We wouldn't be America without student activists

by Peniel Joseph

Peniel Joseph is the Barbara Jordan Chair in Ethics and Political Values and the founding director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is also a professor of history. He is the author of several books, most recently "Stokely: A Life." The views expressed here are his.

Right now, amid demonstrations by high school students who are speaking out about gun violence, it's worth remembering that students, teens and younger have been part of the anatomy of social justice movements since the end of World War II, most notably the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

The efforts of the kids who are organizing against gun violence in the aftermath of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida have their roots in this long history of youth activism. These high school students are the latest Americans, not yet old enough to vote, to hold aloft this proud banner of tradition. A planned march on Washington against gun violence, school walkouts and social media campaign by Marjory Stoneman Douglas students personally affected by the tragedy exemplify the highest standard of civic participation, political action and citizenship.

Oprah Winfrey is perhaps the most well-known figure to recognize the connections between civil rights-era activism and the youthful anti-gun violence protesters, pledging $500,000 in support of the planned march on Washington. In matching a donation in that same amount made by George and Amal Clooney, Winfrey tweeted her observation that the students' efforts echo the heroic protests of Freedom Riders and the generation who called America to a higher national purpose.

Adults who are applauding the courage and poise these students are showing on the national stage are recognizing at last and in a new way what this kind of activism has always been about: patriotism. The March for Our Lives, a mélange of proposed school walkouts, statehouse demonstrations and more, has spread across social media like wildfire, coalescing into an incipient national movement to end not only gun violence but also its cascading effect on poor communities, schools and civil society across the nation.

While the role of college-age students during Freedom Summer and voter registration efforts in the 1960s has been rightfully acknowledged as crucial, less well-known is the impact of students in high school and even younger who organized boycotts, lobbied elected officials, conducted sit-ins and risked arrest, police brutality and jail in service of social change. ...

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