Freedom+Writers

= Freedom Writers: Resources about Women in Education (and other people, too, even in other areas) who Have Changed the World = = = =The Freedom Writers Diary: how a teacher and 150 teens used writing to change themselves and the world around them= =By: Erin Gruwell and her students at Wilson High School in Long Beach, CA.= =Published: 1999.= (The Freedom Writers Diary can even be read on Google books!)

Read more about Erin Gruwell, her students, and the Freedom Writers Foundation at: []

Did you know that Erin Gruwell was a STUDENT TEACHER when she first met her students and started to change their lives by assigning for them to write journal entries about themselves? She was challenged by many, but in the end she helped make a difference in the lives of a group of high school "unteachable" students!

THE FREEDOM WRITERS, as Erin and her students came to be known through their journal entries, gained their name from the FREEDOM RIDERS. "The first Freedom Ride took place on May 4, 1961 when seven blacks and six whites left Washington, D.C., on two public buses bound for the Deep South. They intended to test the Supreme Court's ruling in Boynton v. Virginia (1960), which declared segregation in interstate bus and rail stations unconstitutional."

See this site to learn more about The Freedom Riders and how they worked to change the ways of the United States society. http://www.core-online.org/History/freedom%20rides.htm Other famous Freedom Riders in history-

Rosa Parks Paul Revere Ruby Bridges John Lewis (one of the original Freedom Riders, who later became a Congressman) Martin Luther King, Jr. Nelson Mandela Zora Neale Hurston Alice Walker

AND MANY MORE!

The following article from NPR describes the efforts of a group of people who have set out to change the future while ultimately improving the lives of all who identify with multicultural backgrounds or lives.

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Also, take a look at this NPR recap of Dorothy Height's book, //Open Wide the Freedom Gates,// to learn more about a woman who served a huge role in the U.S. civil rights movement. []