LI schools reflecting on legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
Monique Habersham was 6 when she and others at an elementary school in the Bronx were ushered into an auditorium following the news of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968.
Teachers cried. Students sang “We Shall Overcome.” Even as a kid, she knew they were marking the passing of a great man.
Now, Habersham is the principal of a school named after King; a third-through-sixth-grade building in Wyandanch whose hallways are filled with the words of the Civil Rights Movement icon.
“To be able to continue that feeling that I got from my educators and to have that opportunity to share that and embed that in our scholars means a lot to me personally,” Habersham said.
Leading up to Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, schools across Long Island honored King’s legacy with speeches, songs and performances. Schools are closed Monday for the holiday, which marks King's birthday, but more celebrations are planned.
Habersham’s school will hold an assembly Tuesday to reflect on its history. It opened in 1956 as Mount Avenue Elementary School and was renamed in 1969 to honor his life, the principal said.
Leading up to the King holiday, students in Glen Cove schools learned about his “I Have a Dream” speech and activist Rosa Parks. Elsewhere, Hewlett Elementary School held its annual Brotherhood-Sisterhood assembly, a tradition a music teacher started more than two decades ago to honor King’s life missions, school officials said. In Malverne, students paid tributes through poetry, music and dance.
But King’s legacy, students and educators said, is not confined to one day.
“Every day is a day to celebrate,” said Deborah Wortham, superintendent of Roosevelt schools. “We have to live the dream each and every day.”
Olivia Brown, a junior at Malverne High School, was one of the students who asked the Malverne Village Board to rename a street that had been named after a Ku Klux Klan leader. The street runs past the Malverne Public Library and the Maurice W. Downing Primary School, formerly known as Lindner Elementary, and one of the first schools integrated in New York to accept Black students.
When arguing for the street sign to be changed, students pointed to King’s visit to Lakeview in 1965 to speak out against segregation in schools.
At the time, the Malverne district was well known across the country as one of the battlegrounds where the struggle to integrate white and Black schoolchildren was being waged, according to Newsday's archives. Malverne schools eventually integrated, but only after years of turmoil.
“It's an oxymoron to have a street named after a Ku Klux Klan member when you have such a rich history,” Brown, 17, said.
The street was renamed last January, from Lindner Place to Acorn Way. But Brown said King’s teachings live beyond a single project.
“The legacy of Martin Luther King, yes, is living through the street name, but I would also say it’s living through a lot of our teachers here at Malverne who are really doing everything to try to maintain an environment that's diverse and equitable to all the students,” the teen said.
Like Brown, Lorenzo Maione, 16, also was involved in the effort. The Malverne High junior said while he knew about King’s famous speeches, the Selma-to-Montgomery march and other highlights of the movement, he gained a far deeper understanding of that history when he researched for the renaming project.
“The more that I researched about him, the more I was able to understand the work he did because I was also trying to work to create something better in my own community,” he said.
Monique Habersham was 6 when she and others at an elementary school in the Bronx were ushered into an auditorium following the news of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968.
Teachers cried. Students sang “We Shall Overcome.” Even as a kid, she knew they were marking the passing of a great man.
Now, Habersham is the principal of a school named after King; a third-through-sixth-grade building in Wyandanch whose hallways are filled with the words of the Civil Rights Movement icon.
“To be able to continue that feeling that I got from my educators and to have that opportunity to share that and embed that in our scholars means a lot to me personally,” Habersham said.
Leading up to Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, schools across Long Island honored King’s legacy with speeches, songs and performances. Schools are closed Monday for the holiday, which marks King's birthday, but more celebrations are planned.
Habersham’s school will hold an assembly Tuesday to reflect on its history. It opened in 1956 as Mount Avenue Elementary School and was renamed in 1969 to honor his life, the principal said.
Leading up to the King holiday, students in Glen Cove schools learned about his “I Have a Dream” speech and activist Rosa Parks. Elsewhere, Hewlett Elementary School held its annual Brotherhood-Sisterhood assembly, a tradition a music teacher started more than two decades ago to honor King’s life missions, school officials said. In Malverne, students paid tributes through poetry, music and dance.
But King’s legacy, students and educators said, is not confined to one day.
“Every day is a day to celebrate,” said Deborah Wortham, superintendent of Roosevelt schools. “We have to live the dream each and every day.”
Olivia Brown, a junior at Malverne High School, was one of the students who asked the Malverne Village Board to rename a street that had been named after a Ku Klux Klan leader. The street runs past the Malverne Public Library and the Maurice W. Downing Primary School, formerly known as Lindner Elementary, and one of the first schools integrated in New York to accept Black students.
When arguing for the street sign to be changed, students pointed to King’s visit to Lakeview in 1965 to speak out against segregation in schools.
At the time, the Malverne district was well known across the country as one of the battlegrounds where the struggle to integrate white and Black schoolchildren was being waged, according to Newsday's archives. Malverne schools eventually integrated, but only after years of turmoil.
“It's an oxymoron to have a street named after a Ku Klux Klan member when you have such a rich history,” Brown, 17, said.
The street was renamed last January, from Lindner Place to Acorn Way. But Brown said King’s teachings live beyond a single project.
“The legacy of Martin Luther King, yes, is living through the street name, but I would also say it’s living through a lot of our teachers here at Malverne who are really doing everything to try to maintain an environment that's diverse and equitable to all the students,” the teen said.
Like Brown, Lorenzo Maione, 16, also was involved in the effort. The Malverne High junior said while he knew about King’s famous speeches, the Selma-to-Montgomery march and other highlights of the movement, he gained a far deeper understanding of that history when he researched for the renaming project.
“The more that I researched about him, the more I was able to understand the work he did because I was also trying to work to create something better in my own community,” he said.
Dandan Zou covers education for Newsday. Previously, she worked for a community newspaper in Maryland and a personal finance magazine in Washington, D.C.
