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5 Words Drive Nashville Students to Civic Engagement

by Bill of Rights Institute on

“If not you, then who?” 

That was the inspirational, five-word question that Elliott Robinson from the Nashville Public Library put to students, teachers and parents assembled for the national launch of the Bill of Rights Institute’s MyImpact Challenge.  

BRI held its kick-off event for MyImpact Challenge – a national civics contest that will award $40,000 in prizes – at Nashville’s historic Scarritt Bennett Center on January 29.  

MyImpact Challenge encourages students to create constitutionally-principled civic engagement projects in their communities. The top projects will be featured at a virtual fair in June, where prizes will be awarded to students and teachers.  

Robinson, who teaches in the library’s Civil Rights Room, served as one of the keynote speakers for the MyImpact Challenge launch event and talked about the impact of the Nashville Student Movement, particularly from from 1959-1960.  

Elliott Robinson from the Nashville Public Library.

Using powerful images and storytelling, Robinson shared how young people galvanized thousands to promote founding principles like liberty, equality and justice, and helped end segregation at businesses like lunch counters.  

Robinson reminded the students that the Nashville Student Movement leaders weren’t much older than they are. But they used civic engagement to ensure America “lived up to” its founding principles.  

Today’s students still have an important role to play in engaging their communities and advancing civic virtues, Robinson said, before asking students the pivotal question, “If not you, then who?” 

Robinson was joined at the event by Jon Schaff, a government professor from Northern State University in South Dakota who specializes in the study of American political thought and institutions.  

BRI's Director of Outreach Rachel Davison Humphries talks with Professor Jon Schaff from Northern State University.

Drawing on the words of historic leaders such as Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Schaff talked about America’s founding principles and efforts throughout history to ensure “we all have equal access to natural rights.” 

Nashville students even had the opportunity to get a head start on their MyImpact Challenge projects.  

BRI Director of Outreach Rachel Davison Humphries led students, teachers and parents through a brainstorming exercise designed to identify community challenges and how civic engagement can address them.  

Interested in learning more about MyImpact Challenge or bringing it to your school? You can access resources and sign up for updates on the BRI website.