PORCHSCENE: Exploring Southern Culture

With the MLK holiday approaching, I decided to focus our second grade Social Studies lessons on the life of Dr. King. At the start of the week, I asked if anyone knew why we would be out of school celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday. One student, who had recently chosen to research him for a historical figures project, raised her hand. “Because if he had never lived, then I wouldn’t be able to know Harper, Isabel, George, and Hunter. I wouldn’t be able to be friends with them because we wouldn’t get to go to the same school.” All the students sat quietly as they looked around our circle at their classmates, taking in the words their friend had just shared. I prompted her further, “And why wouldn’t you have gotten to go to the same school, Makenzie?” “Because I am black and they are white,” she stated matter-of-factly. “Back when Martin Luther King Jr. lived, black people couldn’t just go everywhere. They even had their own schools!” A black boy who had been listening intently dropped his jaw. “WHAT?!” he exclaimed in shock. “WHY?!”

Thus began a week-long dialogue among second graders who have only ever lived a life enriched by multi-cultural friendships. Later, two best friends in my class, one white and one black, ran up to me frantically a few days into their MLK research. “Mrs. Tilson! We just watched Dr. King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech on the computer and we heard him say, ‘Little black girls and little white girls will one day play together!’” Sensing the heaviness in those words, I bent down and looked into their eyes. “And how did that make you feel, girls?” The white girl looked at her friend and said simply, “It makes me want to cry.” Without another word, the two girls simultaneously reached out and embraced one another. I snapped a picture of a moment I knew I never wanted to forget.

Yes, America, there is still racial injustice and deeply ingrained prejudices creating problems in our nation today. But when little children can’t picture life without friends of a different color, I’m reminded of just how far we as a nation have truly come.

Elise Tilson

2nd grade teacher, Waverly Belmont Elementary, Nashville