50th Anniversary of When the Children Marched

This year marks the 50th anniversary of when more than a thousand African-American students skipped their classes to march to downtown Birmingham, Alabama to speak out against segregation.

On a hot Thursday morning in May young people went to school as usual, but at noon many left their classes and headed for the door. R.C. Johnson, the principal of Parker High School, locked the front gates. This did not stop the students. They scaled fences and headed to town. Eight hundred students throughout the city missed school that day.

The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church filled with young people ranging from the ages of six to eighteen. At around one o'clock the first group of kids burst out of the church.They sang songs and carried signs as they headed for city hall to demonstrate.

When the Children Marched: The Birmingham Civil Rights Movement by Robert H. Mayer explores the civil rights leaders who organized the movement and the brave children and teens at the heart of the fight.

ISBN: 978-0-7660-2930-9

The Kindle version is now available as well as the hardcover book.

55 Years Ago Today, Rosa Parks Made History

Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus on this day, 55 years ago.

This is a story I heard over and over as a child in school, but haven't revisited until now. Rosa Parks was 42 years old at the time when she got on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. The bus driver demanded that she move to the back of the bus, to the black section, so a white passenger could have her seat. Parks refused and was arrested and convicted of disorderly conduct.

Parks' event triggered Martin Luther King, Jr. to organize a 381-day boycott of the public transportation system in Montgomery.

To learn about Rosa Parks, see Enslow's book: Rosa Parks: "Tired of Giving Up"