To close out every Books and Breakfast class, students, parents and volunteers hold hands and recite Assata Shakurs chant for her people:

"It is our duty to fight for our freedom.

It is our duty to win.

We must love each other and support each other.

We have nothing to lose but our chains."

Shakurs words illustrate the purpose of Books and Breakfast: To teach students early on about the work of those who advocate for oppressed communities and how, despite their age, they can contribute, too.

Freedom Inc., a local social justice nonprofit, started Books and Breakfast earlier this summer. The free program meets on Saturday mornings and is designed for black and southeast Asian children ages 4 to 13.

Bianca Gomez, Freedom Inc.s gender justice coordinator and a Books and Breakfast organizer, said one of the goals of the program is to give young students a platform for activism later in life.

Learning about these issues at a really young age is how you create freedom fighters, Gomez said.

Whatever career they get into, whatever choice they make for college, how they decide to raise their families, we hope that (Books and Breakfast) sets the foundation for creating change agents. In building a movement, we cannot leave out our young people.

Each three-hour session begins with a family-style meal around a large table. The intergenerational conversation brings together children, teen volunteers, Freedom Inc. adult staff and parents.

On a recent Saturday, after breakfast, students gathered on the carpet in the center of the room while Gomez led them in a reading of the weeks book: "Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement."

I didnt learn about Fannie Lou Hamer until I was in college, so you all are ahead of the game, Gomez told students before reading a few selections from the text.

Books and Breakfast strives to expose students to narratives and themes they dont typically learn about in school. In addition to reading, staff also discuss topics like standing up for your rights, self care and having power over your body.

You learn more about freedom for black people, said Jemyigha, 10, a Books and Breakfast student. You can learn a lot from Books and Breakfast about Black Lives Matter and the civil rights movement.

Gomez said it is important to talk about heavy themes with children so they can advocate for themselves.

We talk to them about their bodies and keeping themselves safe, Gomez said. We feel like schools dont talk about these themes in a culturally specific way. Schools are not going to have a conversation about police. Our kids are telling us they are not having those conversations. That is the training that we give to our adults, so why wouldnt we ingrain that in our children?

Freedom Inc. was inspired by the work of Hands Up United, a Missouri-based organization that has run its Books and Breakfast program for over two years. There are other Books and Breakfast sites in 30 cities across the country.

After learning a bit about Hamer and her work, students made a collage about their communities with sun rays representing their dreams for their people, raindrops to showcase the barriers in front of those dreams, and flowers for the power that they have to overcome barriers.

Students dreams included the need for more love, less pollution, an end to homelessness and more spaces to play. They identified jail, poverty and lack of food as barriers that stood in their way.

As the students pondered the power they had to challenge those barriers, they were excited to raise their voices in protest and stand up for the rights of their communities, just like Fannie Lou Hamer did 50 years before.

People like Fannie Lou Hamer protested so we can have rights, Jemyigha said.

Black people have the right to live, said Alonzo, 7.

Freedom Inc. leverages their youth staff to lead the younger students through class. The teens said they enjoy working with their young peers because they want to teach them about concepts they didnt learn until they were older.

When I was their age, nobody really taught me this stuff. Its a huge privilege to run this kind of thing, said Cynthia, 15, a rising sophomore at West High School. As a teen now, I look at them as my old self. I want them to learn the things that Im learning now and give them the opportunity to learn the things I did not learn at their age.

Given the success of the program, Freedom Inc. hopes to garner support to expand classes into the school year. For more information about Books and Breakfast, contact Bianca Gomez at bgomez@freedom-inc.org.

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Freedom Inc.'s 'Books and Breakfast' centers on youth organizing - Madison.com