The "I Have a Dream" Guy

 Black History Month in rural North Dakota is an interesting affair.  Diversity for us means your ancestry is either German or Norwegian.  People are categorized by whether or not they truly like Lutefisk.  “Mixed marriage” means you did the unthinkable and married someone from a neighboring rival town.

On Martin Luther King’s birthday, I spent several days discussing who he was, what he fought for and how people reacted to him.  In the middle of our first discussion, a hand on my left suddenly shot into the air.  “I saw a black man once, Mrs. Dahl!”  Then for emphasis and dramatic flair he added, “for real!”  Like he had just shared something from Ripley’s Believe it or Not.  I knew then and there that I needed to begin at the very foundation of the Civil Rights Movement.  These kids live in a very vanilla bubble.

“OK, boys and girls, I just made up a new rule.  From now on, everyone with blue eyes cannot play on the same playground equipment as their classmates.  If you have blue eyes, you will have to play away from the other students and can only play on the equipment I tell you to play on.”  I saw a storm of emotions cross the faces of my little charges.  “Why?” they wanted to know.  “Because you have blue eyes, that’s why.”  Well, nobody thought THAT was fair.  They were having trouble processing this terrible news.  Maybe Mrs. Dahl wasn’t so nice after all.  Before anyone could dissolve into tears (which happens rather quickly in the first grade), I assured them I wasn’t serious and that blue-eyed “outcasts” would most surely be allowed to co-mingle with the rest.  I then went on to explain the unfair discrimination practices that occurred against African Americans in the South.  Their little (blue) eyes widened when I told them that there were separate restaurants, and water fountains, and schools for “people of color.”  “How would it make you feel if you had to stay away from other people just because of the color of your skin? “  As they processed that sort of unthinkable discrimination, mostly they believed they would feel sad. That is until it was a little princess’ turn to speak.  With fire in her eyes, and her little arms crossed, she spit out, “I would be mad!”  Bingo.  Here was my open door to talk about the Civil Rights Movement. 

Since that day, we have read about Ruby Bridges and Garrett Morgan (who invented the traffic light in the 1920’s) and we watched a portion of MLK’s March on Washington speech on Youtube. Rosa Parks is next.  Wow, have we had some great discussions!  These are important conversations because the bottom line extends far beyond one race and one era in American history.   Any time human beings are devalued, all of society suffers.  Will it mean much to my very white, European students?  I don’t know, but I had to smile when one of my more easily distracted students came running up to me while getting ready to go out for recess.  As he’s yanking on coveralls and gloves he says, “Mrs, Dahl, you know the ‘I have a dream’ guy?”  “You mean Martin Luther King, Jr.?”  “Yeah, him.”  Right glove is on now he’s tugging at the left one.  “What about him?” I asked, completely amazed that we are having this conversation.  “I think you should take me to his burial grounds.”  Huh?  Are we really talking about this?  I just stared at him.  When the shock of his request wore off I asked slowly, ”You want to go to the tomb of Martin Luther King, Jr.?”  “Yeah, I think you should take me there.”  Hat is now partially on his head and he is running up the stairs to the exit as he shouts this last part to me.   I stood rooted to the spot staring at his retreating back.  And a small bubble of joy began to swell inside me.  Maybe they are beginning to understand after all.