Seeds of Change: MLK Day
Hello friends! And Happy MLK Day! We spent our Seeds of Change class today learning about Dr. King and talking about how we can continue his fight against racism. I’m not going to blog every week like I did last semester, but I will still post here when we had more resources to share than we were able to get through in a single class. So here’s some of the research that went into our class session today, in case it is helpful to you.
First off, if you’re not already following Britt Hawthorne on Instagram, check out her feed. She has a highlight saved about teaching kids about MLK that has so many great resources. Our class today did give the kids an overview of Dr. King’s life, but we also talked about taking action. Here’s what Coretta Scott King said about MLK Day:
“The holiday must be substantive as well as symbolic. It must be more than a day of celebration . . . Let this holiday be a day of reflection, a day of teaching nonviolent philosophy and strategy, a day of getting involved in nonviolent action for social and economic progress.”
We read books in class that The Conscious Kid shared in their Patreon. Since that is how they fund their organization, I won’t share their MLK book list here, but I will point you to this free list of books they created to help educate kids about race and racism- there are several beautiful books about Dr. King included in this list.
We didn’t have time to watch this video in class but it’s in a rare category of actually good educational rap songs for children.
You can find lots of great historical photographs of Dr. King at the Library of Congress. I’ve seen a number of recommendations to show your kids photos of his everyday life too- this can help them understand that he was a real person, just like them, and not just some mythical historical figure.
But like Coretta Scott King said, this day is not just about learning history. It’s about fighting for justice. We brainstormed some ideas for Covid-safe service projects we could do with the kids in class today. One suggestion for you, parents, is to take the art your kids made in class today and post it on social media with a link to donate to a relevant organization. Help raise money for a food bank, for Black Lives Matter, for voting rights. Seek out a Black-owned business you can support. Learn about reparations (if you’re not sure about them, this article might just convince you):
“Fifty years since the bloody and brutally repressed protests and freedom struggles of black Americans brought about the end of legal discrimination in this country, so much of what makes black lives hard, what takes black lives earlier, what causes black Americans to be vulnerable to the type of surveillance and policing that killed Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, what steals opportunities, is the lack of wealth that has been a defining feature of black life since the end of slavery.”
And while we’re talking about action items, consider this one as well. January 19th of every year is a State of Texas holiday called “Confederate Heroes Day.” You can read more about it in this article from Texas Monthly. Did you know Texas didn’t recognize MLK Day as a holiday until 1991? We were the 45th state to do so. (The last state was South Carolina, which didn’t recognize it until 2000!) Anyway, add Confederate Heroes Day to the pile of offensive State of Texas holidays along with Columbus Day. Consider writing to your state rep or senator about abolishing it.
Kids can absolutely be a part of this fight. You can help educate your kids about how Black children have long been a part of the campaign for justice. You can read books about how kids were part of the March on Washington. You can learn about the Children’s Crusade of 1963. Hundreds of children were arrested or harmed as violent mobs responded to their nonviolent resistance, but they showed incredible bravery. When one 9 year old was arrested, the police chief asked him his name and he answered “Freedom, Freedom.” You can read about Claudette Colvin, the 15 year old who got the ball rolling on the Montgomery Bus Boycott. You can learn more about what nonviolent resistance means. I thought this Ted Talk was inspiring:
Connected to this talk, here is a list of 198 methods of nonviolent action. For ideas about how to put this into practice today, check out this article from The Frontline.
Most important, I think, is to help kids understand that we still have to fight for all the things that Dr. King was fighting for. MLK saw that while the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 were important achievements, they did not do enough to improve Black lives. That remains true today, more than 50 years after Dr. King was assassinated. Inaction is easy when your life isn’t directly affected, I know. I myself do so little. In reading about Dr. King for this class, I realized he was only two years older than I am now when he was killed. He led those Montgomery Bus Boycotts when he was 26. I will work to do more. Here’s a quote from Dr. King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail to close out this post. Happy MLK Day, friends.
“I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”
