At first I thought this Martin Luther King Jr. holiday would come and go for our family like it usually does: I... um... don't do much to teach my kids about The Struggle. (Bad black person. Go to your room and repent your thoughtless, privileged ways.)
Page colored by TwoBoo. Design credit: abcteach.com
But then I remembered... I'm actually helping a bit to educate TwoBoo and his kindergarten class about the 1960s-era civil rights movement. They're reading our family copy of the Ruby Bridges story. Ruby was the first African American child to integrate an all-white elementary school in the South -- she was only six years old at the time.
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I also loaned the teacher two other books by the same publisher. Some of the kids are learning about Matthew Henson (first black man to reach the North Pole, with Robert Peary). Others are reading the story of Nat Love (African American cowboy and rodeo performer, also known as "Deadwood Dick").
If I'm brave enough (or foolhardy enough... same thing, really) maybe I'll volunteer to present some of my own historical work to one of The Boy's classes. I don't know, though... he enters middle school, and kids that age are a tough crowd. Wish me luck...