Civil rights leaders Martin Luther King, Jr., left, and Fred Shuttlesworth hold a press conference in 1963 in Birmingham, Ala. The two ministers fought for civil rights together, but King is the one remembered today with a federal holiday. (Michael Ochs Archives, Getty Images)
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 Center found that schools across the country have a dismal record when it comes to teaching about the civil rights movement. Only three states — Alabama, New York and Florida — received a grade of A, and the law center acknowledged that even they had considerable room for improvement. More than half of the states received an F.
Illinois came in at No. 5, with a B. That, according to the law center, means that students receive about half of the information needed for a thorough grounding in the history of the civil rights movement.
The problem, according to Maureen Costello, director of the center's Teaching Tolerance program, is that no one knows whether students are actually being taught what the state recommends because most states don't test for academic achievement in social studies.
From Costello's point of view, civil rights education for far too many students boils down to two people and four words: Parks, King and "I Have a Dream."
In some textbooks, she says, Parks is described only as "a tired seamstress," with no mention of her being a skilled activist.
"This isn't just about black history, it's American history," says Costello, a former history teacher who travels to schools around the country promoting classroom tools designed to reduce prejudice.
But in some schools, history and social studies have taken a back seat to English and math. So it is no surprise that many young people have no grasp of American history.
A study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education last year found that only 12 percent of high school seniors have a solid understanding of American history. If only 2 percent of them know the significance of Brown v. Board of Education, how can we expect them to know Shuttlesworth?
What is most troubling is that a half-century down the road from the events of the 1960s, there is a misconception among some that the movement was happenstance and that King almost single-handedly put the country on a different track.
No disrespect to King, whose charisma and fearless leadership provided the backbone of the movement. But the civil rights movement was a cumulative effort involving thousands of people from all walks of life.
According to Costello, offering children the complete story will help each generation understand that civic engagement is not just showing up at the polls to vote but taking a stand for justice.
Without those history lessons, schools lose what once was a core mission of education — teaching people how to be good citizens.
The civil rights movement happened because good citizens from different walks of life came together.
It was about martyrs such as Liuzzo, a white homemaker from Detroit who left her five children at home and headed to Selma after seeing the 1965 Bloody Sunday attack on TV. She was shot and killed by Klansmen in a passing car as she drove marchers from Montgomery to Selma.
Liuzzo and Shuttlesworth may never receive justice in the classroom. But the good news is that both of them are on Facebook. When he died Wednesday, Shuttlesworth had 362 "likes" on his page. By Monday, he had 502.