We Are Going Too! The Children of the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement
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| Language: | English |
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The Ohio State University / OhioLINK
2016
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| Online Access: | http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1452263338 |
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English |
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American History Black History |
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American History Black History Jeter-Bennett, Gisell We Are Going Too! The Children of the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement |
| author |
Jeter-Bennett, Gisell |
| author_facet |
Jeter-Bennett, Gisell |
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Jeter-Bennett, Gisell |
| title |
We Are Going Too! The Children of the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement |
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We Are Going Too! The Children of the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement |
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We Are Going Too! The Children of the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement |
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We Are Going Too! The Children of the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement |
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We Are Going Too! The Children of the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement |
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we are going too! the children of the birmingham civil rights movement |
| publisher |
The Ohio State University / OhioLINK |
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2016 |
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http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1452263338 |
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ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-osu14522633382021-08-03T06:34:36Z We Are Going Too! The Children of the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement Jeter-Bennett, Gisell American History Black History In 1963, the Birmingham, Alabama civil rights movement brought both national and international attention to the plight of southern African Americans. The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR), in partnership with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), utilized nonviolent direct action, marches, sit- ins, jail-ins, and boycotts- to challenge Birmingham discriminatory laws and practices. The success of the Birmingham campaign was due in large part to the participation and personal sacrifice of black schoolchildren.This dissertation examines the local Birmingham movement from the perspective of its most indispensible participants, black youth. It explores what it meant to be a black child coming of age under Jim Crow. It analyzes the recruitment, participation, and impact of Birmingham black youth in the Children March, a weeklong protest from May 2 to May 7, 1963, during which over 2,000 children between ages six and eighteen marched through Birmingham streets in nonviolent protest against racial inequality. It also looks anew at the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church on September 15, 1963, which led to the deaths of four black school-aged girls, and the subsequent killing of two black boys. Studying these events offers fresh insight into the lived experiences of black youth under Jim Crow, and the national and international media attention that these events garnered, which helped compel the federal government to support new civil rights legislation. Despite the invaluable contributions of children to the Birmingham movement, their personal stories and contributions remain largely overlooked.The marginalization of black youth is attributable in part to the usual approach to studying the civil rights movement. Over the past four decades, the conventional narrative of the civil rights movement has expanded as it relates to gender, class, space, and time, but much less in terms of age. To more fully incorporate age as a prism through which to better understand the civil rights movement, this project draws on primary and secondary sources related to black children growing up in the era of Jim Crow, as well as oral histories chronicling the experiences of African Americans leading up to and during the height of the civil rights movement.We Are Going Too! The Children of the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement asks: what did it mean to come of age as an African American child in Birmingham, Alabama at the height of the civil rights movement? In order to answer this question effectively, this dissertation investigates the lived conditions, family dynamics, and the long lasting socio-economic impact of Jim Crow on black children in the American South.Set against a backdrop of Cold War domestic race politics, this dissertation examines the history of black childhood during the Jim Crow era as a way to better understand how black boys and girls came to be active participants in the most important social movement of the twentieth century. It draws heavily on oral histories of men and women who grew up in Birmingham in the civil rights era, which shines much needed light on how black people experienced racial discrimination, including racial violence, and social protest. The narratives of their experiences and observations provide a unique perspective on black childhood as it relates to the civil rights movement, both locally and nationally.This research will contribute significantly to an already rich collection of scholarship on the modern civil rights movement by creating a fuller, more complete picture of black life during the Jim Crow era and the struggle for freedom during the civil rights era. 2016-06-09 English text The Ohio State University / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1452263338 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1452263338 unrestricted This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws. |