LJHS students teach Central students about the Civil Right's Movement during Black Heritage Month

 

[February 15, 2019] 

LINCOLN 

The Lincoln Junior High School eighth grade Accelerated Language Arts Class observed February as Black Heritage Month by making a Civil Rights Book of Heroes.

The students took their finished compositions over to Central Elementary School on Wednesday morning. There they broke into small groups and read to third graders about black and white people who influenced America in various ways to help the black people get their civil rights.

The Civil Rights Book of Heroes is awesome and is designed to be used as an encyclopedia of 21 known and not-so-known people who helped in the Civil Rights movement. The reference book created by the students is the result of the eighth graders’ in-class study of 'The Little Rock Nine' and the autobiographical story of one of those nine, Melba Pattillo.

Following the study of the Little Rock Nine and the Civil Rights Movement, students researched 21 Civil Rights Leaders and each wrote a biography explaining the contributions and sacrifices these leaders made to the cause of equality and justice.

The uniqueness of this book is to recognize not only those who we all know made a difference, but also those behind the scenes men and women who sacrificed, struggled, and may have even lost their lives working to ensure equality for all.

This book is dedicated to those within its pages and all people who were determined to bring equal rights to their fellow man.

The eighth graders wrote the book for a specific audience - early to mid-elementary-aged students - had to evaluate style, format, and reading level necessary to reach their young readers.

One book will be placed in the third graders library at Central Elementary School. Tina Workman, the eighth grade teacher, said they have 10 years of books the students have made.

“It is productive to have student teachers (the eighth graders) to be role models to the third graders,” said Mrs. Workman.

She also said she wanted to see the students know about other people to memorialize, go deeper, and learn more.

“The students had to write for third grade understanding and edit the information about black heroes for them,” said Workman.

Sixty years after the fight for equality, many Civil Rights Leaders are well remembered; some, however, have received scant recognition.

Many black names are written about in the Civil Rights Book of Heroes such as Eldridge Clever, Booker T. Washington, Malcom X, Melba Pattillo, Harriet Tubman, Coretta and Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Philip Randolph, Thurgood Marshall, Homer Plessy, Bobby Seale, Emmett Till, Fannie Lou Hammer, Medgar Evans, W.E.B. Du Bois, James Chaney.

Did you know that Viola Gregg Liuzzo was a brave hero who supported the Civil Rights Movement? The Civil Rights in those days stood up for black people to vote and sit in restaurants and buses with white people. She joined Martin Luther King Jr. in a march to support the Federal Voting-Rights Bill.

Lincoln Junior High School eighth grade Accelerated Language Arts Class

She was followed by the KKK, They drove up to her car and shot her. She gave her life to help her fellow Americans achieve equality in the United States.

Did you know that Jackie Robinson changed baseball history forever? He was the first black athlete to play in Major Baseball. It changed baseball history because it paved the way for other black major league baseball players. He had to keep strong because the crowds in the bleachers would shout out at him and harass him, but some of his fans and team members stood up for him.

Robinson was the best paid Dodger. He also got mad at the Yankees because they were against blacks playing on their team

Did you know that Andrew Goodman, an educated white man, along with two others, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner were killed in Mississippi because of their work in Civil Rights to help people get the right to vote?

The federal government did step in and charged some of the people who were involved with their deaths.

The students that taught the third graders had done research to depict the black hero they wrote about. Here are some of their answers to a few questions:

When asked what he liked about the research on Booker T. Washington, Jadyn Fish replied, “How important he was in the Civil Rights movement. He wanted everyone to be equal.”

What do you think about black people voting? Jenny Martens said, “I think it’s fine. It shouldn’t matter what color of skin they are.”

What are the benefits of Black History Month? What can we be appreciative of? Payton Johnson answered, “ We can appreciate the people that work hard to change America like Malcom X.”

Describe what black freedom means to you. Lukas Morgan said, “It means/shows how far black’s rights have come in the country."

Kylee Overton said the Book of Heroes has 29 pages. Two books go to Mrs. Donita Biggs third grade and one book each will go to Tina Workman and Mrs. Ren Anweiler eighth grade classes.

The eighth grade authors of this reference book are excited to share their work, not only as a culminating activity in their study of The Little Rock Nine, but also as a way to promote liberty and justice for all, while also recognizing the struggles and sacrifices Black Americans have endured throughout history.

[Catherine Carkulis]