Teacher, Writing Students Among Those Appreciating Power Of King’s Message

The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day observances begin Friday night in Wisconsin and will continue through the Monday holiday. At one Milwaukee school, King remains a focus for some school writing classes.

Among the Milwaukee students receiving an award in an MLK essay contest is Riverside High School student Chachee Lee. She said she learned from King the importance of respecting other people.

“You don’t want to feel bad about yourself … and many people are not getting respect, so they feel sad and depressed,” Lee said.

Riverside student Naomi Gutierrez-Godoy is another essay contest award winner. She said she takes solace in King’s message of non-violence.

“There’s a lot of violence here … but there’s also places where there isn’t violence, and those places are really cool at the same time,” she said.

Gutierrez-Godoy and Lee are both students of English teacher Whitney Gulbronson. This week, Gulbronson received an annual Milwaukee award given to a teacher who has contributed to King-related writing, speech and or art competitions and has incorporated King into his or her curriculum. Gulbronson said that King not only had a message in his writing, but knew how to construct that message.

“Because the power in what he says isn’t only in the words he uses, but in how he strings his sentences together,” she said. “How he uses repetition so phenomenally. How he creates these extended metaphors that really make things very, very clear.”

Milwaukee’s 31st annual King birthday celebration is scheduled for Sunday. King-related community events in Madison begin Friday night.