Students learn about civil rights leader

By Sarah Kirchner, staff writer

Everyone knows the Martin Luther King Jr. who gave his &8220;I Have a Dream&8221; speech at the march on Washington in August of 1963. However, many people aren&8217;t familiar with the rebellious side of King that promoted nonviolent civil disobedience, said Albert Lea High School humanities teacher Jeremy Corey-Gruenes.

At ALHS, it&8217;s the unfamiliar side that Corey-Gruenes focuses on when he teaches about civil rights and King around Martin Luther King Jr. Day. He said students have already heard the safe side of King, so he wants to expose them to another part of King&8217;s legacy.

&8220;That voice, that willingness to speak out is important to expose kids to,&8221; Corey-Gruenes said.

The past three years around Martin Luther King Jr. Day, an hour-long student video was aired for the entire school during an advisory period.

Ninth- through 12th-graders watched the program through the TV system.

This year there is no school Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so no program outside of the annual breakfast is planned. Individual teachers are presenting information and Corey-Gruenes has already taught excerpts from King&8217;s autobiography.

In 2005, 20 ALHS students performed a dramatic reading of King&8217;s speech, &8220;Declaration of Independence Against the War in Vietnam,&8221; which he delivered in April of 1967 at Manhattan&8217;s Riverside Church.

During the last half of King&8217;s life he focused on poverty and anti-war efforts, Corey-Gruenes said.

&8220;That speech is really powerful because the parallels of what he says there and Iraq are really obvious,&8221; he said.

For the high school&8217;s Martin Luther King Jr. Day program in 2006, Corey-Gruenes again focused on the message of civil disobedience and others took King&8217;s message to affect social change. In their advisory period, students watched the movie &8220;We Were Warriors,&8221; focusing on Rosa Parks and debunking the myth about her famous bus ride.

Corey-Gruenes said Parks went through weeks of training about civil disobedience and was an active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Parks&8217; refusal to get up from her bus seat and move to the back of the bus was a premeditated act that had been planned for weeks, Corey-Gruenes said.

In 2006, he also taught students about the lunch-counter sit-ins and how much planning that took. King was an avid believer in civil disobedience.

&8220;He&8217;s not just the &8216;let&8217;s all love each other and be together,&8217; he&8217;s the &8216;let&8217;s all love each other and demand equal rights,&8217;&8221; Corey-Gruenes said.

People are very comfortable with the safe Martin Luther King, he said, adding people aren&8217;t comfortable with the rebel side of King.

&8220;He was a rebel and an anti-war rebel,&8221; Corey-Gruenes said.

That year, teachers also asked students to sign a Ghandi/King Nonviolence Pledge, and 641 students agreed.

Last year at the high school the program celebrated other peace makers and people fighting for justice in the tradition of King.

The program in 2007 focused on civil rights in South Africa and Mkhuseli Jack, a young man instrumental in leading the fight against Apartheid. Jack boycotted stores in Cape Town, South Africa and discouraged the entire black community from shopping at white-owned stores. Corey-Gruenes said that really made the government listen to them.

South Africa also took King&8217;s message of loving the enemy to the fullest extent. A truth in reconciliation commission tried to get people guilty of crimes to confess what they&8217;d done and meet with the victims instead of imprisoning them.

As part of the 2007 program, student Megan Cunningham presented what she learned while studying for a year in South Africa.

After the Martin Luther King Jr. Day programs the last three years, Corey-Gruenes said teachers and students told him they were excited to learn something new about King.

&8220;Learning about King as a rebel is just as important as the typical &8216;I Have a Dream&8217; King because he was willing to rebel against an unjust government,&8221; he said.