Elrod named winner in Martin Luther King Jr. essay contest sponsored by Atrium Health Floyd

Fifth-grader Georgia Elrod was named a winner among all participating school systems in the Martin Luther King Jr. essay contest sponsored by Atrium Health Floyd. She placed first among her classmates at Darlington before moving on to the local contest. Also recognized at the school-level were fifth-graders Merrill Ostuw, second place; Campbell Ledbetter, third place; and Sophia Adams, Porter Montague, and Kenzo Smith, honorable mention.

Read Elrod's essay here: 

“Injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere.”
-MLK, Jr.

There are multiple ways to explain this quote, but this is the way that I think of it. Let’s say that you are playing a team sport. You are winning because the referee has been making bad calls for the other team. You didn’t say anything because it was benefiting your team. But then it’s halftime. In the second half the referee starts making bad calls on your team. This is because nobody said anything about the bad calls. The referee thought that he was making good calls because nobody had corrected him. That was a small act of injustice, and no justice was safe because nobody stopped it.

There were multiple ideas that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood up for, but he had three main ideas. The first one was for African-Americans to have the right to vote in elections. Even though they had passed the Fifteenth Amendment in 1869, it wasn’t until 1965 that they passed the laws to protect African-American’s rights to vote. Before they passed those laws, they would give African-Americans these fake tests that were impossible to pass. They would ask questions like, “How many bubbles are on this bar of soap?” Or they would threaten to hurt them, to scare them away. They had tried to stop African-Americans from voting. They tried to stop them from voting because if African-Americans couldn’t vote, then the whites held all of the power. Dr. King believed it was important for African-Americans to gain power through voting to bring change. 

His second idea was about labor rights. He believed that there should be fair working conditions and fair pay to any race or gender. Equal pay for equal work is something we are still fighting for. For example, the United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) was paid less than the United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) even though the USWNT has won four World Cups while the USMNT has won zero. Members of the USWNT fought for equal pay, and they are now paid the same amount. However, overall women in most other jobs are still paid less than men. African-American women are paid less than white women, and Hispanic women are paid even less than African-American women. The fight for equal pay continues.

His third and final idea was desegregation. Due to Jim Crow laws, African-Americans would be separated from whites. They would have to go to separate schools, separate restaurants, and they would even have to use different water fountains and restrooms. Dr. King fought the unjust Jim Crow laws by using peaceful protests like boycotts, sit-ins, and marches. He knew that he would be shown violence but he would never retaliate with violence. 

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s ideas are still important to the nation because we do not have justice for everyone who wants or needs it. Women are paid less than men and there are still racists out there, but Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has changed the nation forever.

Elrod is the daughter of Erin and Brandon Elrod of Rome.