The Young Crusaders

The Young Crusaders Synopsis

The largest civil rights demonstration in United States history was not the August 1963 "March on Washington," but the system-wide school boycott in New York City on February 3, 1964, when over 360,000 elementary and secondary school students went on strike and thousands attended Freedom Schools. Some of the most iconic images of the Civil Rights Movement are those of young people engaged in social activism: the Little Rock Nine being escorted into Central High School in 1957 by soldiers--or children and teenagers being attacked in 1963 by police in Birmingham with dogs and water hoses. While the contributions of individuals like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or groups like the NAACP have been well documented, the significant and crucial roles of children and teens is rarely placed at the forefront. The Young Crusaders tells the story of these unheralded young people who set the blueprint for today's youth activists and their campaigns to address poverty, joblessness, education inequality, racialized violence and discrimination. Properly recognizing their efforts will transform how we fundamentally understand the Civil Rights movement and the vital role the young have historically played in shepherding important social and educational progress to our society.

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