MLK Center hosts Quiz Bowl, essay contest

Feb. 23—LENOIR

Students from Caldwell County middle and high schools gathered at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center in Lenoir on Wednesday night (Feb. 22) to read aloud their essays and participate in the center's 27th annual Vanessa Hartso-Rodriguez Quiz Bowl competition.

This event has not been held at the MLK Jr. Center for the last couple years due to COVID-19 restrictions.

"I'm so glad to see the kids back in action, and I hope they've been studying," said Lester Whittington, director of the MLK Jr. Center.

The event began with the reading of student essays. Four students, two from Gamewell Middle School and two from Caldwell Applied Sciences Academy (CASA), wrote their essays about the horrific murder of Emmett Till, and how his mother's choice to publicize Emmett's badly mutilated face sparked a great interest in civil rights for African Americans and the call to completely abolish hatred and racism.

Each student began their essay with a brief description of Emmett's cruel death in Mississippi. In 1955, Emmett was abducted, tortured, and lynched by Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam after being accused of flirting with Bryant's wife, a white woman named Carolyn Bryant, in her family's grocery store. The brutality of Emmett's murder and the fact that his killers were acquitted drew attention to the long history of violent persecution of African Americans in the U.S.

Emmett's mother, Mamie Till, insisted on a public funeral service with an open casket to expose the world to her son's bloated, mutilated body. Tens of thousands attended his funeral or viewed his open casket, and images of his mangled body were published in Black-oriented magazines and newspapers across the U.S.

Hunter Tester, a middle school student at Gamewell Middle School, was the first to read his essay.

"For many, Emmett's deformed face is what touched their hearts and made them start to resist," he wrote. "Emmett's mother's decision was one match laid on the kindling that was the civil rights movement. Many people seem to think the dark days of segregation are in the distant past, but if Emmett was not killed, he would be 82 this year.

"People today need to remember how things used to be and take steps to make sure that no one is treated like that again."

Anita Thao, also a student at Gamewell Middle School, next read her essay.

"[Emmett's] death was significant because it showed others how unfairly African Americans were being treated," Anita wrote. "Many African Americans were hanged, lynched, and killed just because of their race. His murder sparked the civil rights movement because people were furious, especially when a teenage boy was killed in that way. Remembering the past can help us with the future ... His death shouldn't have happened, but it did. We have to remember the past so we can change our future."

Thao won the middle school essay contest and received a trophy as a prize. Hunter Tester won second place.

Lia Washington from CASA was next to read her essay, which she titled, "Motive and Momentum."

" 'Let the people see what I see' is what Mamie Till told the funeral home director when she decided to put her son in a glass casket," Lia wrote. "According to the National Museum of African American History, about 100 days after Emmett's death, Rosa Parks made the noble decision to not sit in the back of the bus. Rev. Jesse Jackson told Vanity Fair in 1988 that Rosa said she thought about going to the back of the bus, but then she thought about Emmett Till, and she couldn't do it. Rosa was heavily influenced by Emmett, as she was one of the main people who decided that change needed to happen.

"Despite the efforts made by activists in the past, racism is still present and alive today. People continue to fight against these injustices under the Black Lives Matter movement," Lia finished.

Hailey Poarch, a student at CASA, was the last to read her essay, "A Spark that Started a Fire."

"This heartbreaking story is a huge part of history as we know it," Hailey wrote. "It shows people that racism isn't only mental abuse, but physical abuse in many unimaginable ways ... Till's death inspired Cleveland Sellers, just a child himself, to organize protests within his own African American community. Jet magazine specifically bringing awareness to Till's death fueled the fight by exposing the horrors of racism.

"The story of Emmett really opened my eyes to what racism has done to such innocent people," Hailey said in her conclusion. "People need to see that racism kills; even to this day, people are still being effected by racism. Emmett's story shows us how racism has effected people in the past and still does. Please ask yourself: What are you willing to do to end this discrimination?"

Washington won the high school essay contest, receiving a gold trophy, with Poarch placing second.

The quiz bowl questions were geared toward African American history in the U.S. and even questions specific to the history of the Black community in Caldwell County.

Gamewell Middle School and Hibriten High School were the winners of the Quiz Bowl.