Whenever I am asked about my memories of the Civil Rights Movement, I hesitate to respond because so much has already been written by scholars and national leaders about this important period in the nation's history, and about the people who participated. One wonders what else can be said. However, as I talk to my students, and as I think about my own experience as a child during this period, it becomes clear that each person's story can add to our collective understanding of what happened to us as individuals, as communities, and as a nation. 

The importance of these recollections was underscored several years ago, during Black History Month, when President Clinton invited to the White House major Civil Rights leaders and former youth participants in the Movement to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. Those of us who had participated in the Movement as young children were grouped according to our home states (from Georgia and Arkansas to Alabama and Mississippi). I found myself thinking about the lives of other African Americans who, like me, had participated in the Movement as children in towns and states throughout the South. In their faces, I could see that they all remembered, with pride, the important role that young people played not only in the national arena, but also at the state and local levels. In fact, although a small number of national events captured the country's attention, the Movement was played out most dramatically in cities, towns, and local communities.

My own background is that of a middle-class child growing up in the 1950s and '60s in Birmingham, Alabama at the very time of the Civil Rights Movement.  My memories of Birmingham in 1963 are vivid. In the large African American community there, as in other cities and towns, adults served as parents to both their own and other children, and children felt accountable to all adults. Also, churches were central in our lives. While churches, schools, and neighborhoods made us feel special, the larger, outside world, which was white, told us in many ways that we were second-class citizens. 

As a ninth-grade student, I listened to adults seriously questioning the idea of asking children to march as a tactic in the struggle for civil rights. What became increasingly clear to the black community in Birmingham, as events began to unfold and media coverage increased, was the significant role that the Movement would play in our lives. From my perspective, it was exhilarating to march for such a worthy cause, but frightening to encounter menacing police dogs and to spend time in jail with other children that spring. We believed, however, that we were very much a part of the Movement, and it was cathartic to learn that we could be agents of change. This realization was especially meaningful for me, because I was allowed not only to participate in the Birmingham marches, but to lead a group of kids to City Hall. Such an experience told me that our voices – the voices of the young – were significant, and that young people could think and act responsibly, and that our actions could change the course of history and the world. Our experiences broadened our hopes and aspirations, and they helped us understand fully that not only did we have the right to sit at lunch counters or enter buildings through the front door, but that we had the responsibility to claim those rights as Americans. We learned, firsthand, the value of citizen participation.

We also learned from the experience that faith in God and ourselves, coupled with individual acts of courage and service, meant far more than we could ever realize. We learned the importance of hating injustice rather than people, and of being on our best behavior and exercising strong self-control, especially when we were confronted by the police during the marches and while we were in jail. We learned, too, the value of controlling our emotions and of conducting ourselves as responsible citizens. Finally, we learned that America, at its best, cares deeply about its children, and that children touch the conscience of adults. The nation's conscience was stirred, and people of all colors came to see this struggle not simply as a racial conflict, but, even more important, as a question of American justice.

For many of the children involved in the Movement, academic work took on an added dimension. From our exposure to local leaders, like Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, and national leaders, like Dr. King and Reverend Young, we learned that very often these leaders were knowledgeable people, and that knowledge was power! They had the ability to think clearly, speak eloquently, and act confidently. In so doing, they reinforced what our families and teachers had been telling us all our lives – that education makes the difference between success and failure, that education transforms lives. In the process, many of us became more committed than ever to becoming the best, so that one day we would be successful competing against all kinds of children, proudly representing ourselves, our families, and our race.

A significant lesson from studying the role of youth during the 1960s is how important it is for young people both to evaluate their life circumstances and to know that they are not simply victims of those circumstances. They can change their own lives, and, equally important, can have a positive impact on the lives of others. It is true that African Americans have made much progress over the past several decades; nevertheless, lunch counters, restaurants, and schools still are often closed to millions of black children and their families simply because they lack the resources or the skills to go there. Most important, like the children of the Civil Rights Movement, today's young African Americans must believe that they can determine their own destinies and that education is as critical to their success today as it was in the 1960s.