Moreover, they need to know who Bull Connor was because King had stages a protest in Georgia where the police were actually very gentle. The protest didn't succeed. They went to Birmingham and Connor turned the hoses on the protesters and unleashed the dogs. People were outraged. King says in his piece, that injustice anywhere must be opposed.
Textbooks are just dull right now.
We need narrative histories that tell a story. They take fascinating topics and reduce them to a sentence or two and take the life out of history. Part of the problem is that they try to be all things to all people and they have to cover too much time. World History is the worst. I believe that one of our roles as educators is to pass on a respect for our nation and its institutions.