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THE CHAMPION, THURSDAY, JANUARY 10 -16, 2019
Children became an integral group of the human rights movement when the Children's Crusade began on May 2. The plan was for
college and high school students to demonstrate but many came with their younger brothers and sisters. Civil rights leaders disagreed
whether to use students as part of the movement but public perception changed after photographs showed the children being arrested,
sprayed by fire hoses, dodging K-9 units. Here a police officer takes away protest signs. Moments later firemen hosed demonstrators.
1963. Ed Jones, photographer.
Librarian Mickey Harvey, who selected photos for the collection, stands beside her personal A1963 photo from what was called The Children’s Crusade in Birmingham shows a law enforcement officer taking protest
favorite Standing Up for Change—African-American Women in the Civil Rights Movement. signs from young marchers.
Exhibit highlights youth participation
in Civil Rights Movement
BY KATHY MITCHELL
Mickey Harvey, the children’s
librarian at Stonecrest Library,
decided to pull together an exhibit
of photographs from the Civil
Rights Movement to give young
visitors to the library visuals to help
them understand events pivotal to
American history.
“There were so many great
photos that I had to decide how
to choose a manageable number,”
Harvey recalled. “I noticed that
many of the photos had children,
teens and young adults who
participated in meetings, marches
and protests. I decided it might be
especially interesting to those bom
many years after the photos were
taken to see how young some of the
participants were in the early days
of the movement.”
Harvey selected 26 images,
secured permission to display them,
framed them and hung them on the
walls surrounding the children’s
section of the library. While
historians and other observers may
not agree on which years comprise
the Civil Rights Movement, it often
is a reference to the mobilization in
the 1950s and ‘60s of Americans—
Black Americans, especially—in
opposition to discrimination
that continued against African
Americans almost 100 years after
the abolition of slavery. The images
for the Stonecrest collection are
primarily from this period.
“It’s surprising how
contemporary these photos feel
even though they are 50 or 60 years
old. One young person commented
on a photo of a young Black man
being subdued by a White police
officer that it looked like it might
have been from the Black Lives
Matter movement,” Harvey said.
The librarian said her personal
favorite among the photos was
one captioned Standing Up for
Change—African American Women
in the Civil Rights Movement. “I
take nothing away from Dr. Martin
Luther King and the other men
who were leaders in the movement,
but it was a very patriarchal time.
Women were seldom given credit
for their courage and participation.
In this picture you see women and
young girls. They were beaten,
hosed, jailed—even killed—right
along with the adult men. That
should be recognized,” she added.
“In many cases, students and
other young people did what their
parents couldn’t do,” Harvey
continued. “Older Black people
knew they would lose their jobs and
other things they needed to survive
if they participated in marches and
demonstrations. So often it was
young people who took that role.”
Images in the collection include
children in the 1965 Selma to
Montgomery Voters Rights March,
an event called The Children’s
Crusade in Birmingham, a lunch
counter demonstration in North
Carolina, young marchers on
the grounds of the Washington
Monument and a group gathered
outside the funeral of the girls
killed in the 1962 bombing of
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in
Birmingham.
Although the exhibit opened Jan.
2, Harvey said she has already seen
a lot of interest in it. “A woman
brought her grandchild to get a
library card and I invited her to
view the exhibit. The grandmother
started crying. She said the photos
brought back so many memories for
her.”
Children—the target audience
for the exhibit—are generations
removed from the events captured
in the photos, and Harvey said she
hopes parents and grandparents will
start a discussion with them about
what went on during that period.
She added that she made sure
children’s books on the Civil Rights
Movement and related topics are
available for youngsters to check
out and leam more about that aspect
of history. Among the selections
is Through My Eyes, written by
Ruby Bridges, who at age 6 in
1960 became to first Black pupil
at a Louisiana elementary school.
The image of her striding boldly
to school accompanied by U.S.
marshals, is recorded in a famous
Norman Rockwell painting.
“The Civil Rights Movement
still continues,” Harvey commented.
“There is so much more that must
be done before every American can
enjoy the full rights of citizenship. I
want young people to be inspired by
those who have come before them
and know even though they are
young, they have a role to play.”
The exhibit, Civil Rights in
America, is on display during
regular library hours at Stonecrest
Library through Feb. 28. Children’s
activity pages will be offered to
exhibit visitors while supplies last.
Stonecrest Library is located at
3123 Klondike Road, Lithonia.
