WAMU 88.5
: News
By Courtney Collins
Martin Luther King Jr. had the dream, but students at Watkins Elementary School in D.C. are determined to carry it out. The school chose to re-construct Dr. Kings famous speech in the very spot he first delivered it.
One by one, Watkins Elementary fourth graders took the microphone and recited their share of King's speech. Their podium stood on the steps on the Lincoln Memorial, just like King's did in 1963.
There was nothing perfunctory about Thursday's recitation; the kids delivered it with passion and understanding.
Kellin Jefferies says she knows why King's message is so important today.
"It doesn't really matter what the color of our skin is, it's the content of our character," Jeffries says.
Jeffries says it amazes her how hard King fought for future generations.
"He was a brave and nice man because he didn't even know any of us," says Jeffries.
Each student played a role, and the audience chanted along with those famous final words: "Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, we are free at last!"
The words may be close to 50 years old, but the children interpreting them had no problem grasping the message.
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