Page 23 - MLK 2022 Booklet

2022 MLK Essay Contest Winners 2022 MLK Essay Contest Winners

Sophia Liu

2nd Place Essay Contest Winner Diana Carrosco-Guerrero

Chippewa Middle School
3rd Place Essay Contest Winner

Sexton High School

A Struggle For Justice

For my 9th birthday present, my sister gifted me a book. I devoured it. The book was called
“Separate Is Never Equal”, a biography both authored and illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh,
detailing Sylvia Mendez and her family’s fight for desegregation in California schools. And
oh, my word, the writing! The art! It was so gripping and powerful- helplessly enthralling
in fractured beauty. The book tells the story of Sylvia Mendez’s parents demanding the
authorities give an explanation after their rent children of Mexican descent were denied the
same education and opportunities as children of white backgrounds. They received none
satisfactory, however, and soon brought their plight to court. Though the journey was difficult,
the Mendez family emerged victorious: garnering support from students and parents who had Emma Heinzelmann
suffered similar injustices, receiving help from associations of different backgrounds- all to
eventually secure the rights for children of every ethnicity, language, and background to learn 3rd Place Essay Contest Winner
together in California schools.
Chippewa Middle School
I was reminded of “Separate Is Never Equal” when I was considering how to weave the
theme for the contest into my writing. For Sylvia Mendez and so many others at the time,
justice came in the form of living on equal footing with their white neighbors. However, if this
was justice, why was it not established early on? Why only now? Of course, as Martin Luther
King Jr. stated, perhaps the moral climate was simply not right. Like a desert flower sunk
under scintillating snow, justice can’t establish itself when society’s worldviews don’t accept
it. Nonetheless, there is hope. The snow will thaw, the desert flower blossom, and people
living under injustice like Sylvia Mendez and millions of others at the time and at the present
will eventually triumph in their battles for liberation, per Mr. King’s famous words.

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