Several years ago, when my great-niece was about 5, I asked her "Who is Rosa Parks?"
She looked up at me proudly and repeated what she had learned in kindergarten in her small Georgia town: "She sat on the bus."
That was quite impressive for a youngster who had not yet entered first grade. But it's sad when many high school seniors can't tell you much more about Parks, the seasoned NAACP activist who was hand-picked and trained to be the face of the Montgomery bus boycott.
The death of the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth last week reminded me of how little some young people know about the African-Americans and whites who put their lives on the line for racial equality during the civil rights movement.
Though the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once called Shuttlesworth "the most courageous civil rights fighter in the South," his name is largely unfamiliar to those under the age of 50.
The Alabama preacher was a frequent target of the Ku Klux Klan, though he was essential in establishing the movement's nonviolence doctrine.
Most textbooks don't detail the accomplishments of legends like Shuttlesworth, who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with King and worked fearlessly by his side without the recognition and honors.
The same is true of Amelia Boynton Robinson, the Rev. James Reeb, Hosea Williams, Ella Baker, the Rev. James Orange and Viola Liuzzo.
No one expects them to get a national holiday or have statues erected on the National Mall. But would it be too much to expect that their brave contributions to America be at least noted in the classroom?
Though many teachers diligently insert the civil rights movement into the curriculum, and some students embrace those teachings, it does not happen nearly enough.
A recent study by the Southern Poverty Law
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