The Education of the Civil Rights Generation: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Teacher Associations, and Student Activism in the South, 1950–1965

• In Event: 29.038 - Activism in Urban Spaces

Abstract

This paper analyzes incidents of protest that occurred in segregated high schools the in South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, and Virginia between 1950 and 1965. The NAACP organized students in Youth Councils at the same time that educators organized through teacher associations. This level of organization at the high school level created an academic environment that facilitated protest. By the 1950s, student walkouts initiated a lawsuit the NAACP used in preparation for the Brown case. Students defied the law in Montgomery, Alabama under the mentorship of Rosa Parks. High school students in Jackson, MS boycotted schools and were imprisoned. This history of organization and protest demonstrates that the high school was a pivotal training ground for the Civil Rights Movement.

Author

• Jon Hale