To celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr., the second-grade students of Anne Marie Starowitz at St. Joseph's School wrote essays about King. The essays were judged by Jennifer Corbelli, an English Language Arts teacher at Batavia High School.
First Place, Olivia Bezon
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wanted peace and love for all people. When Martin Luther King was little everything was different. That white people did not want the black people near them. Martin Luther wanted everybody to be happy but it never happened because white people bossed black people around. The white children got better things, the black people didn’t. White children had better schools. Black children had to go to black schools separate from the white children, this is called segregation.
Civil rights mean black people and white people have to learn to love each other. Protesting is when you have a sign with you and use your words to say what you want. That means protesting without fighting. Rosa Parks was asked to move to the back of the bus because a white person wanted her seat. She was arrested. Dr. King heard about this and he decided to protest and his sign said don’t ride the bus until the black people could sit where ever they wanted. After one year of not riding the bus the law was changed.
Martin Luther is also famous for his speech I Have a Dream. He gave his famous speech in Washington, D.C. He said he didn’t want it in 10 years, he wanted equality now. He didn’t want people to fight or to hurt anybody because Dr. King didn’t believe in fighting. Civil rights mean black and white people have the same rights.
Dr. King was shot and everyone was sad and everything got better because of him. Dr. King will be remembered for his speeches and his peaceful nonviolence protest.
Second Place, Matthew McCulley
Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil rights leader. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929. He learned in his childhood to never fight. He believed in nonviolence. Nonviolence is marching to the principles of nonviolence. Dr. King had 10 Principles of Nonviolence. They are like our 10 Commandments because they are both about being good. He wanted equal rights for everyone. Nonviolence is not fighting. The Jim Crow laws are when Rosa Parks, had to move to the back of the bus. Protesting is when people hold signs if they are mad. When you dislike someone that is called prejudice.
Martin had to sit in the balcony of the movie theater. Martin Luther was sad he couldn’t play with his white friends. In the movie The Boy King, white people did not like black people. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech in Washington, D.C. It was called the I Have a Dream speech. His speech was about equal rights. Dr. King didn’t want white and black people to be separated. That is called segregation. If someone is fighting say don’t fight. If someone is bullying someone you can say stop.
In 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee Dr. King was shot. On January 15th we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King’s Jr. Birthday.
Third Place, Chelsea Fitch
Doctor Martin Luther King Junior was a civil rights leader. Martin Luther didn’t like prejudice and he didn’t like segregation. When Martin was a little boy, he couldn’t play with his white friends because white and black children could not play together. They could not use the same bathrooms or drinking fountains. When Martin was little he wanted everyone to be friends. Martin knew he liked books even before he could read. When he grew up he went to a dance and his grandma died. Martin was so sad because he promised his grandma he would be back.
Martin Luther King Jr. believed in nonviolence. Rosa Parks wasn’t going to give up her seat and Martin agreed with Rosa. Martin told all black people not to ride the bus, this was a peaceful protest and it was called a bus boycott. The law was changed. He led many protests because he wanted the laws to change so it would be equal rights for the blacks. People would have signs and they would all walk together without fighting back. That is nonviolence. Nonviolence is also about when people don’t fight each other because of the color of their skin.
Martin gave many speeches. He died. He always believed do not fight back with violence, do not protest with violence. Do what is right and not wrong. Help people. Don’t say God’s name in vain. Treat people the way you want to be treated. Help people with kindness. People followed Dr. King’s coffin down the street.
We celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. every January 15th. That was the day he was born. It is a national holiday, it means everyone in the United States celebrates his day.
Honorable Mention, Eddie Lankford
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream. He wanted people with white skin and black skin to get along.
People with black skin had to sit in the balcony at a movie theater. Martin Luther King Jr. went to Washington and said white people and black people should be equal. He led marches carrying signs. Black people and white people could not go to the same school. The people with black skin had to drink from a different drinking fountain. People with black skin had to sit in the balcony in the movie theater. People with black skin had to sit in the back of the bus because people with white skin sat in the front, so Martin decided to have a boycott. Then the bus company lost money. That was a protest.
Martin Luther King Jr. went to Washington, D.C. so he could make his speech. His speech said people with black skin should have civil rights. One day a man shot Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. He died. January 15th is Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. We celebrate that day.
