The Children’s Crusade

1. Set Focus
Pose this essential question: How can the actions of young people change society?

2. List Vocabulary
Share some of the challenging vocabulary words in the article (see right). Encourage students to use context to infer meanings as they read.

• segregation (p. 18)
• integrate (p. 18)
• impetus (p. 20)
• engineered (p. 21)
• cowering (p. 21)
• catalyst (p. 21)

3. Engage
Ask: Why is it important for everyone to have the same rights and treatment under the law? How would you feel if you were told you could not use something or go somewhere because of your race? What kinds of problems does segregation lead to?

4. Read and Discuss
Ask students to read the Upfront article about the Children’s Crusade in Birmingham, Alabama. Review why the article is a secondary source. (It was written by someone who didn’t personally experience or witness the events.) Then pose these critical-thinking questions and ask students to cite text evidence when answering them:

• Why did young protesters march in Birmingham, Alabama, on May 2, 1963? What were they protesting against? (They were marching to protest against segregation, which is the forced separation of people by race in public places. Birmingham was “the most segregated city in America,” and White extremist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan had bombed Black homes and churches. Protesters were also marching to achieve equal rights for Black citizens, who had faced discrimination for centuries.)

• What impact did the Children’s Crusade have on the civil rights movement, both immediately and longer term? (Eight days after the Children’s Crusade, civil rights leaders reached a historic agreement with Birmingham business leaders to remove the “Whites only” and “Blacks only” signs from their establishments; they also agreed to hire Black people and help to integrate Birmingham. A year later, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed segregation in public facilities throughout the country. 

• According to the timeline, what was the first organization to begin desegregation and when? In what year did it fully desegregate? How many years later did the government pass the Civil Rights Act? (In 1948, the military became the first government organization to begin desegregation. It fully desegregated in 1954. Ten years later, in 1964, the government passed the Civil Rights Act.)

• The article describes the Children’s Crusade’s impact as“a ‘ripple’ that turned into a wave.” What does that mean? Why do you think it was described in this way? (A ripple results when something small falls into water. A wave is more powerful and forceful. The article uses this language because the protest, though one of many, ultimately had a huge impact on the passage of legislation.)

5. Use the Primary Source
Project, distribute, or assign in Google Classroom the PDF ‘They Were Ready to Go,’ which features excerpts from civil rights leader Andrew Young’s memoir about preparing the young protesters. Discuss what makes the memoir a primary source. (It provides firsthand evidence concerning the topic.) Have students read the excerpts and answer the questions below (which appear on the PDF without answers).

• How would you describe the tone and purpose of this excerpt from Andrew Young’s memoir? (The tone can be described as serious. The purpose is to inform the reader of the methods that the S.C.L.C. used to recruit young people and also to describe the enthusiasm of the teens and children who participated in the protest that the article spotlights.)

• What were the “tremendous risks” that young people took to demonstrate in Birmingham? (Protest organizers expected the Birmingham police to respond violently to the protests. Young people knew they could go to jail or be seriously hurt by police fire hoses or dogs.)

• Young says that organizers asked demonstrators to get parental permission, but the article says that many parents didn’t initially know about the march. How might both statements be true? (Answers may vary, but students could respond that there might be a difference between organizers asking teens to get permission and teens actually doing so; teens might have decided not to ask and to protest in secret.) 

• Young says that it was difficult to impose a cutoff age on demonstrators. What reason does he give? (Young says many younger children were “determined” to join the struggle with their older siblings and their parents and actually wanted to go to jail. He implies that the S.C.L.C. couldn’t have kept the younger children away from the demonstrations even if it had wanted to.)

• Based on the Upfront article and the excerpt from Young’s memoir, why do you think young people were so eager to be involved in the demonstrations? (Student answers may vary. Sample response: According to the article, Birmingham was “one of the most racially divided cities in the United States” and was especially violent, so the students faced the effects of segregation and racial hatred firsthand in their own lives. They knew the fight for freedom was very important for their futures. The memoir excerpt also states that the S.C.L.C. first recruited popular kids—“athletic stars and homecoming queens”—to participate in the protest and Young believes that encouraged other teens to join in as well.)

6. Writing Prompt
Why was the Children’s Crusade especially effective in changing people’s attitudes? Can you think of another example of young people having a similar effect on America? Explain in a brief essay.

7. Quiz
Use the quiz to assess comprehension.

8. Classroom Debate
Should it be legal to arrest people for protesting? 

9. Multimedia Presentations
Have small groups select a prominent figure from the civil rights movement and create a multimedia presentation on that figure. Presentations should feature a variety of primary sources (photographs, quotes, video and/or speech clips, etc.). Have groups present to the class.