I Am Ready to Die at Any Time for the Civil Rights Cause: Young Citizen's Political Activism and the Black Freedom Struggle

Youth across the nation read, heard, and watched the news on the politics, violence, and mass resistance that accompanied civil rights demonstrations and marches. The 1963 marches, the murder of four young girls during the church bombing in Birmingham, Martin Luther King Jr.’s Nobel Peace Prize achievement, and the marches in Selma generated a surge of responses from children and teenagers not directly involved in the movement. In songs, poetry, paintings, and letters addressed to politicians and civil rights activists, young people documented how they perceived and experienced the civil rights movement. Some youth expressed their interest in political affairs and civil rights; others voiced their frustration over the slow speed of political progress as well as their apprehension at the violence that erupted during protests. Even when far removed from the violent protests, they did not merely observe events passively. The responses of children and teenagers demonstrate young people’s ability to grasp, interrogate, and criticize complicated political and racial dynamics, sympathize with the victims regardless of gender and race, and contribute financially as well as spiritually to the continuation of the demonstrations. Although they were not yet legally allowed to vote, youth actively participated in the civil rights moment as fully engaged democratic citizens.