The Young Crusaders
The Untold Story of the Children and Teenagers Who Galvanized the Civil Rights Movement
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The Young Crusaders
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Narrated by:
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Jonathan Horne
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Written by:
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V.P. Franklin
About this listen
An authoritative history of the overlooked youth activists that spearheaded the largest protests of the Civil Rights Movement and set the blueprint for future generations of activists to follow.
Some of the most iconic images of the Civil Rights Movement are those of young people engaged in social activism, such as children and teenagers in 1963 being attacked by police in Birmingham with dogs and water hoses. But their contributions have not been well documented or prioritized. The Young Crusaders is the first book dedicated to telling the story of the hundreds of thousands of children and teenagers who engaged in sit-ins, school strikes, boycotts, marches, and demonstrations in which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other national civil rights leaders played little or no part.
It was these young activists who joined in the largest civil rights demonstration in US history: the system-wide school boycott in New York City on February 3, 1964, where over 360,000 elementary and secondary school students went on strike and thousands attended freedom schools. Later that month, tens of thousands of children and teenagers participated in the "Freedom Day" boycotts in Boston and Chicago, also demanding "quality integrated education".
Distinguished historian V. P. Franklin illustrates how their ingenuity made these and numerous other campaigns across the country successful in bringing about the end to legalized racial discrimination. It was these unheralded young people who set the blueprint for today's youth activists and their campaigns to address poverty, joblessness, educational inequality, and racialized violence and discrimination. Understanding the role of children and teenagers transforms how we understand the Civil Rights Movement and the broader part young people have played in shepherding social and educational progress, and it serves as a model for the youth-led "reparatory justice" campaigns seen today mounted by Black Lives Matter, March for Our Lives, and the Sunrise Movement.
Highlighting the voices of the young people themselves, Franklin offers a redefining narrative, complemented by arresting archival images. The Young Crusaders reveals a radical history that both challenges and expands our understanding of the Civil Rights Movement.
©2021 V.P. Franklin (P)2021 Random House AudioCritic Reviews
“In The Young Crusaders, V. P. Franklin reveals that the entire history of civil rights protest has depended in large measure on activism by children and teenagers. Covering events in nearly 50 cities, the book is stunning in its breadth and proves the undeniable impact and courage of these youthful activists. Their voices and stories resonate powerfully today, and should energize and inspire a new generation of young activists in their fight for reparations and equality.” (Mary Frances Berry, Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Professor of History and Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania, and author of History Teaches Us to Resist)
"Lively history of the teenagers and young adults who fought some of the hardest battles of the civil rights movement.... A compelling narrative that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the struggle for social justice.” (Kirkus Reviews)
“Celebrates the young people who became activists and changed the country for getting into ‘good trouble’, as the late US Rep. John Lewis put it.” (San Francisco Chronicle Datebook)