On April 19, 2023, Daphne Chamberlain presented “The 60th Anniversary of the Jackson Children’s Crusade” as part of the History Is Lunch series.
African American youth in the capital city worked together and with local civil rights leaders to challenge Jim Crow. In 1946 students at Lanier High School organized a city bus boycott. In the late 1950s an NAACP Youth Council chapter was established in Jackson, and its members conducted workshops, distributed movement literature, and recruited new members.
“Jackson’s Youth Councils attempted to integrate city parks and pools, the zoo, the state fair, and public transportation,” said Chamberlain, an associate professor of history at Tougaloo College. “Between 1960 and 1962 those young activists encouraged Blacks to boycott downtown businesses—especially during the holiday seasons.”
In the spring of 1963 events came to a head with demonstrations, sit-ins, and marches in response to the unwillingness of Mayor Allen C. Thompson and city officials to negotiate over proposed changes. Over a two-week period more than one thousand protestors were arrested—a number that forced authorities to convert parts of the state fairgrounds into a temporary jail.
“For all we know of these youth-led events, others have been overlooked or forgotten until recent years,” Chamberlain said. “As more information on the roles of young people as critical actors in the struggle for civil rights emerges, it leads to a more robust story of the movement.”
Daphne Chamberlain is associate professor of history and Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Social Justice at Tougaloo College. She earned her BA in history from Tougaloo College and her MA and PhD in history from the University of Mississippi. Before returning to Tougaloo, Chamberlain taught history and African American Studies at the University of Mississippi and was founding director of the COFO Civil Rights Education Center at Jackson State University. She has served as a scholar-consultant for numerous local, state, and national civil rights projects, including the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. Chamberlain is the immediate past president of the Mississippi Historical Society.
History Is Lunch is sponsored by the John and Lucy Shackelford Charitable Fund of the Community Foundation for Mississippi. The weekly lecture series of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History explores different aspects of the state's past. The hour-long programs are held in the Craig H. Neilsen Auditorium of the Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum building at 222 North Street in Jackson and livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook.
