Let the Children March by Monica Clark-Robinson

In the first week of May, 1963, after Martin Luther King had written his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” but a year before the Civil Rights Law was signed, massive Civil Rights protests by adults in Birmingham, Alabama, seemed to be slowly dissipating. After spirited debate and considerable trepidation, the decision was made to allow local youths to skip school and march by themselves. They responded enthusiastically, and their numbers swelled into the thousands. Sheriff Bull Conner responded with fire hoses, dogs, night sticks, and mass jailings. Huge numbers were jailed. On May 10th, a settlement was reached when Birmingham leaders agreed to release all the children who remained in jail, not press charges against them, and begin to de-segregate downtown facilities. Later the Birmingham School Board voted to expel the children who missed school to protest. A court eventually voided that order. This picture book does not focus on historical facts, but it does provide the basic context