Emily Hays Photos
Gammy Moses leads Elm City Montessori drummers at Thursday’s protest.
In 1963, kids marched for desegregation in Birmingham, Alabama, as police officers attacked them with dogs and fire hoses.
In 2021, kids in New Haven remembered their predecessors’ bravery with the hope that they too could spark change.
“Our people went through years of injustice so we could be here. Remember to appreciate your education,” summed up one New Haven protester in a spontaneous speech.
The New Haven version of the Children’s March took place on Thursday afternoon in Edgewood Park. It was the second annual Children’s March for Elm City Montessori School (ECMS). The in-district charter school organized the first march last year in the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic as a car parade for students and their families during remote school.
Davis Academy for Arts and Design Innovation students.
This year, over a hundred students and teachers marched to the park from Edgewood, Beecher, Davis Street schools, as well as from Elm City Montessori. The students stayed in clumps according to school, clutching homemade signs and mostly managing to wear their masks over their noses.
Excited to be outdoors and among so many peers, the middle schoolers had a hard time quieting down for the main event. Elm City fourth and fifth grade educator Alejandra Corona Ortega (pictured above) managed to create some silence by teaching the Edgewood, Beecher and Davis Street students to chant “one mic” with her.
Elm City fourth grader Kingston Clark (pictured) read a speech into the temporary quiet.
“The police should protect us, but they haven’t been doing that, like when George Floyd was killed,” Clark said.
Davis Academy for Arts and Design student Zahir Uqdah Jennings (left in photo) continued the theme. The 11-year-old led the crowd in chanting “Black lives matter!” while sixth grade teacher Adham Conaway hovered next to him for support.
“Thank you for your time,” Jennings finished.
Each student brought the cause closest to their heart. Experienced Elm City Montessori protester Aurora Irizarry Cardone (at center left in photo) spoke about feminism. Irizarry Cardone has attended protests since infancy with her father and knows New Haven’s Black Lives Matter leaders by name.
Other students spoke about climate change, gun control and providing housing for the homeless.
Elm City Montessori Anti-Bias & Anti-Racism Director Amelia Allen Sherwood organized the annual protest as part of the school’s yearlong social justice curriculum. The curriculum moves from learning about identity to learning about racism and structural inequalities to learning how to take action. Students prepared for the march by studying the Birmingham Children’s Crusade of 1963. (Learn more about the march, the dangers students faced and how they prompted desegregation here.)
“We want children to feel empowered to act and share their voices in variety of ways,” said ECMS Magnet Resource Teacher David Weinreb.
Practice does help with this empowerment project. ECMS fourth grader Hayden Hawthorne (pictured) conquered her fears of public speaking to talk about wage inequality at Thursday’s protest.
“Women deserve to have the same wages as men — oh, my voice sounds weird,” Hawthorne said.
She kept reading from her speech though.
“When I grow up, I don’t want to be paid less than men. I’m speaking up for myself and other women who can’t do it themselves,” she finished.
Hawthorne joined other ECMS students in late April to protest the murders of 13-year-old Adam Toledo and 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant at the hands of police officers. In April, Hawthorne wanted to read her speech but got so nervous and emotional that she felt like throwing up. Her sister stepped in to read the speech in her stead.
On Thursday, though, Hawthorne read her speech in front of a much larger crowd and finished it on her own.
From left: Janelis Negrón, 18, Karynn Hardy, 17, Tamara Parks, 16.
All of the youth protesters were middle schoolers, with the exception of New Haven Academy’s Black Lives Matter chapter. ECMS had invited the club to inspire the younger students.
“This is what unity looks like. This is what the future looks like,” New Haven Academy senior Karynn Hardy told the crowd.
Hardy left the protest inspired herself.
“I felt optimistic about the future. These students are decades younger than us and are informed and ready to act. It felt surreal,” Hardy said.
Other sponsors and partners at the protest were Black Lives Matter New Haven, New Haven Pride Center, Citywide Youth Coalition, City of New Haven LGBTQ Youth Task Force, New Haven Climate Movement, People Get Ready, Semilla Collective, Students for Educational Justice, and New Haven Public School Advocates. Mayor Justin Elicker was at the protest too, standing quietly at the back of the crowd and occasionally chatting with one of the clumps of students.
Elm City Montessori’s David Weinreb expects to see another Children’s March next year and some joint protests organized by other schools in between.
“We’re excited to be a galvanizing and energizing force for neighborhood schools. We want our children to see that there are lots of children in our vicinity who care about what we care about,” Weinreb said.