Often when we think about Head Start’s early history, we recall the White House Rose Garden Ceremony on May 18, 1965 in which President Johnson announced Project Head Start. But this was only the beginning. Following that historic day, it took the work of determined community leaders, many of them Civil Rights advocates ready to challenge the status quo, to build Head Start into the life-changing force we know. This was no easy feat. Launching an integrated, anti-poverty program at the peak of the Modern Civil Rights Movement was met with resistance in some communities, and we owe the leaders, teachers, and parents who persisted in overcoming that resistance a wealth of gratitude. This Black History Month, we will take a deeper look and reflect on just how deeply intertwined Head Start’s history is with that of the Civil Rights Movement.
In her book, A Chance for Change: Head Start and Mississippi’s Black Freedom Struggle, historian Crystal Sanders explores the history of the Child Development Group of Mississippi’s (CDGM) Head Start program. A community action program that was part of the new Economic Opportunity Office — Head Start’s original home office in the federal government — CDGM brought together many SNCC and NAACP activists in its leadership. These leaders had the experience and the desire to put the goals of the Civil Rights Movement into action through this new early childhood program. “They translated a grassroots educational endeavor into an opportunity to better themselves, their communities, and their children’s futures,” Sanders writes.
From the beginning, family and community involvement were at the foundation of Head Start’s model. In Mississippi in 1965 this meant that parents, Black mothers in particular, had unprecedented opportunities to shape their children’s education and improve their own circumstances.
“Black parents in Mississippi wielded authority in the education of their children, an opportunity denied to them in the public school system that was under white supervision,” Sanders writes. Not only were parents able and encouraged to play a role in their children’s education through CDGM, but many also gained employment as administrators, teachers, and cooks, which they saw as an extension of their earlier Civil Rights Movement work.
Of course, there were also obstacles to be overcome at every turn. In that first year, for example, not one school superintendent rented out school buildings or buses to CDGM, leaving them to source resources elsewhere in the community and build from scratch. And if that message wasn’t clear enough, the largest local newspaper printed an editorial saying that, “on the face of this undertaking … it appears to be the most wholesome and humane.” But, it went on, “Here is one of the most subtle mediums for instilling the acceptance of racial integration and ultimate mongrelization ever perpetrated in this country.” Despite these institutions’ unwillingness to embrace integration and progress, Head Start persisted.
A couple of states away, Darren Walker, now President of the Ford Foundation, was a student in another Head Start program in its inaugural year. “I was raised by a single mother, and I and my sister lived in the early 1960s in a small town in East Texas called Ames — what one in those days called the colored community,” Walker recalls. “The scene is a little dirt road with a modest shotgun shack, and a woman approached my mother and me on the porch and told my mother about a new government program called Head Start.” More than five decades later, Mr. Walker believes his own work aligns with that of the Head Start program that gave him his start — both in the business of hope and of opportunity.
Darren Walker is a prominent example, but just one of many examples of Head Start’s impact for low-income Black children who grew up in the 1960s. We know that the work of Civil Rights leaders running CDGM, the work of women like the one who approached Darren Walker’s mother, the work of countless others has made an impact because we see Head Start alumni leading in every field, in every community today.
Head Start owes its birth and early development deeply to the determination and tenacity of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Throughout Black History Month, we invite you to follow along as NHSA continues to reflect on the relationship between Head Start and the Civil Rights Movement, and how this legacy lives on today.
"Hata hivyo, wakati wa kuanzisha mpango wa ""Head Start,"" ni muhimu kukumbuka kwamba katika tamasha la White House Rose Garden, Rais Johnson alitangaza mpango huo mnamo Mei 18, 1965." Lakini huo ulikuwa mwanzo tu. Baada ya siku hiyo ya kihistoria, ilichukua kazi ya viongozi wa jamii waliojitolea, wengi wao ni watetezi wa Haki za Kiraia tayari kupinga hali ya sasa, kujenga Head Start kuwa nguvu ya kubadilisha maisha tunayojua. Hilo halikuwa jambo rahisi. Kuanzisha mpango wa kupambana na umaskini wakati wa kilele cha harakati ya haki za kiraia ya kisasa kulikutana na upinzani katika jamii zingine, na tunapaswa kuwa na shukrani nyingi kwa viongozi, walimu, na wazazi ambao waliendelea kushinda upinzani huo. Katika mwezi huu wa historia ya weusi, tutaangalia kwa undani zaidi na kutafakari juu ya jinsi historia ya Head Start ilivyounganishwa kwa undani na ile ya Harakati ya Haki za Kiraia. Katika kitabu chake, A Chance for Change: Head Start and Mississippi's Black Freedom Struggle, mwanahistoria Crystal Sanders anachunguza historia ya mpango wa Head Start wa Kikundi cha Maendeleo ya Watoto wa Mississippi (CDGM). Programu ya hatua ya jamii ambayo ilikuwa sehemu ya Ofisi mpya ya Fursa za Kiuchumi - Ofisi ya nyumbani ya awali ya Head Start katika serikali ya shirikisho - CDGM ilileta pamoja wanaharakati wengi wa SNCC na NAACP katika uongozi wake. Viongozi hao walikuwa na uzoefu na hamu ya kuweka malengo ya Harakati ya Haki za Kiraia katika hatua kupitia programu hii mpya ya utotoni. "Waliitafsiri juhudi za elimu ya msingi kuwa fursa ya kujipatia bora, jamii zao, na siku zijazo za watoto wao", Sanders anaandika. Tangu mwanzo, ushiriki wa familia na jamii ulikuwa msingi wa mfano wa Head Start. Katika Mississippi mwaka 1965, hii ilimaanisha kwamba wazazi, hasa akina mama weusi, walikuwa na fursa zisizo na kifani za kuunda elimu ya watoto wao na kuboresha hali zao wenyewe. "Wazazi weusi huko Mississippi walikuwa na mamlaka katika elimu ya watoto wao, fursa iliyokataliwa kwao katika mfumo wa shule za umma ambazo zilikuwa chini ya usimamizi wa wazungu", Sanders anaandika. Wazazi waliweza na kuhamasishwa kuwa na jukumu katika elimu ya watoto wao kupitia CDM, lakini wengi pia walipata ajira kama wasimamizi, walimu, na wapishi, ambao waliiona kama upanuzi wa kazi yao ya mapema ya Harakati ya Haki za Kiraia. Bila shaka, kulikuwa na vizuizi vilivyopaswa kushindwa kila wakati. Kwa mfano, mwaka huo wa kwanza, hakuna mkurugenzi wa shule aliyekodi majengo ya shule au mabasi kwa CDM, na kuwaacha kupata rasilimali mahali pengine katika jamii na kujenga kutoka mwanzo. "Na kama ujumbe huo haukuwa wazi vya kutosha, gazeti kubwa la ndani lilichapisha mhariri kusema kwamba, ""Kwa uso wa mradi huu... inaonekana kuwa yenye afya na ya kibinadamu zaidi."" Lakini, iliendelea, ""Hapa ni moja ya njia za busara zaidi za kuingiza kukubalika kwa ushirikiano wa rangi na mwisho wa mchanganyiko uliowahi kufanywa katika nchi hii." Darren Walker, ambaye sasa ni Rais wa Ford Foundation, alikuwa mwanafunzi katika mpango mwingine wa Head Start katika mwaka wake wa kwanza. "Nililelewa na mama mmoja, na mimi na dada yangu tuliishi mwanzoni mwa miaka ya 1960 katika mji mdogo katika Mashariki ya Texas aitwaye Ames, ambayo wakati huo iliitwa jamii ya rangi, "" Walker anakumbuka." "Mwanamke mmoja alitujia mama yangu na mimi kwenye veranda na kumwambia mama yangu juu ya mpango mpya wa serikali unaoitwa ""Head Start"" zaidi ya miongo mitano baadaye, Bwana Walker anaamini kazi yake mwenyewe inalingana na ile ya mpango wa ""Head Start"" ambao ulimpa mwanzo wake - wote katika biashara ya matumaini na fursa." Darren Walker ni mfano maarufu, lakini ni moja tu ya mifano mingi ya athari za Head Start kwa watoto weusi wenye mapato ya chini ambao walilelewa katika miaka ya 1960. """Tunajua kwamba kazi ya viongozi wa haki za kiraia wanaoendesha CDM, kazi ya wanawake kama yule aliyemfikia mama wa Darren Walker, kazi ya wengine wengi, imeathiri kwa sababu tunaona wahitimu wa Head Start wakiongoza katika kila uwanja, katika kila jamii leo." "Mwaka wa 1960 ""Head Start"" ilipata umaarufu wake kutokana na juhudi za harakati za haki za kiraia." Katika mwezi wa historia ya weusi, tunawaalika kufuata wakati NHSA inaendelea kutafakari juu ya uhusiano kati ya Head Start na Harakati ya Haki za Kiraia, na jinsi urithi huu unavyoishi leo.