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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 13, 2016)
Page 16 The Skanner January 13, 2016 Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Introducing School Children to ‘Friends of Dr. Martin Luther King’ Retired educator’s books for middle-school readers feature key players in Civil Rights Movement By Jazelle Hunt NNPA Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON – Over the course of a 32-year teaching career, Jac- queline James noticed a glaring problem: Black history was slowly but surely being ignored in the schools where she worked. When it was outright dropped from her required curricula, she got creative, using Black history calendar factoids for penmanship lessons. “Now, Black history is watered down to them teaching about [Martin Luther King Jr.] in Janu- ary,” says James, adding that teachers today are under so much pressure, they don’t have time to truly teach. “Even now…I really think children need to know who helped him. Because they think Mar- tin Luther King did ev- erything from free the slaves to help Lebron James. It’s crazy.” Now retired, she’s on a quest to re-educate the nation’s Black children. In 2009, she founded JAX Publications to write, self-publish, and mar- ket a children’s histori- cal non-fiction series of books, called Friends of Martin Luther King, Jr. The sepia-toned hard- covers feature key play- ers in the Civil Rights Movement who support- ed and worked with Dr. King. They are written at a middle school level, and each book has accompa- nying lesson plans and enrichment activities for teachers. James’ lesson plans are also in line with the Department of Edu- cation’s Common Core educational standards, which have been adopted by almost every state. But more important- ly, the project allows the self professed “histori- cal-accuracy fanatic” to get up-close and person- al with the figures she so admires. Take C. T. Vivi- an, the subject of the first book in the series, for example. “ man [Shuttlesworth] did eight-nine years be- fore that. Just talking to him—” she says, express- ing how excited she was to get to know him. “And then the next year he was saying, ‘You know I’ve got a brain tumor, right?’ And I said, ‘What do you mean, brain tumor?” And he goes, “Well that’s from all those White people beating up on my head for all those years.’” A few months after that conversation, Shut- tlesworth began having strokes. And a few years after that, his wife called to ask James to rush-de- liver his book in the se- ries. A few hours after reading the un-illustrat- ed, unpublished man- I remember hearing Rosa Parks’ name, and not riding the bus, but I was nine then. And I vaguely remember the dogs on those children in Birmingham. But every- thing else I found out be- cause of my own nosy self. “When I was 17…I saw this man standing, talking to this White rac- ist sheriff. He wouldn’t stop talking, and the [sheriff ] hit him and knocked him down. And then he got right back up and kept talking. They picked him up and took him to jail,” she remem- bers. “Then I saw the same scene years later on [PBS documentary] ‘Eyes on the Prize’, and I said, ‘That’s the same man from those years ago!’” Forty years after that, James was a guest at an event to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgom- ery, Ala. march and Rev. Vivian was also in atten- dance. “I went and introduced myself, saying, ‘You don’t know me but I’ve known you for years. I’m glad to meet you now,’” she says. “We shook hands and talked, and I said, ‘Some- body needs to write a book about you….’ He said, ‘Well, here’s my number.’” Since then, she’s be- come acquainted with other civil rights lumi- naries such as Dorothy Cotton, Rev. Fred Shut- tlesworth, and many more (even becoming good friends with the latter’s daughter, Ruby Shuttlesworth Bester). “You only hear about Martin Luther King in Birmingham, you don’t know about what this uscript, Shuttlesworth died at home. “They had a chance to read it together and that just meant so much to me,” James says. “He couldn’t speak by then, but [his wife] said she could tell he was really pleased.” James says that if she hadn’t been the kind of voracious reader who has read the newspaper cover-to-cover since grade school, she might have never known about these key figures. In fact, when she first met Shuttlesworth at an awards ceremony, she had no knowledge of who he was or the contribu- tions he had made until he gave his keynote ad- dress. Today, the Friends of Martin Luther King, Jr. series consists of 28 ti- tles, including A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rust- in, Dorothy Height, and more. Her books can be found in Georgia’s DeKalb County library system; in a few schools in Michigan, DeKalb County, Atlanta, and Durham, N.C. and can also be purchased di- rectly from her website, w w w.jaxpublications. com. In addition to add- ing to the series, she’s also seeking financial partners to launch a children’s magazine, and dipping her toes in pub- lishing other like-mind- ed authors’ works.
