Video: Saltillo Elementary Students Learn Lessons from the Civil Rights Era

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SALTILLO, Miss. (WCBI) -Fourth graders at Saltillo Elementary heard about the days of segregation from two ladies who grew up during that time.

The fourth graders have been studying the Civil Rights Movement and this morning, Holly Nelson and Mary Rainey, talked to the youngsters about life during the sixties and early seventies.

Both women grew up in Northeast Mississippi when integration became the law and they want students to know how things have changed and the importance of freedom and respect.

“One of the children asked me one time, we were talking about integration, because I was going to school when we were integrated. They said, ‘but if they didn’t want to come to your school and you didn’t want to go to theirs, why did you have to?’ And I compared it to a parent who knows what’s best for their child, in the long run may not be what they want but it will benefit them”

Nelson taught at Saltillo for more than 30 years while Rainey was an educator in Verona for many years.