Summary

This chapter is about the role that young people played in the civil rights movement and continue to play in social justice activism today. While young activists today are often criticized for not living up to the examples set by past activists, young civil rights activists were equally criticized by their contemporaries. Examples of important young activists who are often not remembered include Barbara Johns, a high school student who organized a strike at her school in 1951, and two teenagers, Claudette Colvin and Mary Louise Smith, who also refused to give up their bus seats and were arrested. Throughout the 1960s, students staged sit-ins and walkouts but these young activists are not treated as serious players in our history books. Closer examination of their work reveals that they were thoughtful and organized in their politics...