingram Park, Birmingham, Alabama.highsm 05108 [Photograph]. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/2010636978/
American Society of Landscape Architects Alabama Chapter. (n.d.) Kelly Ingram Park. Alabama ASLA. https://web.archive.org/web/20221216203421/https://www.alabamaasla.com/portfolio_page/kelly-ingram-park/. All rights reserved.
Self, T. (1963). Martin Luther King Jr., Fred Shuttlesworth, and Ralph Abernathy holding a press conference at the Gaston Motel in Birmingham, Alabama [Photograph]. Alabama Media Group. Alabama Department of Archives and History. https://digital.archives.alabama.gov/digital/collection/amg/id/16320/rec/2. All rights reserved.
Cogswell, R. (2019). ‘The Four Spirits’ (2013) by Elizabeth MacQueen — Kelly Ingram Park Birmingham (AL) [Photograph]. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/22711505@N05/33521568488/. CC BY 2.0.
Cogswell, R. (2019). The 16th Street Baptist Church and Elizabeth MacQueen’s ‘The Four Spirits’ (2013) — Birmingham (AL) [Photograph]. Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/22711505@N05/47344732962/. CC BY 2.0.
Larson, M. (2020, June 2). Protest organizer Cecilia Flores leads the crowd in cheers during a large Tuesday gathering outside the McMinnville police station. Flores and many other McMinnville High School students were in the crowd of hundreds [photograph]. News-Register.
Larson, M. (2020, June 2). Hundreds showed up for Tuesday’s Black Lives Matter protest, standing on the four corners of the Second and Adams intersection in McMinnville [photograph]. News-Register.
Larson, M. (2020, June 2). Stephanie Willis holds up a sign questioning those to [sic] respond to “Black Lives Matter” with “All Lives Matter” [photograph]. News-Register.
Larson, M. (2020, June 2). During the Tuesday protest, Lydia Doughty and Lexie McKinley each take a knee with the rest of the crowd in support of the BLM movement [photograph]. News-Register.
Larson, M. (2020, June 2). Protesters, including organizer Cecilia Flores, center, gathered in McMinnville on Tuesday afternoon [photograph]. News-Register.
References
Atlanta History Center. (2020, April 16). The children’s march: Birmingham children’s crusade (video). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zx8sUylO1c
Atlanta History Center. (2020, April 16). Sing With Us | The Children’s March: Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around (video). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtDxE_-LsT0
Atlanta History Center. (2020, May 31). Conversations With The Past: Creating Oral History at Home . https://www.atlantahistorycenter.com/blog conversations-with-the-past-creating-oral-history-at-home/.
Foot soldier project for civil rights studies. (n.d.). Commemorating the struggle for justice and freedom. https://footsoldier.uga.edu/
History. (2014, January 10). Children’s crusade of 1963 | American freedom stories | biography (video). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV0k-3Hkjsw
King, L. J. (2020). Black history is not American history: Toward a framework of Black historical consciousness. Social Education, 84(6), 335-341. https://www.socialstudies.org/sites/default/files/view-article-2020-12/se8406335.pdf
Loewen, J. W. (2018). Lies my teacher told me: Everything your American history textbook got wrong. The New Press.
National Park Service. (n.d.). Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument – Kelly Ingram Park. Greater Birmingham Tour. https://kellyingrampark.stqry.app/
Songs for Teaching. (n.d.). Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around. https://www.songsforteaching.com/folk/aintgonnaletnobodyturnmearound.php.
Sweet Honey in the Rock -Topic (2015, May 21). Ain’ Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round (video). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2wdkDaipNo
Totoian, D. (2020, June 5). Student-led protest takes on racism, police brutality. News-Register (McMinnville, OR).
