Surprisingly, kids were some of the key instigators in the Civil Rights
Movement, like Barbara Johns, who held a rally in her elementary school
gym that eventually led to the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme
Court school desegregation decision, and six-year-old Ruby Bridges, who
was the first black student to desegregate elementary schools in New
Orleans. In The Civil Rights Movement for Kids, children will discover
how students and religious leaders worked together to demand the
protection of civil rights for black Americans. They will relive the
fear and uncertainty of Freedom Summer and learn how northern white
college students helped bring national attention to atrocities committed
in the name of segregation, and they'll be inspired by the speeches of
Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, and Malcolm X. Activities
include: reenacting a lunch counter sit-in; organizing a workshop on
nonviolence; holding a freedom film festival followed by a discussion;
and organizing a choral group to sing the songs that motivated the foot
soldiers in this war for rights.