The Kids are not the Threat

Anchored in the history of racial segregation, this unit aims to teach students about the causes and consequences of the Freedom Summer of 1964. After analyzing the Freedom Schools that were established by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to help Black Mississippians exercise their right to vote, students will explore the history of segregation in Richmond, Virginia and determine similarities and differences between the history of those two places. From there, students will identify major issues facing their communities today and design their own version of a Freedom School within the modern context. This unit relies on historical analysis to contextualize the Freedom Schools within the Civil Rights Movement, but it becomes interdisciplinary as students are encouraged to focus on any modern problem that speaks to their passions and to be creative in designing a lesson to teach the class.

Introduction And Rationale

A 20-minute drive through some of the most popular areas of Richmond, Virginia might take you down Arthur Ashe Boulevard (named after the African American tennis legend and civil rights activist),¹  past Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School (named after the first African American woman bank president),² through Virginia Union University (home of the Richmond 34, a group of HBCU students credited with jumpstarting the desegregation movement in the city),³ and eventually to the Shockoe Bottom African Burial Grounds, where the bodies of free and enslaved Black people lay only a few feet below the surface.⁴ In my first two years teaching in Richmond Public Schools, I found myself wondering how students can live in a city rich with Black history and still be so uninterested in the subject. I was surprised to find that they believe African American Studies has no relevance to their modern lives.

By the time they reach high school, most Richmond students already have a general understanding of the causes, effects, and major events of the Civil Rights Movement. My students are socially conscious, and they have near-instant access to discourse about geo-political events at their fingertips. They are “plugged in” and quick to state an opinion, yet they are not interested in being part of the political process in any meaningful way. Most of them fall into one of two categories: those who actively reject anything political because they want to be seen as “nonchalant” and those who are already so jaded that they think political engagement is a waste of time. As someone who was a very politically active teenager (I was in 8th grade in 2008, and as president and one of three students in our school’s Young Democrats club, canvassed for Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign.), it has been extremely upsetting to hear how disempowered my students feel.

I believe that by framing our study of the Civil Rights Movement through the eyes of the young people who were considered the rabble-rousers of the time, my students will see just how radical those organizers were and they will be more invested in learning about their work. But I want to take it a step further. I want to guide students through some of the same thought-processes that led those young people to take the actions that they did 60 years ago.

My curriculum unit will be focused on the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964, especially the Freedom Schools that were established to help Black Mississippians become full participants of their political process. We will begin with learning about the circumstances in Mississippi that led to the Freedom Summer. Then, we will do a study of some of the issues that students have seen in their own communities and ultimately create a plan of action to combat those issues. I hope that through the process of developing their own modern version of a Richmond Freedom School, the deeper lessons about justice and civic responsibility will stick with them and spark their political fire. Hopefully, these will be lessons that students can hold on to as they grow into civic-minded adults.