Category: Social Justice

Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins
by Carole Boston Weatherford
review by Beth Crow

YouTube Reading of this book (4:11)

Sixty-three years ago — on February 4, 1960 — African-American students staged a sit-in at a  segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, an act that began  a national movement protesting segregation. Freedom on the Menu recounts the events  of the seven-month protest, told through the perspective of an elementary-age child. 

Often we associate the Greensboro Sit-ins with only the four black college students  from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College. Weatherford accurately illustrates how the support and involvement of more than 300 other college and high-school students, as well as people in the community — both at the lunch counter and outside the Woolworth’s — led to the beginning of integration throughout the country. 

Discussion Questions 

• Ask your child if they have ever really wanted something or wanted to do something  but the rules prevented them from doing it. An example might be having to be a  certain height to get on some rides at an amusement park, or not being allowed to  play a sport because of their gender. Ask them how that made them feel. Explain  how 60 years ago, and before, African American people were not allowed to go  many places white people went, even to drink from the same water fountain as white  people. If your child is old enough to understand, tell them this is called segregation  or “Jim Crow” laws. 

• Though Connie was too young to participate in the sit-ins or marches, her sister  found a way she could contribute. What did Connie do to help her sister when she  protested? 

• You might also read Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down 

Go Deeper 

• Connie’s mother told her, “Some rules need to be broken.” What did she mean?  Ask your child if he or she can think of any rules or laws they think need to change.  Discuss with your child how he or she can voice their opinions and concerns. • Ask your child what he or she might write on their protest sign. 

• Ask your child why they think Connie’s sister did not want her father to get her out of jail. 

• The Greensboro Sit-ins helped change unjust laws that had been in place for  hundreds of years, a movement involving more than 300 people, young people who  simply stood and sat in protest without any form of violence on their part. What can  we learn from their examples? (nonviolence, strength in numbers, patience, faith)

• Ask your child if they think the rules would have changed at the Woolworth’s if  it had been just one day with the four male students.  

Spiritual Reflections 

Throughout his ministry, Jesus talked about following the will of God and being discerning about the laws of man. Read the following New Testament Scriptures with your child and talk with them about God’s vision of Beloved Community. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. popularized the term Beloved Community during his lifetime of activism. Fueled by his faith that such a community is possible, he imbued it with new meaning: a community in which everyone is cared for, absent of poverty, hunger, and hate. 

by Michael Hall
review by Emily Phillips

A blue crayon is mislabeled as red. All the other crayons want him to draw things that are red  but he can’t get it right. It says red on his label so that must be right. They tell him he needs to  try harder and keep practicing but he just can’t get it right and feels bad about himself  One crayon asks him to draw water. “Red”doesn’t think he can because he’s red, it says so on  his label. But with some friendly encouragement he tries. He realizes he can draw water. He  starts to draw all kinds of blue things. He is able to be seen for who he really is “blue” no matter  what his label says.  

General thoughts

We all have labels we use to describe ourselves and others. Labels can be helpful in some  situations, but when forcing someone into a label that is not who they are it causes a lot of pain.  Trying to live life in a way that does not feel authentic to who you are is not good for anyone.  Sometimes all it takes is one person to help change the way we view ourselves and others by  “pulling off” the label.  

Discussion questions

• What are some “labels” or titles that might describe you? Child, son, daughter, brother, sister,  soccer player, student, piano player, etc.  
• Have you ever been called something that made you uncomfortable? Did you tell the person  or anyone else about this? How do you ask for help when the label you are given doesn’t feel  right? 
• Talk about how our world labels us by our skin color, such as white, brown or black.  Sometimes we are labeled by our cultures such as Native American, African American,  Hispanic. There are times, however, when people use labels to hurt others, like calling  someone fat or ugly and stupid. 
• Have you ever witnessed someone being called bad things; what did you do? 
• How can kids (and adults) help their peers when they see someone being pushed into a label  that doesn’t fit them? 
• As people of faith how can we push past labels and see each individual and their abilities as  being gifts from God with out having to confirm to a preconceived idea of who they should  be.  
• Remind your child that he or she is loved and that during their baptism they were marked as  God’s forever.

Activities with kids

• Place labels on various household items that are wrong. Talk about how calling a table a  couch does not make a good place to sit or a couch does not make a good cabinet to store  dishes.  
  • putting a label on something doesn’t actually change it or it’s abilities
• Give your child a large sheet of drawing paper and a pack of crayons. Ask this to draw on  the paper images or labels that help tell others who your child is. When finished, encourage  them to tell you about what they have drawn. 
• Print the outline of the crayon below and have your child cut the crayon out. They ask them  to turn over the imagine and on the inside rectangle write all they want to tell who they are  (drawings for younger children can been done.) Then turn the paper back over, fold the  crayon label so that the words are now covered with the label. Discuss with your child how  most of the time people don’t see who we really are until we open up and share. Point out  also, that even if others place a label on you that makes you uncomfortable, you know who  you are on the inside and that is the true you.

by William Kamkwamba
review by Becky Showalter

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is the inspiring true story of a boy in Malawi who designs and builds a windmill to power his home in famine-stricken Malawi. William Kamkwamba is forced to leave school at 11 years old because his family cannot pay his school fees.  Instead of giving up on his education, William reads every book he can in the small, donated library in his village.  It is there that he falls in love with science and comes up with the idea to help his family by building a windmill that will produce electricity – what he calls “electric wind”.  While it is very much a story of William Kamkwamba’s determination and perseverance during a terrible time, it is also introducing young readers to the idea there is great poverty and hardship in our world even still.  What I liked most about this book is that it skillfully builds a bridge from the reader to William and his village – he is a young person you can imagine knowing.  His words make you smile, and his tenacity reminds the reader that hard things are possible.  If William can do this, we can make a difference too.

Going Deeper:

How did the supplies Gilbert bought made William’s work possible at crucial points in The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind? When has someone done something small for you that had a huge impact? Have you ever done that for someone else? How can we find these opportunities to help?

What obstacles to education and progress exist where you live? What can be done to address those obstacles?

What other books have you read about people who have changed the world in big or small ways?

Can you find Malawi on the map?  Can you find William’s village of Wimbe?  What is William Kamkwamba doing now?

Going Deeper in Faith:

Genesis 1:28 ESV “And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.””

Some scholars would translate “dominion” for “stewardship” or “being responsible for.”  The title, Harnessing the Wind, is an interesting one, isn’t it? That phrase often fits with environmental causes. Is the title an environmental message in this book? Consider how Genesis talks about God’s giving us the responsibility to care for creation. What lessons does the book have about caring for creation?

Micah 6:8 ESV “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

The Bible speaks often of people living in poverty. It also talks about simplicity. How does the villagers’ absence of electricity, telephones, or most of the modern conveniences we have to connect with biblical teachings about what is important? 

Activity Suggestions:

William and his friends were able to recycle all sorts of things to make toys, games . . . and the windmill.  Try these:

• Balloon Powered Milk Carton Car: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wkU1msp6bI
• Make a soccer bag out of plastic bags https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0GQZFlO4tM&feature=youtu.be
• Gather a bunch of garbage and junk lying around the house and create anything. 

This book is all about creating something with the materials you have. Be creative! Start to save some of your garbage and when you have a good stockpile, let your kids imagination go to town.  Or go to the Scrap Exchange in Durham and let your imagination go crazy!

Learn how to play bawo (bao)

• African men playing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adj562Mb03M
• Young person explaining how to playhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxTW4ss6ml8&t=2s

Make Nsima and Greens like William and his family ate

• https://honestcooking.com/six-traditional-malawian-dishes/

Buy a kit and build a Electricity Producing Windmill!  https://www.amazon.com/4M-Science-Windmill-Generator-Packaging/dp/B0016PBH9Qb