This event takes place on Crowdcast, Charis' virtual event platform. This event is free, but registration is required for virtual attendance. 

Charis welcomes Aaron G. Fountain, Jr. in conversation with Carl Suddler  for a discussion of High School Students Unite!: Teen Activism, Education Reform, and FBI Surveillance in Postwar America, which highlights the crucial impact of high school activists in the 1960s and 1970s.

Mid-twentieth-century student activism is a pivotal chapter in American history. While college activism has been well documented, the equally vital contributions of high school students have often been overlooked. Only recently have scholars begun to recognize the transformative role teenagers played in reshaping American education.

High School Students Unite highlights the crucial impact of high school activists in the 1960s and 1970s. Inspired by civil rights and antiwar movements, students across the nation demanded a voice in their education by organizing sit-ins, walkouts, and strikes. From cities such as San Francisco and Chicago to smaller towns such as Jonesboro, Georgia, these young leaders fought for curricula that reflected their evolving worldviews. Drawing on archival research and interviews, Aaron G. Fountain Jr. reveals how teenagers became powerful agents of change, advocating for constitutional rights and influencing school reform. Ironically, the modernization of school security, including police presence, was partly a response to these student-led movements. Through oral histories and FBI records, this fascinating history offers a fresh perspective on high school activism and its lasting impact on American education.

Aaron G. Fountain, Jr. is a historian who studies high school student activism in the 1960s and 1970s, covering themes of education, race, political radicalism, and surveillance. He holds a Doctorate in History from Indiana University and a Bachelor of Arts in History from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. He writes and presents public talks about twentieth-century American political and social history.

Fountain is the author of High School Students Unite!: Teen Activism, Education Reform, and FBI Surveillance in Postwar America (UNC Press, 2025) and has also begun his second book project, a cultural and political history of teenagers and the Vietnam War in North America, Australia, and New Zealand.

In addition to multiple academic articles, Dr. Fountain’s writing has appeared in Time, Smithsonian Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Hill, and other outlets. He has provided interviews for The Atlantic, NPR, Elle Magazine, and The Guardian, among others. His freelance essays explore themes of student activism, race and ethnicity, and online misogyny.

Carl Suddler is an associate professor of history at Emory University. His research, teaching, and public scholarship place him among a select number of scholars specializing in the intersections of Black life, crime, and sports since the late nineteenth century. Suddler’s first book, Presumed Criminal: Black Youth and the Justice System in Postwar New York (2019), has garnered significant academic usage across college and graduate classrooms and contributes to the burgeoning literature on the American carceral state, criminalization, and mass incarceration. He co-edited a special issue of The American Historian (2020) that provided historical context for global protests following the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and in 2021, he consulted with the Harvard University’s Global Sports Initiative to inform professional athletes on leveraging their platforms for social justice. Suddler’s expertise is highly sought by scholarly communities and prominent media outlets such as CNN, ABC News, Al Jazeera, and NPR, reflecting his growing influence outside the academy, evidenced by his op-eds in the Washington Post and Bleacher Report. He is currently at work on his second book, Policing the Field: Black Athletes, Carceral Boundaries, and the Fight for Freedom in U.S. Sports.

VOX ATL is Atlanta’s home for uncensored teen publishing and self-expression. VOX is a teen-driven, professional space and a learning environment for teens in metro Atlanta.

The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on Crowdcast or via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate. 

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High School Students Unite!: Teen Activism, Education Reform, and FBI Surveillance in Postwar America --  Aaron G. Fountain, Jr. in conversation with Carl Suddler