Elementary school students visit voting rights exhibition at UCSC on Election Day

Seventy-five 4th and 5th grade two-way immersion (Spanish-language) students from Delaveaga Elementary School came to UC Santa Cruz on Election Day to explore two art exhibits currently on display.

One of those exhibitions, I'm Walkin' For my Freedom: The Selma March for Voting Rights, featured historical photographs from renowned photojournalist Matt Herron, documenting a significant moment in the Civil Rights movement in Alabama that led directly to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Herron covered the Civil Rights struggle for the top magazines of the era--including Life, Look, Time and Newsweek, and he won the World Press Photo Contest for civil rights photography in 1965.

Delaveaga Elementary School teacher Antonio Romero noted the importance of teaching students about voting rights in the United States.

“We decided to capitalize on this election year through our curriculum which teaches about the U.S. government,” said Romero. “We discussed that it’s your right to vote and also your responsibility, and how we as citizens have the power to effect change.”

“We have a diverse community and also feel it’s essential to highlight the struggle and the history,” he added. “When the Constitution was written, not everyone was allowed to vote.”

Shelby Graham, director of the Mary Porter Sesnon Gallery, led interactive discussions with groups of students about the photographs on display. She pointed to one particular photo—depicting a lone child protester holding up a sign.

“Many students found that to be their favorite photo in the exhibit,” said Graham. “They saw an 8-year-old child--just a few years younger than they are--who was willing to risk getting arrested by holding up a ‘register to vote’ sign,” said Graham.

Romero noted that his students had very strong opinions about the candidates in the 2016 presidential election.
 
“My goal is not to influence what they think, but just to make them think,” he said. “I teach them to develop an argument and back it up with evidence.”

“Voting rights were not talked about when I was in elementary school,” he added. “There has been a struggle in our country’s history and it’s still continuing today.”

In fact, just three years ago, the Supreme Court invalidated the core of the Voting Rights Act of 1965--freeing nine states to change their election laws without advance federal approval--on the grounds that times had changed and this protection was no longer necessary.

But recent lawsuits and revelations the past few months about voter suppression efforts have shown that racial discrimination still persists in 2016.

‘I’m glad the students came on Election Day,” Graham observed. Every one of them had an ‘I voted’ sticker because they did a mock election in their class.”

“I asked them if they had any difficulty in registering to vote in their classroom,” Graham added. “They said no--they were surprised that anyone would ever have trouble registering to vote.”
 

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I'm Walkin' For my Freedom: The Selma March for Voting Rights will be on exhibition at the Porter Faculty Gallery through November 23. The Sesnon Gallery is also presenting Black (W)hole, an immersive exhibition designed by The Einstein Collective combining the arts, data visualization and astrophysics--also running through November 23.  Admission to both exhibitions is free and open to the public. For more information, visit the Sesnon Gallery web site.