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A Golden Moment
By Calvin W. Walton
Dec. 27, 2008
What were you doing on the night of November 4, 2008? In light of the excitement and historical significance of the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency of The United States of America, this is a question that will be pondered by many people, and will generate a host of stories and tales that will be proudly told for years to come.
My brother Fred will talk about his impromptu drive through the streets of Harlem and spin tales about the spontaneous celebrations that sprang up in the streets of that famous community. Tracy, one of my best friends, will reminisce about the spiritual lift he received as he celebrated the election’s outcome with the members of his church in Washington, D.C. My wife Kris will undoubtedly droll on about the drudgery of being stuck at her job, and not fully able to enjoy the moment.
What story will I share? I will proudly relate how I sat in front of the television as the results came in, laptop in tow, and planned a series of lessons that would enable my 8th grade students to grasp the significance of this unprecedented historical moment.
On the surface, this might not seem like such a big deal, but for a teacher who works in an urban school, this election represents a golden moment. I teach basic skills and special education classes at Bishop Spaugh Community Academy, a predominantly African American, public middle school in Charlotte, North Carolina.
As the results came in and I watched the images and reactions that were displayed on CNN and MSNBC, I thought about my students. I knew they would be overjoyed, but I wondered if they really and truly understood the historical significance of this event, and the implications it holds for their lives.
Bishop Spaugh’s students come from some of the most impoverished neighborhoods in west Charlotte, and their North Carolina End-of-Grade Reading and Math scores are among the lowest in the district. The demographics of the student population at my school represent the re-segregation of America’s public schools, largely along racial and socioeconomic lines. As a teacher who works in this environment, it is my responsibility to teach in a manner that is relevant, and relates directly to the lives of my students, their families, and the communities they come from. What would be more timely and relevant than developing lessons that would enable my students to develop a deeper appreciation of this election.
As I watched the returns come in I carefully considered how I could turn this momentous event into a teachable experience. How could I weave this situation into a learning experience that would help my students develop a deeper appreciation for their history as African Americans in the 21st Century? How much do they know about our historical struggle against slavery, and our quest to obtain full citizenship and voting rights here in the United States of America. They have a general, broad-based notion of the historical racial oppression African Americans have faced, but they don’t have enough specific information to help them make meaningful connections.
I thought about the fact that the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the landmark legislation that secured federal protection for the voting rights of African Americans, was passed 100 years after the end of slavery, and a mere 43 years before Mr. Obama’s historic election, which is well within the lifetimes of their parents and grandparents. I wanted to help my students begin to understand that many of their closest relatives lived at a time when African Americans in North Carolina, and other parts of the south, were not guaranteed the right to vote.
I finally decided to develop a series of lessons that revolved
around the movement to desegregate Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. I
chose to put lessons together on this topic because black children
played a prominent role in this chapter of the modern Civil Rights
Movement. Their role was so important to the effort to desegregate
Birmingham that it is often referred to as The Children’s March.
Martin Luther King brought the full force of the movement to bare in Birmingham, with little success. He could not convince enough of the city’s black adult population to participate in a series of coordinated acts of civil disobedience. He enlisted the aid of Reverend James Bevel, who came up with the idea of using the city’s youth to stage a series of school walkouts and marches. The authorities, under the leadership of the infamous Bull Connor, arrested and filled the jails with up to 3,000 young people, and set dogs and fire hoses on the youth in downtown Birmingham and Kelly Ingram Park. The images were captured and showed on television and in newspapers all over the world, and this negative international exposure led to the eventual desegregation of Birmingham, and hastened the departure of Bull Connor. Additionally, the movement to desegregate Birmingham helped solidify the role young people have played in the effort to achieve civil and human rights for African Americans.
During my lesson I showed video and still footage from the actual protest; images of children packed in jail cells like roaches, vicious police dogs ripping through the clothing and into the skin of protesters, and black bodies knocked down under the ferocious pressure of fire hoses. Students also had opportunities to examine letters and other primary source documents and to engage in discussions about their understanding of the movement and explore its connection to Mr. Obama’s election. Students also had opportunities to write about the contemporary issues they would consider dedicating themselves to solving.
I spent three days teaching this lesson, and I taught it in each one of my classes. My students responded to the discussions, readings, written assignments and images in a variety of ways. The most salient impression that I received from my students was a genuine sense of appreciation for having an opportunity to consider the importance of this election, its connection to their history, and the implications it holds for their lives.
I can’t wait until the inauguration.
Comments are welcome. E-mail
swannfello@aol.com.
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