The Carter Children

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Recommended: Black power movement and the fight for civil rights

Silver Rights is a true story from the front lines of the civil rights struggle--the story of the Carter family of Sunflower County, Mississippi. African-American sharecroppers and the parents of seven children, Mae Bertha and Matthew Carter accepted their school district's 1965 "Freedom of Choice" offer and enrolled their seven school-age children in the formerly all-white schools of Drew, Mississippi. The Carter family was the only family brave enough to send their seven children to be the first children to ever desegregate the previously all white schools. Through the Carter children and their experiences we learn that it is important to stand up for what you believe in, even if that means standing alone, because you never know what kind of difference you could be making in the world. The parents of the seven Carter children, Mae Bertha and Matthew Carter, wanted more than a life of picking cotton for long hours and endless days for their children. When the “Freedom of Choice Act” gave them an opportunity to put their children into white schools, at the time the better schools, Mae Bertha and Matthew immediately decided that their children would attend all white schools in the following school year. Little did they know “they would be the only ones-the only black children to board the bus, the only black children to walk up the steps and through the doors of white schools” (4). That didn’t stop them though, on the morning of September 7, 1965 all seven Carter children boarded the bus for what would end up being years of torment, but also resulted in a monumental time in history. Even though this family had to face desegregating schools alone with no other black family by their side, they did it and they succeeded. A preacher in... ... middle of paper ... ...or Ole Miss” (205). They are farther in life than they ever imagined, when they signed the “Freedom of Choice” papers in 1965. A lot was accomplished from one family deciding to make a change and stand up for their beliefs. The Carter family is to thank for taking a stand at a time when that was frowned upon and making a change that has greatly impacted our world today. Mae Bertha and Matthew Carter endured a rough life during these years of fighting for their freedom and rights as human beings. Their efforts were well worth it, considering all seven of their children ended up graduating from a university, which was something nobody thought possible for a colored person at that time. The Carter family taught us that not everyone is going to agree with the change you want to make but it is important to take a stand and even if you are standing alone.

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