Friends School Students Learn to Carry Forward Civil Rights Movement

Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday has come and gone, but students at State College Friends School continue to learn about civil rights.  On Thursday, February 1, children in 2nd and 3rd grades were treated to a visit by Julia Williams, the grandmother of 2nd-grade student Jade Dickens.  Born and raised in Statesboro, Georgia, during the 1940s through the 1960s, Julia spoke with the children about her experiences with segregation.
 
According to Joanne Thurston-Griswold, a 2nd/3rd-grade teacher at the school, the visit followed the children’s field trip to the Bellefonte Art Museum’s Underground Railroad exhibit and the Friends School’s annual “time in” on Martin Luther King Day to learn about and reflect on the importance of equality, one of the core values emphasized at the school.  The Friends School is the only school in the State College area that is in session on Martin Luther King Day.
 
“How were you discriminated against?” one of the students asked Julia.  Having spent several weeks learning about the civil rights movement, the children were not surprised by Julia’s response.  She spoke about her experiences being excluded from restaurants, being forced to give up her seat on the bus for white patrons, receiving hand-me-down textbooks at her all-black elementary school, and running away from white children as they threw rocks at her and called her names.
 
The children were, however, shocked to learn that Julia’s brother had participated in setting fire to a restaurant that refused to serve blacks.  The restaurant had been closed for business at the time and the arson did not harm anyone.  Julia explained that some people, like Martin Luther King, chose to use peaceful measures to bring about change, while others chose more forceful measures.
 
The idea that sometimes people choose to break the law in order to change those laws for the better is something that the children had already considered following their trip to the Bellefonte Art Museum’s Underground Railroad exhibit.  In their class discussion of the field trip, one child asked how lying to the police in order to harbor and protect a runaway slave fit with the concept of integrity—another of the core values emphasized at the Friends School.  The children all agreed that the abolitionists were right to break the law in that case because doing so was the true act of integrity.
 
Other questions the students had for Julia included, “Were you a slave?” “Did you hear Sojourner Truth’s speeches?” and “Did you know Harriet Tubman?” “It was a valuable lesson for the students to learn about the order of events,” said Joanne.
 
Julia explained that she had not been a slave, although her great grandfather had been. “I was born after slavery was abolished,” she said. “My generation followed and benefited from the efforts of Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman.” It also benefited from the important people who worked on behalf of equality during her own time—Martin Luther King and Ruby Bridges, for example, she added.
 
Julia continued. “The most important moment in my life was when Barack Obama became the president of the United States,” she said. “African American people went from not being able to read all the way to the White House in just 100 years.”
 
Julia closed the discussion with some recommendations for the schoolchildren to carry forward the legacy of the civil rights movement. “We should think of ourselves as one human race made up of unique individuals,” she said. Ultimately, she added, the world will be a better place when everyone does their best to be good people and to love each other.
 
As the 2nd and 3rd graders at the State College Friends School move forward with their studies of civil rights, they are working with Becky Misangyi, an assistant teacher at the school, to write new lyrics to the song “What Can One Little Person Do?” that incorporate three people from modern times who have worked on behalf of the greater good. For example, they wrote a stanza about Christian Bucks, an elementary-school student who recently popularized the idea of a “buddy bench,” where children can sit when they need a friend and other children will respond with friendship. On Friday, February 9, the students presented the three contemporary change-makers with posters about each and then sang the new verses with the entire school.  
 
The students also are examining current-day issues with equality. They interviewed their parents about times when they were discriminated against, and discussed their findings with their classmates. “The students were upset to learn that their mothers had been paid less than men for the same work,” said Joanne, “and that their parents had witnessed older, more experienced workers bypassed for jobs in favor of younger, less experienced workers, among other issues that came up.”
 
According to Joanne, this emphasis on civil rights is a regular feature of a Quaker education. “Our students are learning to follow in the footsteps of those who have already done so much good in the world,” she said. “They are learning that ‘one little person’ can do so much when they act with love.”