MLK Essay: Who Knew.....?

Who Knew...?

My name is Cindy. I have a brother named James. We have two friends who are named William and Sarah. We always play together. We are all only 10 years old. One day our friends' mom came and took our two friends away and yelled at me and my brother that we're black and they're not so we can't play anymore. When I learned how people could be, it really hurt me. I thought black was just another color like white, pink, blue, and purple. But I guess I was wrong.
My brother and I went home sad. We got home and my dad, the minister, asked us, “What's wrong?” We told him what happened that day. You would think he'd be a little upset or raging mad, but he only said to us, “You might be angry or sad, but we'll get through it without violence”. I was mad at that point
The next day in school we learned about Dr. King and what he did during the years he was alive. My teacher, Ms. Monroe, said, “Dr King led the Boycott for buses and as a child he was pulled away from his friend because his friend's mom judged him by the color of his skin.” I raised my hand and told Ms. Monroe what had happened with my two friends. Ms. Monroe told me to talk to her after class.
I talked with her about what happened. She was worried and asked me a lot of questions like “Are you ok?” Then she told me to write an essay about what advice I think Dr. King would give to young people like me. I told her I would do all my research about him and do it.
I stayed up doing research for days. This man was really interesting -- so interesting that it took about 4 notebooks to hold all the information l found. My dad asked, “ What are you doing all this research for honey?”
I told him the assignment my teacher had given me. He thought it was a great idea for me to do it.
I finished all my research. Now I just had to write the essay. I told myself to just go to bed, but I guess that research really got to me because I had a dream about Dr. King himself.
I woke up to people walking, A LOT of people, and I noticed that they were all African-Americans. Then I remembered we learned this in school. It was the bus boycott. I saw Dr. King. I told him my story about my friends and brother. They always say, “Great minds think alike” but who knew it would be my two heroes, my dad and Martin Luther King Jr., who would say the same thing. “ You might be angry or sad but we'll get through it without violence,” Dr. King said. I wanted to argue but he told me why he believed this. He explained to me how violence is never the answer and that you shouldn't fight fire with fire.
Then all my friends came into my dream and we sat around in a circle discussing problems we had. I guess Dr. King felt admired for how much we cared about him. He stood up and gave us all advice like my assignment, “What advice would Dr. King give to young people”?
He taught us to never fight back and to always make sure we keep our head in school so we will have a great life and career. He ended the conversation with a hard question to think about, if we wouldn't have visited him, or ever learned about him, or if he was never born or didn't make a change, what would have happened to us and the world?



Saira Zapata
Grade 6
Saltonstall School