FAYETTEVILLE — Seventh-graders jumped from their seats, clapping and dancing to the beat of the songs performed Friday by members of the Ozark Blues Society at McNair Middle School.
The students studied about the struggles of African-Americans during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The music brought the message of those struggles home to students in an engaging way, said Lori Mizanin, a teacher.
About the Watsons
“The Watsons Go To Birmingham - 1963” was written by Christopher Paul Curtis and published in 1995. Kenny, 9, narrates the story about his middle-class black family, the Weird Watsons of Flint, Mich. When Kenny’s 13-year-old brother, Byron, gets to be too much trouble, the family heads to Birmingham to visit Grandma, the one person who can shape him up. During their visit, Grandma’s church is bombed.
Source: Staff Report
Throughout the morning, about 368 students passed through the band room for a 45-minute concert. Blues is considered the original American music and the foundation for rock and roll.
“It’s called the bridge to peace,” said Rachel Fields of Fayetteville. That’s when African-Americans and American Europeans, as she referred to Caucasians, began singing together in the 1960s.
Fields was joined on stage by her husband, Larry Brick, Ocie Fisher and David Kimbrough.
Zane Gage, 13, was moved by the songs and their words. He clapped to the beat, occasionally waving his arm from side to side in the air.
“You can see how the music brought the African-Americans’ spirit back up,” Gage said.
Seventh-graders throughout the School District are spending nine-weeks in an intensive study of diversity and adversity using the civil rights movement as the basis, said Mizanin, a language arts teacher at McNair.
Students have read the historical novel, “The Watsons Go To Birmingham - 1963,” and studied accounts of the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, when four young girls were killed.
“This has been an eye-opening unit and the students have been kind of shocked by the difference in the way things were then and are now,” Mizanin said.
All seventh-graders will write an informative essay to compare and contrast adversities and how the student would face his own hardships.
Web Refer
For a slideshow and video, go to nwaonline.com/xx/videos.
The students also have explored how people in other countries experience prejudice and racism today.
Isabella Steinauer, 13, said Muslims are a group who experience discrimination.
“I learned a lot about differences and how it is still going on,” Steinauer said. “And I learned how not to be racist. We need to be more open, to open our doors.”
Classmate Jon Conley, 14, said he learned about adversities African-Americans experienced.
“It still happens,” Conley said. “It teaches us to be more diverse and accepting. It’s a good example of how things can change.”
“It’s been a rich discussion,” Mizanin said.