March teaches Red Hook kids about MLK’s legacy, by Noah Phillips

“Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.”

– Martin Luther King Jr.

Ayden, 7, doesn’t know too much about Martin Luther King Jr. He thinks King’s iconic “I have a dream” speech is “long and boring,” and he was “pretty sure” it happened in 1998. But he knows the important stuff.

“He made black people and white people come together,” says Ayden. “It means that black and white people that get together won’t get in trouble, because it’s not against the law anymore.”

Ayden was one of around thirty children participating in the Red Hook Peace March, organized by the Miccio Center and the Justice Center’s Red Hook Community Resilience Corps (CRC). In the morning the kids watched a movie called “My Friend Martin,” an educational cartoon about the famous civil rights leader. Then they made small signs and joined adults from the community for a march around Red Hook.

“Hopefully these things will stick with them when they get older,” says Trequan Bekka, assistant program director at the Miccio Center. Bekka helped coordinate the day, and was excited to get kids involved.

“MLK day is something that’s part of our population’s history, so it’s important that the kids get connected to that,” says Bekka. “They get connected to that in school, but there’s nothing bad about reinforcing certain information.”

At one o’clock the kids, as well as around 20 adults, left the Miccio Center bearing a large hand-painted banner. Shouting slogans like “Who has a dream? I have a dream!” and “The people, united, will never be defeated,” these youngsters paraded through Red Hook, attracting applause and cheers from other pedestrians. The march took them along Mill Street and then through Coffey Park to the Justice Center and back again.

“It’s a day we can do something for the community, talk about who MLK was, and just have other people share in the knowledge,” says Leslie Gonzaga, CRC coordinator. The CRC is comprised of AmeriCorps volunteers, and they frequently organize days of service for holidays and other special events around Red Hook.

“[Dr. King] really wanted everybody to work together, which I think a lot of the Red Hook community does,” says Gonzaga. “We work together, we do things together, we try to make sure that we’re on the same page and that we’re all trying to make Red Hook safer, stronger, and more resilient together. So I think he would support us, but he would also push us to do a little bit more.”