Rationale for the Module As we begin and continue our studies of Civil Rights, we often

are presented with the same people as our model for leaders. There are so many individuals that are overlooked who had a significant role in the Civil Rights movement. Women are the least recognized, very often not receiving credit for their influence and commitment to effect change.

This presentation is aimed at broadening our understanding

of influential women who worked with the Civil Rights movements. These women came from diverse backgrounds, but felt the need to step forward to make changes and a difference for so many.

Defenders of Justice“The grown-ups have said we must be brave, that only the children can save the

country now." Eloise Greenfield

Daisy BatesCivil Rights Activist

Daisy Bates 1913-1999

• Woman of the Year in Education in 1957 by the Associated Press

• Wrote her memoir The Long Shadow of Little Rock• Only woman chosen to speak at the March on Washington

in 1963 • Mentor to the Little Rock Nine-school integration• President of the NAACP for the Little Rock Branch

Little Rock Nine entering Little Rock Central High School in l957

• The students waited almost a month to go to school after they were first turned away. Daisy Bates tutored them during that time so they would be ready when they started their classes. U. S. Army troops escorted them to school on September 25, 1957. The Little Rock Nine encouraged other students to stand up for themselves.

School Integration• With the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education, school

desegregation became law. On May 17, 1954, they ruled that separate but equal did not apply to public schools.

• While some states and schools immediately complied with the law, many did not. Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas was one of those schools. Policemen were brought out in many communities to defy the law.

Marx Be-Bop the Jivin’ Jigger1950’s-toy for children

Diane Nash

Civil Right Activist“The movement had a way of reaching inside me and bringing

out things that I never knew were there. Like courage, and love for people”

• Born May 15, 1938 in Chicago, Illinois• Educated at Howard University in

Washington, DC• Transferred to Fisk University in Nashville, TN• Married Civil Rights activist, James

Bevel,1961• In 2003, Nash received the Distinguished

American Award.

Diane’s Life• While a student in Nashville, TN, she witnessed racial segregation

and was outraged by the Jim Crow laws of the South. In February 1960, Nash helped organized peaceful sit-in protests at Woolworth’s in Greensboro, TN. They refused to serve African Americans at their lunch counter. She also help founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). After organizing the sit ins, Nash helped coordinate and participated in the 1961 Freedom Rides across the South. She was also involved in organizing voter registration and school desegregation campaigns. She continues to work as an educator and lecturer committed to peace. In 2003, Nash received the Distinguished American Award.

Matthew Walker, Peggy Alexander, Diane Nash and Stanley Hemphill become the first blacks to be served at a lunch counter in Nashville. A few minutes after this photo was taken,

Walker was struck by a counter protester so hard that he lost a tooth

The first Freedom Riders left Washington DC on May 4,1961. They continued and encountered violence throughout the

South.

Music in the Civil Rights Movement

• Freedom Songs:• Freedom songs were created as a natural outpouring for

the fight for freedom. Many were created as• “ Congregational “ songs that were started by a song leader.

The congregation would then raise the song into life. Many of these songs could be heard in churches, schools, and rallies where masses would gather to unite together for the cause of freedom. The music often unified people in their political movement, reminded them what they were fighting for, while providing inspiration and hope.

Songs That Made a Difference

• We Shall Overcome by Charles Tindley

• Turn, Turn, Turn by Pete Seeger

• Blowin in the Wind by Bob Dylan

• Oh Freedom by Joan Baez

• If I had a Hammer by Peter,Paul, and Mary

Fannie Lou Hamer

• October 6, 1917- March 14, 1977• Daughter of Mississippi Sharecroppers

• “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

• “Well, killing or no killing, I’m going to stick with Civil Rights

Fannie Lou Hamer

• Civil Rights Activist• Voting Rights and Labor Organizer• Sharecropper• Spoke at the Democratic• National Convention • Fought to establish the• Mississippi Freedom Party • Persevered, Protested, and • Questioned, “Is this America? ”

Fannie Lou Hamer was the 20th

child of the Townshend family of Mississippi. “Life was worse than hard. It was horrible, we

never did have enough to eat!” While other children went to school, Fannie and picked

cotton in the fields and could attend only during winter months.

In 1962, Fannie attended a meeting and realized that she could register to vote, but “...the path would be dangerous. Either I’d be killed fast or a little at a time, like my whole life.” She dealt with many obstacles- tests, poll taxes, beatings, firings, and evictions. These obstacles strengthened her resolve to be able to vote. Fannie and others continued to fight for civil rights, despite violence, being jailed, and continual threats. Fannie helped organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and spoke at the 1964 and 1968 Democratic Conventions.

Voting Rights Act of 1965• Ensured voting rights for all American citizens.• Outlawed racist obstacles to voting.

“Tests” included having to recite the entire constitution, explain complex state laws, etc. Many of these blocks were established in 1890.College degrees were often not recognized as a sign of literacy or ability to vote.

• Civil Rights activists traveled from many parts of the country to help educate, transport, and encourage people to register and vote.

Trailblazing Women on the Path of Civil Rights

• 1954- Linda Brown- Brown vs. Bd. of Education The Supreme Court rules that “Separate but Equal are inherently unequal”.

• 1955- Rosa Parks sat and rode. The Montgomery Bus Boycott forced economic change.• 1959- The “Little Rock Nine” attended integrated high school and opened the

doors for other young people.• 1960- Ella Baker and other activists encourage youth to join the fight for

equal rights. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee begins.• 1962 Fannie Lou Hamer attempts to register to vote in Indianola, Mississippi.

• 1960- 1963- Sit-Ins, Freedom Rides, Marches and other protests begin in the south and then take place all over the country as thousands join the movement.

• 1963- 250,000 Americans of diverse race, age, gender, educational and economic level join the March on Washington.

•

• Four young girls lose their lives attending church in Birmingham.

• 1963 Betty Friedan's best-seller, The Feminine Mystique, detailed the "problem that has no name.”

• 1966 Nichelle Nichols is cast as a female black officer on televisions Star Trek. She briefly considers leaving the role, but is encouraged by Dr. Martin Luther King to continue as an example for their community.

• 1968 Shirley Chisholm (D-NY) is first Black woman elected to the US Congress.

“I feel sorry for anybody who could let hate wrap them up.Hate will not only destroy us, it will destroy them.”

“Help us communicate with white folk. Regardless of how they act, there’s some good there. How can we say we love God and hate our brothers and sisters? We got to reach them.”

Eloise Greenfield

“People are a part of their time. They are affected, during the time that they live by the things that happen in their world. Big things and small things. A war, an invention

such as radio or television, a birthday party, a kiss. All of these help to shape the present and the future. If we could know more about our ancestors, about the

experiences they had when they were children, and after they had grown up, too, we would know much more about what has shaped us and our world.”

• Born in Parmele, North Carolina• Writer of poetry, fiction, memoir, and biography for children• 1997 winner of the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for

children• Grew up in a housing project called Langston Terrace near

Washington D.C. • Worked in the civil service at the U.S. Patent Office.• Dismayed by the depiction of blacks and black communities in

popular media• "In children's writing, it's particularly important to avoid the

stereotypes and be sure you're doing something that's nourishing for children.”

Eloise’s Life

• Eloise Greenfield was born on May 17, 1929 in North Carolina, the same year as Martin Luther King. She went on to be a prolific, powerful, African-American, female author. She focused her writing on the positive portrayals of African American communities. Her many books include poetry, fiction, memoir, and biography. She has written about Civil Rights and the struggle of the African- American community. Her works instill in Black children a sense of self-confidence and awareness and an appreciation of Black art and writing.

The Friendly Four

WAY DOWN IN THE MUSICBy Eloise Greenfield

WAY DOWN IN THE MUSICBy Eloise Greenfield

I get way down in the musicDown inside the music

I let it wake metake me

Spin me around and make meUh-get down

Inside the sound of the Jackson FiveInto the tune of Earth, Wind and Fire

Down in the bass where the beat comes fromDown in the horn and down in the drum

I get downI get down

I get way down in the musicDown inside the music

I let it wake metake me

Spin me around and shake meI get down, down

I get down

Civil Rights Classroom Literature• Civil Rights Marches by Linda and Charles George• How They Got Over by Eloise Greenfield• Black Women Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement by Zita Allen• The Civil Rights Movement by David Bender• Rabble Rousers by Cheryl Harness• Freedom’s Daughters by Lynne Olson• Heroes for Civil Rights by David Adler• Books by Diane Nash

The Mentor Kit by Diane NashBiography:

• Diane Nash: The Fire of the Civil Rights Movement By Lisa Mullins

Resources:

• Rabble Rousers, 20 Women Who Made a Difference; Harness, Cheryl. • Dutton Children’s Books, 2003.

• Black Women Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement; Allen, Zita. • Franklin Watts, 1996.

• The Civil Rights Movement, Opposing Viewpoints; Dudley, William, editer.• Greenhaven Press, 1996.

• Extraordinary People of the Civil Rights Movement; Hardy, Sheila Jackson and • Hardy, P. Stephen. Children’s Press, 2007

• Heroes for Civil Rights; Adler, David. • Holiday House, 2008.

References• www.brainpopjr.com• www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum• www.answers.com/topic/eloise-greenfield• www.answers.com/questions/index• Night on Neighborhood Street by Eloise Greenfield• Honey, I Love by Eloise Greenfield• The Friendly • http://www.tnhistoryforkids.org/words/peggy_latson• http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/iml04.soc.ush.civil.nash/• http:// www.aforcemorepowerful.org• http:// www.pbs.org• http:// www.digitaldremdoor.com• http://folkmusic.about.com• Four by Eloise Greenfield

• Walker, Paul Robert. Remember Little Rock. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2009.• Fradin, Judith Bloom, and Dennis Brindell Fradin. The Power of One: Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine.

New York: Clarion, 2004. • Lucas, Eileen. Cracking the Wall: The Struggles of the Little Rock Nine. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books, Inc.,

1997.Good, Diane L. Brown V. Board of Education. New York: Children’s Press, 2004.Morrison, Toni. Remember: The Journey to School Integration. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004.

• "Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, was integrated in 1957." Read Write Think. • International Reading Association, 2010. Web. 24 Oct. 2010. • <http://www.readwritethink.org>. • "Daisy Bates Biography." Biography.com. A&E Television Networks, 2010. Web. 24 Oct. 2010. • <http://www.biography.com/articles/Daisy-Bates>. • "Desegregation of Central High School." The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. The • Central Arkansas Library System, 2 Apr. 2010. Web. 24 Oct. 2010. • <http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net>. • "Little Rock Nine." The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. The Central Library System, 9 • Sept. 2010. Web. 24 Oct. 2010. <http://www.encyclopediaof arkansas.net>. • Higgins, Shea. "Little Rock Nine History Project Documentary." www.youtube.com/watch?v= iH4Zx96xbY,

28 July 2007. Web. 14 Nov. •