More Than Cookies and Crayons: Head Start and African American Empowerment in Mississippi, 1965–1968
Abstract
On 11 February 1966 in Washington, DC, seventy-three black Mississippians took over a congressional hearing room in the Rayburn House Office Building. The assembled group, armed with an odd array of accessories, including a toy gun and a caged mouse, went to Capitol Hill to petition the federal government as American citizens had done throughout the nation’s history. Rather than chain themselves to doors or blockade exits, the demonstrators sang songs and drew pictures while their legislative audience watched in amazement. Forty-eight of the activists were under the age of five, and along with their twenty-five chaperones, they demanded preschool education in Mississippi. More specifically, the “romper lobby” sought a new grant for the Child Development Group of Mississippi (CDGM), one of the largest inaugural Head Start programs in the country.
Abstract
On 11 February 1966 in Washington, DC, seventy-three black Mississippians took over a congressional hearing room in the Rayburn House Office Building. The assembled group, armed with an odd array of accessories, including a toy gun and a caged mouse, went to Capitol Hill to petition the federal government as American citizens had done throughout the nation’s history. Rather than chain themselves to doors or blockade exits, the demonstrators sang songs and drew pictures while their legislative audience watched in amazement. Forty-eight of the activists were under the age of five, and along with their twenty-five chaperones, they demanded preschool education in Mississippi. More specifically, the “romper lobby” sought a new grant for the Child Development Group of Mississippi (CDGM), one of the largest inaugural Head Start programs in the country.