Gerra Gistand: Winner Of 13th Annual Gardere MLK Jr. Oratory Competition

from youtube

Fourth grader Gerra Gistand, a student at MacGregor Elementary School in Houston ISD, presents the winning speech from the 13th Annual Gardere MLK Jr. Oratory Competition held Jan. 16, 2009, at Ant...
Fourth grader Gerra Gistand, a student at MacGregor Elementary School in Houston ISD, presents the winning speech from the 13th Annual Gardere MLK Jr. Oratory Competition held Jan. 16, 2009, at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church. Held days before the historic inauguration of President Obama, the competition challenged students to focus on the question If Dr. King were alive today, what do you think he would say about current events? Presented in Dallas and Houston by the Texas-based law firm Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP, the competition commemorates the life of Dr. King and is designed to highlight the cultural diversity of the community while recognizing and encouraging the writing and presentation skills of elementary school students.

Boycott

My favorite black history movie. Great actors and acting, great music, great authenticity. Clark Johnson from Homicide and The Wire directed. Seen above is the opening segment. There's a great grist for discussion here with students over Rosa Park's dream sequence and the reality of the event
from an amazon reviewer

When Rosa Parks was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white man, the Reverend Martin Luther King was but a modest young Baptist minister suddenly thrust into the leadership of local bus boycott. What started as a one-day protest of unfair bus laws turned into the 381-day boycott that gave birth to the civil rights movement. This riveting, rousing made-for-cable drama meticulously recounts the challenges the protest faced. Jeffrey Wright (Basquiat) is excellent as King, capturing his charisma and rousing speeches while grounding his heroism in human vulnerability and fear, but Boycott reminds us that he was only one of the thousands of ordinary people roused into extraordinary action in the name of equality and social justice. That portrait of everyday heroes changing the course of history remains the film's most rousing message.

Martin's Big Words

from amazon

This picture-book biography provides an ideal introduction to this leader and his works. Juxtaposing original text with quotes from King's writing and speeches, Rappaport's (Escape from Slavery) narrative offers a pastiche of scenes from King's life, beginning with his childhood experience of seeing "White Only" signs sprinkled throughout his hometown. He questions his mother about their meaning, and she assures him, "You are as good as anyone." Listening to his father preach, the boy asserts that "When I grow up, I'm going to get big words, too." Rappaport also touches upon King's role in the Montgomery bus strike that followed Rosa Park's 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger and his subsequent efforts as a civil rights crusader. After briefly describing the circumstances of his death, the story concludes, quite abruptly, with the statement, "His big words are alive for us today." The author relies on her subject's own words, and his power, passion and pacifism shine through. Collier's (Uptown) striking watercolor and cut paper collage art feature closely focused, lifelike images of King and other individuals against an inventive montage of patterns and textures. The portraits of King exude his spiritual strength and peaceful visage. In the background of some scenes are intricate recreations of stained glass windows, which, Collier explains in an introductory note, he interprets as a metaphor for King's life. An elegant, understated pictorial biography. Ages 5-9.

Students At Martin Luther King HS Celebrate Black History Month Despite Name Change

In Mayor Mike's NYC school system the concept of heritage and history get short shrift
from ny1.com

Black History Month: UWS School Retains King's Message Despite Name Change
February 16, 2008
NY1 Education reporter Mike Meenan filed the following report on a high school on the Upper West Side that once beared name of the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, as the station's coverage of Black History month continues.
In 1975, a school opened in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -- assassinated seven years earlier in 1968.
But in 2005, the Department of Education carved out six theme-based mini schools within the building. Despite the reorganization, students feel reminders, like the towering monument on Amsterdam Avenue, still make this King's school.
"It makes me feel good inside that I'm going to Martin Luther King," said one student.
The push to alter the school began in 2002, after a shooting left two students wounded and years of failure left too many kids without a diploma, an unfortunate fate for a school named after a civil rights leader.
One veteran teacher who has spent nearly his entire career at the school believes that it's the sports teams that embody the spirit of Dr. King.
"It is extremely sad that the legacy and honor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was not kept alive with the school's name," said Athletic Director Martin Jacobson. "It is not so sad that many of the teams on the campus, we call ourselves Martin Luther King. So the unity still exists."
Academic achievement has increased on the campus since the reorganization, and teachers and students say that attracts a wider student body.
"We have six different schools, and we were trying to get the diversity," said teacher Byron Tummings. "And I think we have reached it. And it's working."
"They came because our higher academic levels," said student Charlie Watson. "Actually, that's a good thing that not only black people come here."
The captain of the school's soccer team says racial diversity's helped win ten of the past 12 city championships.
"The team, also, is different races, Africans, which is black, Hispanics, like South Americans and Central Americans, and you have Americans, like white peoples, and we all combine and win the championship together," said Biko Edwards, the team captain.
So despite being known as Martin Luther King High for only 30 years, students say this building where they go to school will be always be known as Dr. King's because of what they still learn here.
"What I'll tell my peers of what I've learned is to not to look at color or culture, just to be true to yourself and what you believe in," said student Tiffany Puente.

The Complete I Have A Dream Speech

from usconstitution.net/
From 1/4/08 from pseudo-intellectualism

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Martin Luther King

from 1/16/06 from pseudo-intellectualism I was looking through my files for Dr. King resources to post and wanted to supplement one of my slide shows. I did a search.
Well, if you go to martinlutherking.com you get redirected to a porn site. If you go to martinlutherking.org you get a racist, anti-semitic site. The latter, a David Duke work, mentions Kings' tie in with "commies" like Bayard Rustin and Stanley Levinson.
Well, so what. I was watching Cinderella Man and the scenes of despair caused by the depression (which I'm sure were a lot worse than those portrayed) were really upsetting. If it weren't for the "commie" influences on FDR we wouldn't have social security and other safety net programs. And what about those "horrible" things called trade unions? Yes, in the name of communism millions were slaughtered in Russia. How many in the world's history have been slaughtered in the name of religion or democracy? Here's two slide shows-one uses resources from kids discover magazine and the scholastic site on Rosa Parks.The other comes from this excellent site which has history in the form of comics.

Take It From Dr. King

from the daily kos, about this song and dr. king's birthday

from 1/14/08 from pseudo-intellectualism The song Dr. King was written by Pete Seeger after 9/11 – kind of a back-to-the-roots call for calm in the wake of our national hysteria, in the name of one of the greatest activists the world has ever known.

this and other great songs can be purchased from amazon and apple seed records. I own a copy. The lyrics:

Down in Alabama 1955
Not many of us here tonight we then alive
A young Baptist preacher led a bus boycott
He led the way for a brand new day without firing a shot

Don’t say it can’t be done
The battle’s just begun
Take it Dr. King
You too can learn to sing
So drop the gun

Oh those must have been an exciting 13 years
Young heroes, young heroines
There was laughter, there were tears
Students at lunch counters
Even dancing in the streets
To think it all started with sister Rosa
Refusing to give up her seat

Song, songs, kept them going and going
They didn’t realize the millions of seeds they were sowing
They were singin in marches, even singing in jail
Songs gave them the courage to believe they would not fail
We sang about Alabama 1955

But since 9-11 we wonder will this world survive
The world learned a lesson from Dr. King
We can survive, we can, we will
And so we sing

PowerPoint Vs. Keynote And Dr. King's Birthday

From a January 2007 post that had a link to a video of mine deleted:

Boy do I hate PowerPoint, especially when it comes to embedding media which I like to do. I remembered that years ago I had started to make a PPoint with the great King song from "Boycott" which was written by Hobbs and Clark. I had invested a lot of work into it, since I had to hand transcribe the lyrics because I couldn't find them online. What I like to do is create a PP template that already has the song, the timing and the lyrics embedded. I then hand it over to the kids so they can put in their own images and supplementary text. By doing it this way you can provide for a more successful learning experience and avoid hearing those blankety blank typewriter transitions. Later on you can back-track and teach all the other PPoint bells and whistles. I brought up my unfinished project for the 6th graders on the screen (hopefully later in the year we could do this as a class or independently with the laptop cart, especially now that I have Ms. Watson to provide her soothing classroom management magic) and I had the kids lead me to the images they wanted.
Still later on at home, I just couldn't get this to work. I said, "Schmuck, why don't you try Keynote, you're a Mac and a QuickTime guy" Well, there are many advantages that Keynote has on PPoint (and if anything cared or if anyone actually reads this I could go into detail) but still it's not the solution. iMovie has the timing solution to all this, but the text aspect still is lacking.
Anyway I youtubed above a portion of what I was able to do. It's my way of honoring one of our genuine American heroes.