Keeping King’s dream alive

Great speechmakers aren’t great just because of what they’re saying, but because of how they deliver their message. Their words create power using tone, diction and syntax to fully embody and emphasize their points. In my Advanced Placement Language and Composition course at Lawrence Woodmere Academy, we studied the rhetorical strategies Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. used in not just his famous “I Have a Dream” speech but in his other speeches.
This was among many ways our school celebrated the life and mission of King, an African American civil rights activist. His birthday, January 15, is celebrated to remember and recognize his efforts in the fight for justice for all people. Every year, freedom rings in each classroom from the Lower to Upper schools. The younger students hear the historic speech, maybe for the first time, in their classrooms and are encouraged to discuss what King stood for and why we, as a community, are fortunate to reap the benefits of his efforts for peace and unity.
Each year, LWA students put together a celebration of his life with performances, dances and speeches. At this assembly, our culturally diverse student body recognizes how lucky we are to belong to a society that embraces differences. It is important to have this assembly because it does not neglect to show the harsh reality of what happened in America during the civil rights movement. We acknowledgement the hardships faced by those who fought for integration and justice. The assembly appropriately shows how persevering through violence and hardship brings peace and hope. It includes something from each division and the message spread by King is proven through the contribution of our student body.
“Let freedom ring,” King said, and so it does. It rings through the hallways used by students of any creed, gender and age. It rings in the voices of students who sing at the assembly next to friends from all ethnic and cultural backgrounds. It rings in the moment of silence dedicated to the slain civil rights leader.
Each day, it is in the best interest of our community to work to keep freedom ringing, more loudly and without interruption.