The Youngest Marcher

A text heavy, moving picture book for the budding young activist.

Levinson’s story highlights a little discussed event in Civil Rights history—the Children’s March in May of 1963 in which more than 3,000 children were arrested in Alabama for peaceful protests. Audrey Faye Hendricks was one of the youngest marchers at nine years old and the daughter of activists who worked with Martin Luther King Jr., Fred Shuttleworth, and Jim Bevel in Birmingham. It’s a lovely and sad look at the time from a child’s point of view—knowing the lessons, of drinking from the correct fountain, going to the back of the bus and not being able to sit down at the lunch counters—and wanting “to go places and do thing like anybody else.” This is a text heavy, moving picture book for the young budding activist.