Student Engagement

Examine ways that teachers have engaged young people in a study of Civil Rights Movement history and making it relevant to their lives today.

Introduction

In every section of this book and website, we have shared stories about the role of young people in the Civil Rights Movement. Young people’s hope, persistence, tenacity, joy and unyielding belief in creating change centers the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power Movement, and contemporary fights for the eradication of endemic racism in the United States.

Lessons

Featured

The March on John Philip Sousa: A Social Action Project

Teaching Reflection by Elizabeth A. Davis
Students fight to save a historic D.C. school building that was part of the Brown v. Board of Education court case.

“Free Our Books” Say 4th Graders After Studying Representation and Book Bans

Teaching Story by Allison Acosta
As part of the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action at Inspired Teaching Demonstration PCS, 4th graders studied the importance of representation in books and the book bans that have been escalating throughout the country since 2021.

High School Students Lead Interactive Youth Justice Summit

Teaching Story by Erika Landberg and Vanessa Williams
The annual Youth Justice Summit at Capital City PCS in Washington, D.C. included six sessions of youth-led workshops on a variety of social justice topics including book banning, the impacts of gentrification, gun violence, disability and policing, and climate justice.

#LastWords

Lesson by Kimberly Spotts
Through poetry and images, students learn how words can be used as a way to reflect and inform others of issues of society and reflect on police brutality.

Marching for Civil Rights Today: A Collaborative Mural

Lesson by Patty Bode and Stephanie Schmidt
This mural making activity raises students' awareness of current civil rights issues and injustices helps them see the relevance and deeper understanding of the Civil Rights Movement.

High School Students Produce Award-Winning Film on Ella Baker

Teaching Reflection by Teaching for Change
Two St. Paul, Minnesota high school students — Siena Leone-Getten and Paying Lor — decided to learn more about this influential woman who remains so hidden in history.

Readings

Featured

Radical Equations: The Algebra Project Drawing on the Past: The Roots of Our Movement

Reading by Charles E. Cobb and Bob Moses
The Algebra Project draws on the organizing tradition of the Civil Rights Movement to help young people find their voice and achieve math literacy.

Seven Things We Learned from the D.C. Area Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action

Reading by Allison Acosta, Faye Colon, and Deborah Menkart
Over the last several years, we have seen the power of the Black Lives Matter Movement to raise awareness and discourse nationally about race and racism in the United States. Now we’ve seen the power these conversations can have in the classroom.

A Lasting Impression: Student Travel Study

Teaching Reflection by Colleen Bell and Susan Oppenheim
In 1963, 33 young African American girls were arrested during a civil rights protest in Americus, Georgia. The “Stolen Girls” were transported to and held in an abandoned Civil War-era prison for almost two months. This teaching reflection dramatizes what a group of middle schoolers and their teachers experienced when they traveled South to meet Carol Barner Seay and Sandra Mansfield, two of the Stolen Girls.

My Students Convinced Me to Let Go of Old School Teaching

Teaching Reflection by Susan Nail
A teacher reflects on incorporating primary documents and group work into her teaching.

Sisters in Arms

Reading by David Hill
Two teachers, Nadine and Patsy Cordova, came under fire for teaching truthfully in New Mexico about Mexican-American history.

Judge Carlton Reeves Offers a Lesson in History

Reading by Carlton Reeves
In February 2015, U.S. District Judge Carlton W. Reeves read a powerful statement to three young white men before sentencing them for the death of a 48-year-old Black man named James Craig Anderson in Jackson, Mississippi in 2011. He addressed the history of lynching, his vision for Mississippi, and questions of justice.

Cross Burning Threatens Black Sorority at Georgia Tech in 1985

Reading by Janine Gomez
A teacher shares memories of a cross burned on her sorority house lawn in college.

McComb Students Take Civil Rights Movement History Tour

Teaching Reflection by Teaching for Change
Mississippi students go on a Civil Rights Movement tour.

Marion Barry Shares Memories with High School Students

Interview by Telling Their Stories Oral History Archives Project This interview was conducted on March 24, 2011 by students from McComb High School and the Urban School of San Francisco as part of the Telling Their Stories Oral History Archives Project.