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http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/jan04/199300.asp
Students evoke the power of King's words
Celebration extols power of love over hate
By DON BEHM
dbehm@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Jan. 11, 2004
Nahona Brooks, a second-grade student at Lloyd Street Global Education School, stood before more than 1,200 adults Sunday afternoon and explained how Martin Luther King Jr. fought racism and injustice with powerful words and love.
Much like a boxing match, hate and love confront each other in life, Brooks said in a short speech that won her first place for kindergarten through second-grade pup
ls in the annual King speech contest sponsored by We Energies.
"The bell rings and the fight begins," Brooks told people attending the city's 20th annual celebration of King's birth
day
at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. Her audience sa
t silently in Uihlein Hall watching the 7-year-old, her arms swinging like a champ to punctuate the speech.
After an "uppercut of honesty" and a "jab of love," the bell rings and the power of love wins the fight, Nahona said.
The theme of this year's essay contest, "Meet the forces of hate with the power of love," is an excerpt from a King speech. Brooks and other award winners in the speech competition were announced Sunday.
Other first-place winners included: Emily Daly, Golda Meir Gifted and Talented Elementary School, for the third- to fifth-grade division; Jessica Holden, of Westside Academy II, sixth- to eighth-grade; Jason Bochek, Madison University High School, ninth- to 10th-grad
e; and Dante Cross, Messmer High School, 11th- and 12th-grade.
Earlier in the afternoon, Gov. Jim Doyle told more than 400 people packed into the Marcus Center's Annello Atrium that he was th
ankful fo
r King's leadership during the civil rights movement.
"In honoring his birthday, we are honoring the
many, many people who followed him and did the work" of fighting discrimination and injustice, Doyle said.
"It was a movement which made this country a much, much better place."
Doyle's goal for Wisconsin is that it become "a great, open state, a tolerant state, a state that is moving forward," he said.
Though sponsored by the City of Milwaukee in past years, this year's King birthday celebration was organized by numerous civic, community, religious and business leaders.
King was born Jan. 15, 1929, in Atlanta. The federal holiday is Jan. 19.
King, the founder and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Confer
ence, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 at age 35, making him the youngest man to receive the prize.
Four years later, King was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/jan04/199300.asp
Students evoke the power of King's words
Celebration extols power of love over hate
By DON BEHM
dbehm@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Jan. 11, 2004
Nahona Brooks, a second-grade student at Lloyd Street Global Education School, stood before more than 1,200 adults Sunday afternoon and explained how Martin Luther King Jr. fought racism and injustice with powerful words and love.
Much like a boxing match, hate and love confront each other in life, Brooks said in a short speech that won her first place for kindergarten through second-grade pup
ls in the annual King speech contest sponsored by We Energies.
"The bell rings and the fight begins," Brooks told people attending the city's 20th annual celebration of King's birth
day
at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. Her audience sa
t silently in Uihlein Hall watching the 7-year-old, her arms swinging like a champ to punctuate the speech.
After an "uppercut of honesty" and a "jab of love," the bell rings and the power of love wins the fight, Nahona said.
The theme of this year's essay contest, "Meet the forces of hate with the power of love," is an excerpt from a King speech. Brooks and other award winners in the speech competition were announced Sunday.
Other first-place winners included: Emily Daly, Golda Meir Gifted and Talented Elementary School, for the third- to fifth-grade division; Jessica Holden, of Westside Academy II, sixth- to eighth-grade; Jason Bochek, Madison University High School, ninth- to 10th-grad
e; and Dante Cross, Messmer High School, 11th- and 12th-grade.
Earlier in the afternoon, Gov. Jim Doyle told more than 400 people packed into the Marcus Center's Annello Atrium that he was th
ankful fo
r King's leadership during the civil rights movement.
"In honoring his birthday, we are honoring the
many, many people who followed him and did the work" of fighting discrimination and injustice, Doyle said.
"It was a movement which made this country a much, much better place."
Doyle's goal for Wisconsin is that it become "a great, open state, a tolerant state, a state that is moving forward," he said.
Though sponsored by the City of Milwaukee in past years, this year's King birthday celebration was organized by numerous civic, community, religious and business leaders.
King was born Jan. 15, 1929, in Atlanta. The federal holiday is Jan. 19.
King, the founder and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Confer
ence, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 at age 35, making him the youngest man to receive the prize.
Four years later, King was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.