Students will march for social justice to honor King

Seven-year-old Isaac Piliavin looked up from the page he'd been coloring, eager to explain the legacy of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.

"He helped so black and white people could sit on buses together and go to restaurants together," the Stevens Elementary second-grader said. "This is what he said: He would 'turn this world upside down.' And that's what he did! That speech he gave to 250,000 people, that changed the world."

		Gilbert W. Arias / P-I
	Stevens Elementary second-graders Susanna Sovde, left, and Christopher Gray color a poster to carry in Friday's march to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Piliavin and his classmates have spent the past few weeks learning about King's life and legacy. They've read books about him, studied adjectives and used them to describe King, and held informal class discussions about the idea of equity.

Friday, they'll join hundreds of students from Meany Middle School, Gatewood Elementary and several other Seattle public and private elementary schools to honor King with a "Social Justice March" on Capitol Hill to the Volunteer Park amphitheater.

Once there, students will recite Brian Enriquez's poem "What's My Mission," set to music, and will listen to a performance by the Total Experience Gospel Choir.

Social justice might seem to be a rather sophisticated concept for second-graders to study, but they grasp the basics, said Kevin Peterson, Piliavin's teacher and one of the organizers of the march.

"Young children understand ideas of fairness, ideas of respect, ideas of problem solving," he said. "They can understand the message of Martin Luther King."

Service-learning projects at the Capitol Hill school also help drive that message home for students, he said. For example, in December, Peterson's second-graders participated in an annual schoolwide food drive, collecting and sorting food to give to needy families. Such projects empower young students and help them realize that even small actions they take can make a difference, he said.

"It's a novel way of approaching learning," he said. "It keeps them very active, very involved, and helps them feel like they're part of the community."

This week, Peterson's students have been putting the finishing touches on their signs and homemade sandwich boards, which feature photocopies of King's likeness and such carefully handwritten phrases as "I want justice like Martin Luther King" or "I am brave like Martin Luther King."

Dozens of picture books about the civil rights leader have been lined up against the whiteboard for easy reference.

In the hall, students traced their hands on a class banner that reads, "Lending a hand to justice."

Most of Peterson's students confidently rattle off facts about King, name-check Rosa Parks and mention "that guy that Martin Luther King went to India to visit" (referring to Indian civil rights pioneer Mahatma Gandhi).

Some of their comments are unintentionally amusing -- one student solemnly declares that if King hadn't lived, "then civil rights would still be going on!" -- but they've clearly given thought to how the civil rights movement affected their own lives.

"He stopped segregation," said Connor Farrell, 8. "If he hadn't been alive, then a lot of my friends would be at different schools. ... He should be celebrated a lot."

Second-grader K.J. Miller agreed. She and her classmates have drawn self-portraits, which they plan to carry during the march.

"We're going to hold them up to show that if he wasn't here, we wouldn't all be together," she said.

IF YOU GO

Seattle public- and private-school students will honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. with a "Social Justice March" on Friday on Capitol Hill. The event begins at 9:30 a.m. at the main entrance of Volunteer Park, 1247 15th Ave. E. Students will march around the park's perimeter road to the amphitheater, where there will be musical performances. For more infor- mation: 206-252-3400.