If We Could Change the World: Young People and America's Long Struggle for Racial Equality

by Rebecca de Schweinitz

Rebecca de Schweinitz offers a new perspective on the civil rights movement by bringing children and youth to the fore. In the first book to connect young people and shifting ideas about children and youth with the black freedom struggle, de Schweinitz explains how popular ideas about youth and young people themselves—both black and white—influenced the long history of the movement. If We Could Change the World brings out the voices and experiences of participants who are rarely heard. Here, familiar events from the black freedom struggle are examined in new ways, and the explanations and motivations for getting involved and taking action are told, often in the words of young people themselves. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, de Schweinitz argues that examining historical constructions of childhood and the roles children have played in history changes the way one understands the past. With de Schweinitz's analysis, young people—elementary age, adolesce

379 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting way to view the Civil Rights movement from the early 1930s through the sixties. The "rights" of childhood helped motivate policy change, and fueled both sides of the big arguments. For example, desegregating schools to keep our children from the corruption of racism vs keep them segregated to safeguard our children from other races.
Since this was assigned reading for a Childhood in America class, it was great for examining different images of the child; the revolutionary child, innocent child.

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a leisurely read, I give this a 3, but for an academic read, it's a 4-5. Overall, it's very informative.