Civil Rights: Entertaining Education?

To be truthful, I was dreading the prospect of taking 60 third graders through a museum that I suspected would be difficult for them to comprehend. Afterall, the Civil Rights Movement—as important as it was—is not the type of light subject matter that interests younger age groups. It was not the subject matter that jaded my enthusiasm for the trip. No, it was the idea of keeping a group of nine-year-olds under control in a museum that offers few hands-on exhibits. My expectations proved to be wrong, though, and I left with not only a better understanding of the Civil Rights Movement, but also a belief that every museum could take a lesson on how to present information to diverse age groups.

Knowing that the Civil Rights movement would be a weighty subject for young children, I suspected much of the museum's content would be photographs and reading materials, all the more reason to dread taking a bunch of kids. As a family travel magazine editor, I tend to view destinations like this one not through the eyes of a child, but through the eyes of a parent traveling with a child. There's a markable difference as subjects that fascinate us as adults oftentimes are difficult to explain to kids with limited attention spans.

The Civil Rights Museum bridges the attention gap between adults and children through the use of live re-enactors portraying historical figures in the civil rights movement.  The characters—both famous and fictional eyewitnesses—dramatically wrap the information of each section of the museum into a 10- to 15-minute synopsis that both educate and entertain. While many adults perused the museum at their own pace, viewing the abundance of photos and supporting documents, kids were escorted along by the likes of Frederick Douglass, Thurgood Marshall, Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington and even Eleanor Roosevelt. A host of behind-the-scenes "eyewitnesses" led our group aboard the bus with Rosa Parks prior to her arrest, explained the Montgomery Bus Boycott and brought us into a southern diner during a sit-in by black students. These fictional eyewitnesses also brought to life the violence associated with the movement, from the attacks on the Freedom Riders to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It should be noted that the museum is built around the Lorraine Motel, the downtown location of the Civil Rights leader's death. Pretty heavy material for a bunch of third graders.

Museums across the country—even here in Missouri—could take a lesson from the National Civil Rights Museum. Learning is an experience that transcends age and color. Presenting information to different age groups is not a simple task, but finding ways to combine education and entertainment certainly bridges the gap.