Dave Molina and Jake Roth, two first-year MTC teachers, have started an after-school Civil Rights club at Jim Hill High School in Jackson.  The club has 14 regular members and has been meeting for the past four months.

"The Civil Rights Club, from my point of view, is a good experience to understand why certain things have happened to blacks or even whites," said Jasmine Brooks, one of the members of the club and a ninth-grader at Jim Hill.

"We talk about why it is good to have certain qualifications to go further in life so that you won’t be judged based on race," said Jasmine. "I personally think that we, as a society, take these issues too lightly and that more people should join us in the Civil Rights & Civil Liberties Club."

“The kids are brilliant,” said Mr. Molina.  “Jake and I have worked hard to hold ourselves back and really let the kids set the direction for the club.  We’ve had a lot of intense discussions and they’ve come up with a lot of great ideas.

"The Civil Rights & Civil Liberties Club is an educational club that
tells about the history that we have been through," said Jasmine Jones, the President of the Club and also a ninth-grader at Jim Hill. "Here in the club we discuss issues that come across time. We debate what’s right and wrong,"

(Dave Molina)

“We have created a forum for dialogue: history, self, present, politics,
future, said Mr. Roth. "Deliberate action buoyed by understanding."

“One of the ideas we’re currently working on,” said Mr. Molina, is partnering with St. Andrews, one of the suburban private schools (Jim Hill is an inner-city school) on some community service projects.  This would be a great way for kids from two very different backgrounds to get to know each other.”

“We’ve also been reaching out to area lawyers to come and talk to the kids because so much of the Civil Rights movement was driven by the court system,” said Mr. Molina.  “The response has been positive.”

(Jacob Roth)

The Mississippi Teacher Corps is the most competitive alternate-route teaching program in the country. It is a two-year program that recruits recent college graduates to teach in critical-shortage areas in the Mississippi Delta, in exchange for a full scholarship for a master's degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Mississippi. The program was founded in 1989 by Amy Gutman, a Harvard University graduate student, and Dr. Andy Mullins, then Special Assistant to the State Superintendent of Education. Since 1989 more than 300 participants, reaching an estimated 60,000 students, have taught in critical-needs school districts as part of the Mississippi Teacher Corps.

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