MLK Day: Students Strive to Keep Dream Alive
Movement 515 students marked MLK Day by taking to the skywalks to speak out on issues.
No classes are held in observance of Martin Luther King Day but that doesn’t mean Des Moines Public Schools takes the day off.
First thing this cold morning the John R. Grubb YMCA annual MLK Day Prayer Breakfast at the Knapp Center on the campus of Drake University had a distinct DMPS flavor to it. The event marks the occasion for the bestowal of three Make a Difference awards in the categories of Youth, Adult and Legacy. They encompass the past, present and future.
Former district administrator Marlene Doby was named the Legacy honoree for her community activism. Roosevelt High School junior Perseverance Narcisse received the Youth award in recognition of her volunteerism with nonprofits like Furry Friends and Meals from the Heartland. And the Make a Difference-Adult award winner was Merrill Middle School Principal Alex Hanna.
Dave O’Connor, a social studies teacher at Merrill, told the crowd in a taped testimonial that Hanna’s oft-repeated mantra to students is “You are who you choose to be.” Hanna’s own remarks included the assertion that he believes “It is our responsibility to convince kids that they can rise above tough circumstances,” and then teach them how it’s done. In addition to his career as an educator Rev. Hanna also works with youth in his role as a part-time pastor at his church. He was born in Memphis, the city where Dr. King’s life was cut short by an assassin in 1968.
The large crowd in attendance was littered with DMPS students and administrators, and Roosevelt’s Bridges to Harmony gospel choir set the tone for the program with a stirring set of spiritual selections.
Meanwhile, downtown the citizen-poets form the Central Campus-based RunDSM/Movement 515 and Urban Leadership programs were enacting Plan B for their observance of MLK Day. They are anything but fair-weather activists. Still, the bitter cold temperatures gave them pause to reconsider the original itinerary that called for a rally on the steps of the state capitol followed by a march through the East Village with stops along the route to perform original poetry around the theme of social equality and justice. The theme didn’t change but the venues did. Instead of the streets they took their voices to the downtown skywalk network.
Beneath directional signs that pointed the way to seats of power like the Federal Building and the Polk County Administration Building, North senior Russhaun Johnson and Hoover senior Courtnei Caldwell fired up the demonstrators by “spitting” spoken word declarations about how much black lives matter. The skywalks were fairly empty but workers watched from inside their office doors and the procession was closely monitored by skywalk security guards. Some workplaces locked the students out. At others they were applauded and cheered.
Caldwell, in particular, paid a price for her participation. Forced to choose between the march and a rehearsal at Hoover this morning for the Iowa High School Speech Association large group district competition coming up next weekend, she didn’t hesitate.
“The struggle for civil rights is in my blood,” she said, grinning as she carried a poster glued to a yardstick and chanted “No justice, no peace!” in unison with her classmates. “My grandfather is a pastor in St. Louis and he’s been active for a long time in the NAACP and the civil rights movement. I think I should be able to do this and IHSSA, but since I had to choose…”
She didn’t finish the thought because she didn’t have to. The skywalks can be something of a maze but her path is clear. Besides their poems and placards Caldwell and company came prepared with the courage, and the joy it appeared, of their convictions.
After breaking for lunch they were on to Merle Hay Mall. What day off from school? They were on a fieldtrip into the world they seek to change.
