King Day program features prizes, film clips
Ferris Professor Melvin McCray presents historic footage of King speeches, press conferences, interviews
At the University's annual Martin Luther King Day celebration on January 17, the Class of 2000 awarded its Millennial Essay prize of $1,000 to Phil Traylor of grade 11 at Trenton Central High School.
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Millennial Essay Contest winner (l) and two of the honorable mentions (Photo by Ron Carter)
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The first-place essay by Traylor proposed building a basketball court in his neighborhood, "which would provide positive experiences for boys and girls of all ages and would enable his neighborhood to continue to fight off drugs and drug dealers," said Sujohn Sarkar '00, who cochairs the Class of 2000 Millennium Committee with Dailey and Michael Bosworth '00.
The committee intends to collaborate with the winner, the University and a community agency to implement the prize-winning idea.
Honorable mention in the contest went to Rebecca Allen of McCorristin Catholic High School in Trenton, who proposed forming a group of young entertainers to perform at senior citizen centers and nursing homes; Alex Goodman of Princeton High School, who suggested creating a team of students dedicated to improving the environment; Brittany Lippincott of Hopewell Valley Central High School, who called for the installation of a traffic light at a dangerous intersection; and Tolu Onigbanjo of Trenton Central, who proposed a program of enhanced lab activities and summer internships to help students toward careers in the sciences.
McCray on King
The guest speaker at the program was Melvin McCray, Ferris Professor of Journalism. An award-winning editor for ABC News, a documentary filmmaker and magazine reporter, McCray presented a commentary on King's life and work, highlighted by film clips.
The audience sat spellbound through clips of King's speeches and press conferences. These included not only the legendary "I Have a Dream" speech but also statements articulating King's opposition to the Vietnam War and his call for "direct action" when, as McCray put it, "appeals to white consciences would only go so far."
The clips also showed King speaking on behalf of the Poor People's Campaign and his observations on the rise of the Black Power movement (perhaps, he suggested, Black Power could be seen not as a cause but as a result of white backlash).
The portrait that emerged from McCray's presentation was not of an idealized dreamer but of a fighter who "worked, planned and struggled for a better world," McCray said.
Middle, grade school prizes
Prizes were also presented to the winners of the University's essay contest for middle school students and poster contest for fourth through sixth graders.
Winners in the middle school essay contest were Andrew Martin (grade 8, Chapin School, Princeton), first prize; Hannah Buoye (Stuart Country Day School, Princeton), second prize; and Jen Brown (Princeton Day School, Princeton), Dennis Egan (Melvin H. Kreps Middle School, East Windsor), Sarah Harwood (John Witherspoon Middle School, Princeton), Noah Hertz-Bunzl (Witherspoon), Jessica Rosengarten (Princeton Latin Academy, Hopewell) and Marielle Rousseau (Chapin), honorable mention.
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Robert Durkee (l), vice president for public
affairs, congratulates winners in the poster
contest.
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