Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream lived on Friday in the hearts and mouths of American Lakes School sixth-graders.
In a moving performance laced with quotes from King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, students stood side-by-side chanting together about the days of “Whites Only” signs and rules banning African Americans from the front rows of buses.
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed,” one boy said, prompting a chorus of sixth-graders to chime in, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
The script featured touching accounts of black and white children castigated for playing together, of “colored” sections in movie houses, of adults and children arrested in civil rights marches demanding equality, and of Rosa Parks’ refusal to kowtow to demands that she give a white man her bus seat.
“And when we allow freedom to ring,” one sixth-grader said, echoing King. “When we let it ring from every village and hamlet, from every state and city, we will be able to speed up the day when all God’s children – black and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics -- will be able to join hands and sing in the words of that old Negro spiritual …
“Free at last!” yelled a chorus of kids, delivering the kicker. “Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!”
The emotional, inspirational, 10- to 15-minute performance was watched by scores of younger students and American Lakes parents. Natomas Unified School District Trustees Teri Burns, Lisa Kaplan, and Sue Heredia were joined by Superintendent Chris Evans at the event, an annual tradition on the South Natomas campus.
Afterward, the sixth-grade performers talked about the injustice of racial discrimination and of King’s impact upon society.
“Black people used to be slaves for the white people – and that’s just mean, cruel,” said Johan, 11.
Karely, 11, talked of the civil rights fight led by King in a ‘60s generation fraught with racial discrimination. “I think it was a very hard time for the African American people. (King) not only changed it for them but he changed it for all of us.”
But Emanuel, 11, said the civil rights struggle is not entirely over. “I think there’s still racist people,” he said.
Sixth-grade teachers Liz Holland and Stephen Smith applauded the (January 17) performance that students had been working toward since November.
“They worked extremely hard on this and took a lot of pride in it,” Smith said. “It meant something to them. So it was pretty cool to hear.”
