Living on the Frontlines: Black Teenagers on the Move to Freedom

Abstract

This article analyzes a set of fifty-five interviews conducted with black teenagers during the summer of 1963 in Prince Edward County, Virginia: site of the nation's most determined attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education through abandoning public education altogether. Caught up in currents larger than themselves, the teenagers' thoughts on subjects such as the term "black," the effectiveness of nonviolence, and the actions and motivations of white people offer a rare window into the minds of youth defining their own personhood against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world. Historians know relatively little about civil rights figures like the Prince Edward children, who were simultaneously protesters and victims. Many were thoroughly politicized by their experience, becoming either active resistors or thoughtful commentators on American race relations, while others remained unwitting participants in Prince Edward's civil rights drama.