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 INTRODUCTION:
With roots extending into the late 1800s, the Youth Rights Movement carries a
legacy of challenges and accomplishments. Beginning with the first adult who
mandated anyone under a particular age attend school, extending into the crusade
to get children out of factories, and maturing in the African American civil
rights movement, youth advocating the acknowledge of their rights have been
working for a long time.
POINT TO PONDER: "I wish we could look at this whole
question of the activities or youth-led organizations from the point of view of
the wisest way for old people to help youth... We must go and deal with them as
equals, and we must have both courage and integrity if we expect respect and
cooperation on the part of youth." - Eleanor Roosevelt, 1941
RESOURCES: The following information talks about the
history of the youth rights movement in its various incarnations.
Publications
Children's Rights: The Latest Crusade
(PDF)
Time Magazine Dec.25, 1972; p.41.
The Movement for Youth Rights: 1945-2000
Keith Hefner, Social Policy Magazine, Spring 1998
A History of the National
Youth Rights Association
Written by Alex Koroknay-Palicz,
this history details the history of NYRA, the foremost organization
working for youth rights today. Koroknay-Palicz lays out a
comprehensive and unparalleled framework about the roots of the
modern youth rights movement.
The
Children's Rights Movement: Overcoming the Oppression of Young People
(A Review)
By B. and G. Gross
History
of Youth Liberation of Ann Arbor
By Mike Mosher. A great, extensive history of the organization where
most youth rights groups today have their roots.
Articles by Youth Liberation of Ann Arbor
Declaration of the Rights of American Youth
A document written by the American Youth Congress
and presented to the United States Congress in 1936.
History of the Student Movement of the 1930s
Why I
Still Believe in the Youth Congress
By First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. In this article from
Liberty magazine, Mrs. Roosevelt offers great justification for
a national organization the lobbies for and protects the rights of
young people.
Other Media
Philadelphia's Youth in Action: Agents of Change
This
history of youth activism in Philadelphia since the 1960s was
produced by six high school students and captures the rich stories
of local activists, past and present, who discuss the roles young
people have played and continue to play in the arena of social
change.
Produced by the
Philadelphia Foundation's Youth Involvement Network & Scribe Video Center, 28
min., 1995 (Production Facilitators: Hebert Peck Jr. & Myoshi Smith)
The SNAYR is brought to you by
The Freechild Project in partnership with
National Youth Rights Association
NYRA has been working for more than
five
years to bring young people across the United States a society where
they experience
political, social, and economic, and cultural equality, and where the rights of youth
are equal to those of adults.
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