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PORTLAND, Ore. — This Martin Luther King Jr. Day was especially meaningful to students at Martin Luther King Jr. School in northeast Portland.
2018 marks 50 years since Dr. King’s assassination. It also marks 50 years since teachers and students at the school successfully campaigned to rename the school, formerly Highland School, after Dr. King.
It was 1968. Ronda Chiles was a sixth grader and among the many students who rallied for the name change.
“I remember running through this hallway,” said Chiles, on a recent visit to the school.
“It's so surreal ... but you see, I’m not old, I'm just seasoned,” she giggled.
Chiles leads us up the stairs and back in time to room 211, her sixth-grade class.
“My teacher was Mr. [Matthew] Helm,” Chiles said. “I loved Mr. Helm. He was one of the teachers who wanted the name change, too."
Chiles said those in support of the idea felt it would do more than just honor and memorialize Dr. King. They believed it would set a new standard for their own lives. A standard based on peace, love and acceptance.
“Those are the things that Dr. Martin Luther King stood for,” Chiles said. “It’s what we wanted the legacy of our school to be.”
Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Shortly after that, students petitioned the school board to change the school’s name. The board approved the request on April 24.
“There was a long debate,” said Chiles of the weeks waiting for the petition to be approved. “I can remember fliers and memos and meetings in the cafeteria.”
Most clearly, Chiles remembers the day Mr. Helm walked into class with the news.
“He said, ‘We got the name change!’ The whole class just erupted in cheers and applause,” said Chiles, clapping her hands, reliving the moment. “We didn't think it was going to happen.”
Archive photos from 1968 show students right after the announcement, hanging paper banners that read, ‘Martin Luther King Jr. School,’ over the existing Highland School signs.
The significance of what happened is not lost on the school's current principal, Jill Sage. Historically, Sage said the school was one of the first, if not the very first school in the country named after Dr. King.
“Coretta Scott King also gave her permission to change the school's name,” Sage said.
Personally, Sage said her students and staff feel an extra sense of conviction to honor Dr. King’s legacy. “To put his name on this building is a lot of responsibility and we all take it very seriously,” she said.
LaMar Warren is an eighth grader at Martin Luther King Jr. School. His mother also attended the school when she was a girl.
“Without [Dr. King], we probably still wouldn't be equal,” Warren said. “Me and you probably wouldn't be talking right now.”
Warren said he tries to live up to Dr. King's legacy every day.
“I just show kindness and respect to everybody, even if they don't always give it back,” Warren said. “No one's better than anyone else.”
Chiles’ daughter, Shei'Meka Owens, is president of the Martin Luther King Jr. School Parent Teacher Association. Her daughters, Erica, 4, and Naomi, 6, both attend the school.
“I'm grateful to be a part of the community building that's continuing to happen and with Dr. King being the nucleus of that,” Owens said.
A lot has changed in the community around Martin Luther King Jr. School over the last 50 years; home values around the school have soared, new neighbors have moved in, perceptions have changed. Chiles said over the years, more and more people started abbreviating the school’s name, calling it simply, ‘King School.’ She said it reached the point where some new neighbors didn’t even realize who the school was named after.
Last year, students from Martin Luther King Jr. School’s leadership program went to the school board and asked that the school always be referred to by its full name, Martin Luther King Jr. School. The board granted their request.
Owens said through it all, those who’ve claimed the school as their own have always found a way to come together.
“That is the dream coming to fruition,” said Owens, holding back tears. “Not just keeping the dream alive but the dream starting to become true.”
Suddenly, Owens’ daughters appear; they hug their mom and grandma Chiles before heading off the class.
“Do you know who Dr. King was?” Owens asks 6-year-old Naomi.
“He was a man of God,” Naomi whispers back.
“He was a man of God,” replies Owens. “He really loved people, too — kind of like you.”
With that, another generation is running through the hallway.