Birmingham 1963: How a Photograph Rallied Civil Rights Support

Birmingham 1963: How a Photograph Rallied Civil Rights Support   By Shelly Tougas

                                          Published in 2011    64 Pages


I am always on the lookout for books that feature examples of young people who stood up, spoke out and made history. I feel that this is something that we can not emphasize enough. Whenever I present a book like this, I always ask the students if they need to be grown ups in order to speak up and stand up for what is right in order make a change. I also mention to students how history is made. It is often made not by famous people, but people like you and me - people whom you never hear about in the typical accounts.

This book provides an excellent example of how young people (a lot of whom were elementary school children) made history. Birmingham, Alabama of 1963 provided a lot of iconic examples of the repressive measures that were undertaken to squelch demands for civil rights. This was a city that had Bull Connor, no qualms about using fire hoses and police dogs on young people, and a very active culture of bombing. In the face of these obstacles, many adults were intimidated.

In this case, it was the youth who led the way. When their teachers were reluctant to march, the students ditched school to stand up and speak out. The images of these young people braving fire hoses, police dogs, and going to jail mobilized the community and garnered support for the civil rights movement across the country. The example that the students set catalyzed the community, and helped mobilize people on a wider scale.
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This book is filled with the evocative and iconic photos of Charles Moore. They resonate very well with the students, and they are fertile ground for conducting writers' workshops or interactive activities.

I used six photos from this book for a writers' workshop of 5th graders. I had the students write thoughts from the perspective of individual people in the photos. The students created some evocative work. I feel that the vividness of the photos helped the students elaborate their writing in terms of giving it more emotional impact.

Very highly recommended.

See "Marching for Freedom" for an excellent treatment of how the youth of Selma rose to the occasion. The same goes for "We've Got a Job" on the role of the youth of Birmingham.

If you put all three books together, you can begin to grasp just how prominent and pivotal youth activism was in Alabama at that time.