MLK Supplement 2021

2021 MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. SUPPLEMENT

is the

time!

NEWSPAPER READING IS A HABIT DON’T BREAK THE HABIT!

n In Print – feel the ink between your fingers of

our Award Winning Print Edition

n On the Web – www.washingtoninformer.com

updated throughout the day, every day

n On your tablet n On your smartphone n Facebook n Twitter n Weekly Email Blast – sign up at

www.washingtoninformer.com

...Informing you everyday in every way

In Memoriam Dr. Calvin W. Rolark, Sr. Wilhelmina J. Rolark THE WASHINGTON INFORMER NEWSPAPER (ISSN#0741-9414) is published weekly on each Thursday. Periodicals postage paid at Washington, D.C. and additional mailing offices. News and advertising deadline is Monday prior to publication. Announcements must be received two weeks prior to event. Copyright 2016

by The Washington Informer. All rights reserved. POSTMASTER: Send change of addresses to The Washington Informer, 3117 Martin Luther King, Jr. Ave., S.E. Washington, D.C. 20032. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. The Informer Newspaper cannot guarantee the return of photographs. Subscription rates are $45 per year, two years $60. Papers will be received not more than a week after publication. Make checks payable to: THE WASHINGTON INFORMER 3117 Martin Luther King, Jr. Ave., S.E Washington, D.C. 20032 Phone: 202 561-4100 Fax: 202 574-3785 news@washingtoninformer.com www.washingtoninformer.com

Somebodiness & the Push to Desegregate Black Minds Dr. Shantella Y. Sherman Special Editions Editor

READ THE WASHINGTON INFORMER YOUR WAY:

202-561-4100 For advertising contact Ron Burke at rburke@washingtoninformer.com

o tide r

Words from the

PUBLISHER Denise Rolark Barnes STAFF D. Kevin McNeir, Editor Ron Burke, Advertising/ Marketing Director Shevry Lassiter, Photo Editor Lafayette Barnes, IV, Assistant Photo Editor John E. De Freitas, Sports Photo Editor Dorothy Rowley, Online Editor ZebraDesigns.net, Design & Layout Mable Neville, Bookkeeper Dr. Charles Vincent, Social Sightings columnist Tatiana Moten, Social Media Specialist Angie Johnson, Circulation REPORTERS Stacy Brown (Senior Writer), Sam P.K. Collins, Timothy Cox, Will Ford (Prince George’s County Writer), Jacqueline Fuller, Hamil Harris, D. Kevin McNeir, Kui Mwai, Dorothy Rowley, Brenda Siler, Lindiwe Vilakazi, Sarafina Wright, James Wright,

On April 26, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke before the student body gathered in the Glenville High School auditorium, in Cleveland, Ohio.

Following that speech Dr. King began a series of addresses designed to encourage young people to develop their self-worth. King asked young people to find a “deep sense of somebodiness” that would promote their steadfastness as they navigated life. What was slightly different about this delivery, though, was King’s admission that – even as he stood before them as a great orator and statesman – he did not read well.

“I remember when I was growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, I had to go to high school on the other side of town. At that time, it was the only high school for Negroes in the whole city of Atlanta, the Booker T. Washington High School. When I was a student there, we had 7,000 students in that one school. I guess that’s the reason I can’t read too well now, because the teacher had to spend all the time getting the class in order and disciplining the class because it was so overcrowded…”

The impact it must have had on young people to have a man many counted as a hero admit a type of frailty to which they could possibly relate. Some students would remark afterwards that they felt greatly encouraged that King was so mindful of their emotional development and self-esteem.

Charity Poole, 69, told the Informer, she remembered well a similar address given by Dr. King at Philadelphia’s Barratt Junior High in October of 1967 that also focused on ‘somebodiness.’

“My family had moved to Philly from Memphis and all of us kids felt a bit out of place – even among other Black people because we seemed really unsophisticated and country. I remember, it seemed like Dr. King was talking directly to me, when he started saying, you have to desegregate your mind and don’t let anyone tell you that you are less than,” Poole said. “Just that bit of encouragement from someone unique and powerful… but also from the South, made me take a different look at myself.”

King’s focus on the power to transform oneself irrespective of bitter environments became an insightful catapult for generations of young people who faced all manner of injustices. King spoke of the extra efforts by his parents and the larger community to supplement the educational deficiencies lassoed to segregated schools.

“Fortunately, I had parents who taught me from the very beginning that I was somebody, and that I should never feel inferior. They taught all of us that, that we should feel that we are as good as any other children… Don’t let anybody make you feel that you are nobody, because the minute one feels that way, he is incapable of rising to his full maturity as a person.”

As the nation celebrates Dr. King’s birthday this year, we do so, faced with unprecedented modern unrest, a deadly virus which has reached pandemic proportions, and a debilitating economic downturn. Perhaps never before has the need for introspection – the necessity of self-awareness and self-crucifixion, been more critical. King’s push for somebodiness and calls to desegregate the mind require a willingness to not only challenge the rampant injustices streamed into our minds, but also to assess how we define ourselves, our surroundings, and our fight.

The WI’s 2021 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Supplement is designed to engage readers, but also challenge them to rise to the occasion and do the work of reasserting their value and place in the fight for justice and equality. Our writers have taken to the streets and the archives – investigating the Clark’s Doll Tests and the impact of segregated minds on the nation. With this supplement as a guide, we have provided a few of the tools needed to create the best you and a better nation.

Read, Learn, Grow!

Dr. Shantella Sherman

PHOTOGRAPHERS John E. DeFreitas, Ja’Mon Jackson, Shevry Lassiter, Roy Lewis, Jr., Robert R. Roberts, Anthony Tilghman

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER 2021 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR SUPPLEMENT / WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM

2

DYK: Did You

By Lee Ross WI Staff Writer

know?

Martin Luther King Jr. was born Michael King Jr. on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. His father, Martin Luther King, Sr. also born Michael, was the pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church and a civil rights leader in the early stage of the movement. In 1934, his father attended Fifth Baptist World Alliance Congress at Berlin and came to know about German reformer Martin Luther. Thereafter, he changed both their names from Michael to Martin Luther.

In 1944, Martin Jr. graduated from school, skipping both ninth and twelfth grades and entered Morehouse College at the age of fifteen. Subsequently, he received his bachelor’s degree in sociology in 1948 and entered Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania for his theological training. King received his degree in Bachelor of Divinity on May 8, 1951. He then won a fellowship and joined Boston University for his doctoral studies in systematic theology, completing his residence in 1953 and subsequently his Ph.D. on June 5, 1955.

Dr. King’s first major campaign, Montgomery Bus Boycott, was staged in 1955-56. It involved a total boycott of the public buses by the black community and resulted in desegregation of the town’s public transport system.

According to the King Center, the civil rights leader went to jail 29 times. He was arrested for acts of civil disobedience and on trumped-up charges, such as when he was jailed in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1956 for driving 30 miles per hour in a 25-mile-per-hour zone.

In 1957, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was established, and King was elected its President. On May 17, 1957, SCLC organized a large nonviolent demonstration, which they called ‘Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom.’ The meeting was held at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., where King gave his first national speech ‘Give Us the Ballot.’

In 1959, King travelled to India, where he visited Mahatma Gandhi’s place.

The trip had a huge impact on him, and he became more committed to non-violence. While in India engaging with a group of African youth studying there, King made the following point about the difference between passive resistance and non-resistance: True non-violent resistance is not unrealistic submission to evil power. It is rather a courageous confrontation of evil by the power of love, in the faith that it is better to be the recipient of violence than the inflictor of it, since the latter only multiplies the existence of violence and bitterness in the universe, while the former may develop a sense of shame in the opponent, and thereby bring about a transformation and change of heart.

On April 12, Dr. King was arrested and put in the Birmingham City Jail, where he had to put up with unusually harsh conditions. During his incarceration, he came across a newspaper article in which white clergymen criticized his actions as “untimely and unwise.” In response, Dr. King wrote ‘A Letter from Birmingham Jail,’ noting, “I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, ‘Wait.’”

In 1965, Dr. King traveled to Jamaica and concentrated on writing his last book, ‘Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?’ While there, King spoke with young people, saying in one speech: “The time is always right to do right,” Dr King exhorted, noting that “whenever a new nation comes into history, it brings with it new challenges and new responsibilities.

The great challenge facing all of us today — is to somehow stand before the opportunities of the moment and face the challenges of the hour with creativity and with commitment and with determination.”

MLK

3

Stay Informed! www.washingtoninformer.com

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER 2021 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR SUPPLEMENT / WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM

Dr. King’s Somebodiness & Self-Esteem segregation – the doctrine of separate and unequal – it was imperative that Dr. King speak directly to Black youth so that mentally they understood they were not inferior.

“I Am A Man meant freedom. All we wanted was “Even some decent working conditions, and a decent salary. with loving and caring And be treated like men, not like boys.” parents, – Memphis Sanitation Worker Taylor Rogers, 1968 Black children are taught by Taylor Rogers, like most wage society that they are somehow deearners in the U.S. sought an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work. As ficient. They are taught that their a Black person he had grown into a skin color makes them ‘less than’ system that exploited Black workers through an all-out assault on their – paying them less, affording them minds,” retired educator Dorothea the worst possible positions without Hail told the Informer. “We endured a possibility of job growth irrespective dilapidated school buildings, restricted of their education or skill, and sub- access to public libraries – you could jecting them to layoffs or non-pay- not check out books in most, and hostile adults who were offended to their ment if they demanded better.

Even as Dr. Martin Luther King souls that you should attempt to exert circumnavigated the nation deliver- your rights as a person – as a citizen.”

Hail, who grew up in Grenada, ing speeches and encouraging passive Miss., said Dr. King’s messages of resistance to such injustices, he recogsomebodiness seemed to ignite a parnized that at the core of racism was the ticular desire among young people to belief that Black people were not fulchallenge a system that had robbed ly human and did not deserve equal their families of their most basic huaccess or protection under the law. man rights for generations.

SomebodWith institutions in place to uphold iness, coupled with the research preBy Shantella Y. Sherman and Lindiwe Vilakazi WI Staff Writers

sentation of Mamie Phipps Clark on the damage segregated schools caused Black children made youth across the nation take pause.

Dr. Mamie Phipps Clark would go on to study psychology and create a vital research methodology that combined the study of child development and racial prejudice. Her master’s thesis, “The Development of Consciousness in Negro Pre-School Children,” surveyed 150 Black pre-school aged boys and girls from a D.C. nursery school to explore issues of race and child development—specifically the age at which Black children become aware that they were Black. She would repeat this study, alongside her husband (and fellow psychologist) Kenneth Clark as The Doll Test which looked at 253 Black children aged three to seven years old. Of the children, 134 attended segregated nursery schools in Arkansas and 119 who attended integrated schools in Massachusetts. They each were all shown four dolls: two with White skin and yellow hair, and two with brown skin and black hair. Each student was asked to identify the race of the doll and which one they preferred to play with.

The majority of the Black students preferred the White doll with yellow hair and assigned positive traits to

it. Disturbingly, most discarded the brown doll with black hair, assigning it negative traits. The conclusion: Black children formed a racial identity by the age of three and attached negative traits to their own identity, which were perpetuated by segregation and prejudice.

The Clarks’ research results bracketed legal arguments used in the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case and were invaluable in ending school segregation.

“I Have A Dream,” Still Just a Dream

By Sophia Sparks WI Staff Writer

One of the best motivational speeches of the modern ages remains Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream.

The lessons woven through the address have inspired many to imagine a world with one race -- the human race.

In this world, I could walk into a Midwestern grocery store and not have an alarmed White child yell out, “Hey Mommy, it is a Black person,” and my mental aptitude would govern my career advancement. As a daughter of the South, I have often imagined this world. That belief in its possibilities absolutely followed me through girlhood in South Carolina, across the nation as a college student, and even across the globe as a scientist. But the manifestation of that dream found crippling setbacks on occasion when someone called me nigger or attempted to reduce me to second-class status.

Then, like now, for the millions of

fellow Americans who do not share in the desire to end racial hatred and bigotry, the Dream, can only be considered nightmarish. The ownness is not on Black people to dream hatred away, but for Whites and any other group of people abused by a sense of superiority to drop a tab of Ambien and make a moral shift. Too many Americans have come to view the Dream as a twisted tale of loss, rather than a message of collective growth. Unless and until King’s message has concrete and moral grounding, it will remain merely a tool used to fire up the imagination.

Every January, the nation is told how Dr. King’s speech is more relevant now than ever before in history. Every year the I Have A Dream speech is played on most radio stations in its entirety to keep the nation connected to its value. What drives race insecurity to a point that it breeds hatred towards other groups? How does a nation actualize a utopian landscape void of racial markers when so much of America operates using the superficial classifi-

cation of ‘race?’ How attainable is Dr. King’s Dream?

The hard fact is that race determines reasonable doubt as seen in the recent footage of insurrectionists storming the U.S. Capitol. Race dictates the legally sanctioned “interest rate markup” allowed for Black auto buyers and homeowners. Race still implies a hierarchy of diminished capacity – mental, medical, economic, and moral.

Again, even as we continue to dream of better, the ownness is not on the maligned, but on those creating and upholding social injustice.

In final thought, Dr. King’s speech has one major flaw: Humans. Humans are creatures of habit and habits are not easily broken. Habits bred of hatred, fear, and a burgeoning ‘status deficit’ have yet to yield equity or equality. The lessons knitted throughout Dr. King’s inspirational message are attainable but will remain on paper as long as humans have the ability to choose a path that jeopardizes their own assumed power. MLK

“We were being indoctrinated into accepting that we were second-class citizens and the Whites around us were particularly cruel…they taught their children to be evil and cruel as well in order to keep us believing that we did not deserve more than crumbs,” said Hail, who was once told by a White librarian who took offense to her presence that if you took the brain of a Negro and put it into a bird, it would fly backward. “Dr. King made young people understand that they had ‘skin’ in the game. That we had to hold ourselves as American citizens by fighting against injustices that minimized our self-worth.”

In 2010, when the journal Psychological Bulletin, looked to analyze the effects of racism, on African Americans, a lack of self-esteem was not among them. Bernadette Gray-Little, a professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina, performed a complex review of every piece of research available on Black self-esteem and found that low-income Blacks showed higher self-esteem than whites.

Ekow Eshun, style commentator and former editor of men’s magazine Arena, told The Guardian he was saddened that anybody needed to do a survey to show what most young, Black people know from personal experience.

“Black kids do not have low self-esteem. They are actually forced to think very hard about who they are and to find ways of being themselves by social attitudes. They do not feel like sportsmen or pop stars or thieves or any of the other stereotypes. They feel like real people,” Eshun said.

MLK

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER 2021 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR SUPPLEMENT / WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM

4

MLK MLK

MLK MLK MLK MLK MLK MLK “The time is always right to do what is right” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

MLK MLK is proud to honor the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr.

MLK MLK 5

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER 2021 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR SUPPLEMENT / WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM

Winners of the Marion Barry Youth Leadership Institute 2021 MLK Essay Contest Each year the District’s most dynamic students compete in the annual Marion Barry Youth Leadership Institute MLK Essay Contest. The goal is to encourage thought-provoking and innovative ways of embracing Dr. King’s spirit of justice and activism. The contest is open to all grade levels and showcases the amazing intellect of District youth. These are their winning entries for 2021.

First-Place Winner – Tie (High School Division)

First-Place Winner – Tie (High School Division)

Now is the Time

Now is the Time for the Youth to Take Up the Legacy of Dr. King

By Ezinne Oti Stuart Hobson Middle School – Grade: 8

There has never been a better time for youth leaders to use their power of influence to achieve sustainable local and national social change. I believe that racial inequality is the most important inequality that COVID-19 exposed within our community. In this essay, I will write about the inequality in the COVID-19 pandemic, the treatment of protesters, and the effect on our mental health. Finally, I will talk about what youth leaders can do to influence social change.

During the pandemic there was a major inequality in healthcare. People with “more important” jobs seemed to be getting better treatment than more high-risk COVID-19 victims. Many people of color were not getting proper treatment. A major example of this is when President Donald Trump got special treatment for COVID-19. In my opinion, this is very unfair because other people suffered more from the virus and did not get any type of special treatment. Many poor people and minorities did not have this opportunity. Sadly, 1 in 1,000 people in the United States have died from the COVID-19 virus.

There was also inequity in the way protesters were treated in Washington. During the pandemic people were warned not to gather in crowds. The Black Lives Matters protests occurred even though there was a pandemic going on. I feel like people were less concerned about the pandemic and were a lot more focused on trying to get justice for the victims of police brutality. On January 6, 2021 Trump supporters protested because they did not want President-Elect Joe Biden to be certified as the next President of the United States. For the first time in 200 years the Capitol was breached, and rioters caused a lot of destruction to the building. There was also inequity in the way BLM and Trump supporters were treated. BLM protesters were violently beaten by police, while a police officer took a selfie with a Trump protester.

Mental health has always been an issue for teens and young adults. But has this pandemic made it worse? COVID-19 has affected many teens and their mental health.

Suicide among young people has increased during the pandemic. I feel like youth leaders can raise awareness and make a difference in the way mental health issues are being dealt with. The mental health of many teens has declined due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The main reason for the mental health decline is the fact that we are isolated with a lack of social interaction. People are also depressed because of the way Black people are treated in America and around the world. I feel like youth leaders can find ways to raise awareness and make a difference in the way mental health issues are being dealt with.

From what I have seen, it seems like more and more teens and young adults have been expressing the fact that they have mental health issues that have been caused by quarantine. That is very relatable and understandable because I’m dealing with depression due to the lack of social interaction and the fact that I’ve lost friends during the pandemic.

Honestly, I think young teens with big social media platforms should speak up more on the effects of the pandemic on mental health. Some examples of how youth leaders and social media influencers can use their voice to make a difference includes making a Tik Tok video that raises awareness, making a Twitter thread, an Instagram post or even a YouTube video. These are all great ways social media influencers can use their platforms to raise awareness.

In conclusion, the things that have happened during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic have significantly damaged the mental health of young people. Mental health has been affected by inequities in healthcare, police brutality, and discrimination during the protests. I really do believe that youth leaders and social media influencers should use their platforms to speak up about the issues that are currently going on in America.

MLK

By Asher Lawrence School Without Walls – Grade: 11

It is no understatement to describe the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement as one of the pivotal events in the history of our country. It was from the tireless efforts of people like Malcolm X, John Lewis, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and countless, countless others who risked their freedom and very lives to battle the segregationist American nation. Many textbooks and political pundits represent this moment as the death of American inequality.

Yet if the 2020 coronavirus pandemic and the government’s lackluster response to it have shown us anything, it’s that the revolution the Reverend and his comrades waged is far from over and that if the United States wants to become a “meritocracy” then it must radically transform. As the Civil Rights Movement has shown us, that change must come from the youth.

To achieve Martin Luther King’s vision of a better America in the 21st century and beyond, youth leaders must use their power of influence to support their communities through mutual aid, educate themselves on the history of progressive movements across the world, and most importantly organize collectively to oppose unjust systems. In a world where the United States Congress is incapable or unwilling to stimulate the economy during an international crisis, communities must participate in mutual aid to directly combat the various inequalities present in this nation. In her Vox article, Lexi McMenamin describes mutual aid as a form of organization in which “communities take on the responsibility for caring for one another, rather than forcing individuals to fend for themselves.”

Historically mutual aid has been used by marginalized groups like African Americans, and LGBT+ activists, to ensure that people have food, shelter, and support. Throughout the pandemic, mutual aid has become a mainstream example of how marginalized communities can ensure their safety. Jia Tolentino records a dozen mutual aid groups succeeding within her article, What Mutual Aid Can Do During a Pandemic.

Organizing mutual aid groups gives communities and social groups the ability to ensure that everyone has resources. In a world where “Black and Latino people have been nearly three times as likely to become infected with COVID-19 than white people and have been twice as likely to die from the virus,” mutual aid is a clear and effective strategy to combat racial inequality within the country.

The pandemic has shown Americans how little the U.S. government cares to address crises, and mutual aid is a way to give communities enough power to survive. The year 2020 has been described by advertisers and news anchors as unprecedented. While this is true in some respect, this framing is misguided. To better fight the coronavirus, we must let ourselves be guided by history. In her Forbes article, author Nell Derick Debevoise presents another opinion. She claims that the United States’ failure to address the pandemic is not because the coronavirus is particularly special, but rather that the problem in America is the systemic unequal distribution of resources and the power in society being in the hands of the few.

Debevoise’s article stresses the importance of seeing the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of how our society functions rather than as a black swan event. It can be extrapolated that the reason that the coronavirus is “unprecedented” is the same reason The Great Depression was unprecedented. Author, Michael E. Ruane, reaches a similar conclusion.

He compares 2020 to the 1920’s writing, “As the election of 1920 approached, the global influenza pandemic was still killing people across the country, although it seemed to be tapering off.” Ruane makes it clear that to battle the pandemic in the present day, we must look back on the political and social situation of America a century ago.

Martin Longman came to a similar conclusion when comparing the George Floyd protests of 2020 to those Dr. King organized during the ’60s. Longman explains that both movements were a result of wealth inequality in urban environments, as well as white supremacy within police groups. Longman’s article indicates that to solve issues of marginalized groups being oppressed, our society must be educated on the history of the Civil Rights Movement, and similar mass protests to better confront inequality. Dr. King’s primary tool for bringing about positive social change was nonviolent protests.

To make social progress Americans must take up similar tactics. Kori Schake argued that the only way America

LAWRENCE ESSAY Page 8

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER 2021 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR SUPPLEMENT / WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM

6

7

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER 2021 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR SUPPLEMENT / WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM

Essays continued...

First-Place Winner (Middle School Division)

Youth Influencers Can Be Great Leaders

By Laila Robinson Stuart Hobson Middle School – Grade: 6

Youth leaders can use their power of influence to make a change by showing that their generation can do more than people think. They can influence others to help and by speaking up for what is right.

For example, youth leaders can show other generations that they can do great things too, by being active activists and doing good for others. These things can help because when the word activist comes up most people think of Martin Luther King Jr., who led the famous March on Washington, Rosa Parks, who refused to surrender her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus, Malcom X, who was an African American leader in the Civil Rights Movement, or Ruby Bridges, who advanced the cause of Civil Rights. Youth can influence others as well to make a change and show adults, elderly, and others that we can do. We can do our part to make the world a better place.

With COVID-19 going on things will be even harder because this is a deadly virus. A lot of people are dying because of this virus, but there are still people being active. There are still people protesting and making a change. To help, youth leaders could do more protesting or if they would not want to be around a lot of people, they could also make a sign and stick it in their window, or maybe have a small protest with close family. There are many ways to show there is more to the young generation than people think but these are just a few of them.

Another example is how youth leaders can influence others. They can influence others by acting out for important issues and making a difference in their community. These things would help influence others, by showing that even the small things can make a big change. For example, to act out for an important issue could mean making posters for non-violent protests and putting them outside or maybe sitting on a bench and holding a sign that states the issue you want to have fixed.

If the youth see something in a neighborhood that isn’t safe, and they want it fixed then they could make a sign and put it wherever the issue is and that could possibly help fix it. With this global pandemic going on, once again, we have to be careful because people could get sick, but we can still do some of these things. For example, making a petition and placing it at a neighbor’s door or talking to close family and friends so they could spread the word so more people will start acting out for something they want to change. This could be very helpful because giving this information out personally is still dangerous even with a mask on so this helps because youth would not have to give it to people face to face.

My final example is that youth leaders can speak for what is right. Speaking for what is right is important because it shows that youth leaders (and possibly others) care about a specific issue and it also shows bravery and that they can fight back. Due to COVID-19 speaking out may be harder than usual; however, there are still ways to spread the word. For example, they could make a video and post it on YouTube to influence others so they could spread the word and help with projects or issues around them. Another example is making a presentation. After youth leaders make it, they could send it to somebody who will help you get it to somebody who can make that change.

In conclusion youth leaders can use their power of influence to make a change by showing that their generation can do more than people think by influencing others to help them and by speaking for what is right. In these paragraphs I only stated a few ways, but I am counting on other youth influencers to find other ways to use their power of influence on others. So, if any youth influencers are reading this, do your best!

MLK

First-Place Winner (Elementary School Division)

Inequalities Increased during COVID-19

By Emma Cappelloni Alice Deal Middle School – Grade: 5

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted existing inequalities and has increased inequalities among certain populations, including refugees who are a vulnerable group even during the best of times. After fleeing persecution in their home countries, refugees have faced many health and economic challenges in the United States during the pandemic.

One major problem is that refugees have been at a greater risk of suffering from COVID-19 and face challenges accessing reliable and affordable healthcare services. Refugees are more likely to face poverty and live in crowded housing and have jobs where they can’t take sick leave, increasing exposure risks. They also face language barriers to understand public health announcements about wearing masks and social distancing and about how to access free or low cost COVID-19 tests and treatments.

In addition to health-related struggles, refugees have been facing significant economic challenges and inequalities since the beginning of the pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, refugees often struggled to make ends meet working in low-paying hospitality and service industry jobs, and these sectors have been particularly hard hit with unemployment. Congress passed some economic stimulus measures; however, many refugees have been excluded from receiving benefits. Instead of providing a safety net for this very vulnerable population, the government has been focusing its efforts on preventing refugees from entering the United States and detaining them in crowded facilities while ignoring their economic hardships.

While refugees are facing many hardships, youth leaders can step in and take action to help refugees get through this pandemic. One thing I and other youth leaders can do is partner with D.C. Public School language teachers to help translate COVID-19 prevention messages to those who cannot understand English. This would be helpful in slowing down COVID-19, as one of the reasons refugees are contracting COVID-19 so quickly is because they can’t understand the public health warnings about social distancing, hand washing, and masks, as well as information about where to get tested for COVID-19. Additionally, I and other youth leaders can help coordinate a fundraiser to buy important things such as masks, hand sanitizer, wipes, and food items for refugees who don’t have access to them. We could use a community 5K “Run for Refugees” to raise the necessary funds. As far as economic problems, I and other youth leaders can write letters to members of congress, urging them to include refugees in economic stimulus packages. Even though these small actions might not make a huge change in our world, they will still make a small positive impact in addressing the inequalities and vulnerabilities facing refugees.

In conclusion, refugees have been facing hardships and inequalities since the beginning of COVID-19 and it has negatively impacted their lives. However, youth leaders can help address some of the inequalities through collaborating with language teachers to translate important public health messages, and by raising awareness and funds through community fundraisers and letters to Congress. Such small steps will make it a little easier for refugees to get through this terrible pandemic.

MLK

LAWRENCE ESSAY from Page 6

improves is through mass movements writing, “This churning, disputatious, and even sometimes violent dynamic is what social change in America looks like. And what it has always looked like.” Zeynep Tufekci reaches a similar conclusion explaining that “Protests sometimes look like failures in the short term, but much of the power of protests are in their long-term effects, on both the protesters themselves and the rest of society.”

She goes on to explain, “if an action is easy to do, legislators can also easily discern that it doesn’t necessarily represent a threat to their reelection.” This explanation underlines the importance of large-scale movements, if lawmakers understand a movement as a tangible threat to their power, they will make an effort to appease the movement. It stands to reason that the best way to oppose systemic white supremacy, political corruption, and social and financial inequality, is through the establishment of large-scale protests.

If we want to improve America today, we must learn from the actions of Martin Luther King and his contemporaries. Younger generations must participate in mass protests, educate themselves on the history of social progress, and engage in mutual aid practices. If we wish to confront systemic issues, external or internal, we must remember that nothing is truly unprecedented. History has shown us that progress comes from struggle, and a century from now the issues we see today may exist. Whether or not we rise to the image of a meritocratic nation or succumb to white supremacy depends on the actions the generation of today.

MLK

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER 2021 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR SUPPLEMENT / WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM

8

DARKNESS CANNOT

DRIVE OUT DARKNESS:

ONLY LIGHT

CAN DO THAT. HATE CANNOT

DRIVE OUT HATE:

ONLY LOVE

CAN DO THAT. — Martin Luther King Jr.

washingtongas.com

9

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER 2021 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR SUPPLEMENT / WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM

Recent & Recommended Books Representing Dr. King’s ‘Somebodiness’

By Lee Ross WI Staff Writer Black Aesthetics and the Interior Life

by Christopher Freeburg Christopher Freeburg’s Black Aesthetics and the Interior Life offers a crucial new reading of a neglected aspect of African American literature and art across the long twentieth century. Rejecting the idea that the most dehumanizing of Black experiences, such as

lynching or other racial violence, have completely robbed victims of their personhood, Freeburg rethinks what it means to be a person in the works of Black artists. This book advances the idea that individual persons always retain the ability to withhold, express, or change their ideas, and this concept has profound implications for long-held assumptions about the relationship between Black interior life and Black collective political interests.

Belonging: A Culture of Place

by Bell Hooks What does it mean to call a place home? Who is allowed to become a member of a community?

When can we say that we truly belong? These are

ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN LIFE AND HISTORY®

THE 2021 BLACK HISTORY MONTH

VIRTUAL FESTIVAL CELEBRATING THE 95TH ANNUAL BLACK HISTORY THEME

The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity Monday, February 1, 2021

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

FREE COMMUNITY EVENT - OPEN TO PUBLIC Announcement of the Black History theme and Introduction of ASALH’s Inaugural Virtual Black History Month Festival

FREE COMMUNITY EVENT - OPEN TO PUBLIC Diving with a Purpose

Saturday, February 6, 2021 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. EST

FREE COMMUNITY EVENT - OPEN TO PUBLIC ASALH Prince George’s County Truth Branch Event Featuring a conversation with Dr. Bernice King

FREE COMMUNITY EVENT - OPEN TO PUBLIC From the Continent to the Americas: Foodways, Culture and Traditions in the African American Family

Wednesday, February 10, 2021 FREE COMMUNITY EVENT - OPEN TO PUBLIC Presentation of the Inaugural ASALH Book Prize

Sunday, February 28, 2021 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. EST

Sunday, February 28, 2021 7:00 p.m. EST FREE COMMUNITY EVENT - OPEN TO PUBLIC ASALH and PBS Books Present: A Conversation with Ngugi Wa Thiong’o and Sundiata Cha-Jua

Marquee Event

Saturday, February 20, 2021 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. EST (TICKETED EVENT: $50.00) Finding Our Roots in African American History A Conversation with… Henry Louis Gates and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham

Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham

Acclaimed for his scholarship, his documentary films about African, Afro-Latin, and African American History, and his popular television series, “Finding Your Roots,” Henry Louis Gates, Jr., has brought fascinating African American family stories to the wider public. The Black History Month Festival in 2021 is proud to feature a conversation between ASALH’s national president Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who will share his thoughts and motivations in popularizing Black History through the heritage of African American families and communities and their search for roots.

ASALH BRANCHES WILL HOST VIRTUAL PROGRAMS THROUGHOUT THE MONTH ASALH BRANCH EVENTS CAN BE FOUND AT ASALH.ORG/BRANCH-EVENTS

ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN LIFE AND HISTORY THE FOUNDERS OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH WWW.ASALH.ORG | 202-238-5910 | #ASALH

#ASALHFAMILY

#ASALHFAM

#ASALH2021

some of the questions of place and belonging that renowned cultural critic bell hooks examines in her new book, Belonging: A Culture of Place. Traversing past and present, the work Belonging charts a cyclical journey in which hooks moves from place to place, from country to city and back again, only to end where she began--her old Kentucky home. hooks has written provocatively about race, gender, and class; and in this book she turns her attention to focus on issues of land and land ownership.

Notes of a Native Son

by James Baldwin Written during the 1940s and early 1950s, when Baldwin was only in his twenties, the essays collected in Notes of a Native Son capture a view of black life and Black thought at the dawn of the civil rights movement and as the movement slowly gained strength through the words of one of the most captivating essayists and foremost intellectuals of that era. Writing as an artist, activist, and social critic, Baldwin probes the complex condition of being Black in America. With a keen eye, he examines everything from the significance of the protest novel to the motives and circumstances of the many black expatriates of the time, from his home in “The Harlem Ghetto” to a sobering “Journey to Atlanta.”

Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America

by Stacey Abrams A recognized expert on fair voting and civic engagement, Abrams chronicles a chilling account of how the right to vote and the principle of democracy have been and continue to be under attack. Abrams would have been the first African American woman governor, but experienced these effects firsthand, despite running the most innovative race in modern politics as the Democratic nominee in Georgia. Abrams didn’t win, but she has not conceded. Our Time is Now compellingly argues for the importance of robust voter protections, an elevation of identity politics, engagement in the census, and a return to moral international leadership.

Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty

by Dorothy Roberts In 1997, this groundbreaking book made a powerful entrance into the national conversation on race. In a media landscape dominated by racially biased images of welfare queens and crack babies, Killing the Black Body exposed America’s systemic abuse of Black women’s bodies. From slave masters’ economic stake in bonded women’s fertility to government programs that coerced thousands of poor Black women into being sterilized as late as the 1970s, these abuses pointed to the degradation of Black motherhood— and the exclusion of Black women’s reproductive needs in mainstream feminist and civil rights agendas. MLK

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER 2021 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR SUPPLEMENT / WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM

10

Brighter communities start with a boost of positive energy We’re committed to bringing positive energy to every corner of our community, so that everyone has the opportunity for a brighter future.

Whether it’s investing in students, supporting frontline workers or providing bill assistance—we’re here to help.

Learn more at pepco.com/Brighter

© Potomac Electric Power Company, 2021

11

THE WASHINGTON INFORMER 2021 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR SUPPLEMENT / WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM

On this day when we honor Martin Luther King Jr., we remember his unwavering commitment to community.

By rallying others towards a just cause, he showed anything can be achieved when we come together towards a goal.

Celebrate with us at aarp.org/blackcommunity THE WASHINGTON INFORMER 2021 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR SUPPLEMENT / WWW.WASHINGTONINFORMER.COM

12