Martin Luther King, Jr. Poster Exhibition
The Alexandria Black History Museum, part of the Office of Historic Alexandria, sponsors an annual Student Poster Exhibition with Alexandria City Public School students, grades 2-5.
I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education, and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits…
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Acceptance speech at the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony
December 10, 1964
Who is Martin Luther King, Jr.?
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta Georgia. He attended Morehouse College, Crozer Theological Seminary and Boston University. He received his Ph.D. in 1953. In Boston, Dr. King met Coretta Scott whom he married on June 18, 1953. Dr. They had four children, two girls and two boys.
Following in the footsteps of his grandfather and father, Martin Luther King, Jr. became a minister. In 1954, he became pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama and joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a well-respected civil rights organization.
Dr. King was determined to end the discrimination faced by African Americans. As a result of racial segregation, African Americans in many parts of the United States could not be educated, eat, shop or use the same facilities that whites could. Dr. King and many other Americans, both black and white, risked their lives to end this inequality. Dr. King organized boycotts, marches and other forms of peaceful and non-violent protests to help African Americans gain equality. In 1957, Dr. King was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to promote the civil rights movement.
In 1963, Dr. King was named Man of Year by Time Magazine. In 1964, he became the youngest man (at 35) to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. His legacy lives on in his speeches and in the many people, all over the world, who work to make their communities a better place.
There is so much more to learn about Martin Luther King, Jr.
Teaching about Martin Luther King, Jr.
Websites
- Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial
- Library of Congress: I Have a Dream, and Letter from the Birmingham Jail
- Roundtable with John Lewis and President Barack Obama remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
- The Official Website of the Nobel Prize
- Voicethread video
Books
Elementary School:
- As Good as Anybody: Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Joshua Heschel’s Amazing March Toward Freedom, by Richardson Michelson (2008)
- Martin’s Big Words—The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., by Doreen Rapport (2001)
Middle School:
- Who was Martin Luther King, Jr.? by Bonnie Bader and Who HQ (2007)
- Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop: The Sanitation Strike of 1968, by Alice Fay Duncan (2018)
High School:
- Dear Martin, by Nic Stone (2017)
Program Sponsors
- Alexandria Black History Museum
- Alexandria City Public Schools
The 2025 Posters
The 2024 theme is Mission Possible: Freedom, Justice, and Democracy. The lead image is by Ruby Griffis, 5th grader at Naomi L. Brooks Elementary School. An awards ceremony was held in Council Chambers on February 9, and the Posters were on view in the Vola Lawson Lobby of City Hall throughout the month of February. This is a 30+ year event that has over 200 ACPS students and their families attend.
The 2024 Posters
Our theme for this year's Poster Exhibition, "Living the Dream," relates to Dr. King’s dream of the Beloved Community.
The program took place Monday January 15 in City Council Chambers, with Mayor Justin Wilson as the keynote speaker.
The 2023 Posters
Our theme this year was: "It Starts with Me! Creating Martin Luther King, Jr's Beloved Community." The children learned about Dr. King's vision of creating a world free of racism, injustice, poverty, hunger and homelessness and were challenged to make art that would show what they could do to make the world a better place.
The Poster Exhibition ceremony was held in City Council Chambers on MLK Day, Monday January 16, 2023. Photos of the ceremony are posted below.
The 2022 Posters
The 2022 poster theme is "Celebrate Juneteenth, Celebrate Freedom." We honor the newest federal holiday by creating art inspired by Juneteenth, June 19, 1865, the day the U.S. Army marched into in Galveston, Texas, and proclaimed all enslaved people were free. The promise of freedom held out the hope of self-determination, educational opportunities, and full rights of citizenship; the freedom to be you and have control over your body and your own life.
The Alexandria City Public Schools provided guidance to teachers, parents and students on how to submit the artwork.
Learn about Juneteenth: A Time of Reflection and Rejoicing.
View a slideshow of the students' posters and download your favorites, or watch the video.
The 2021 Posters
Martin Luther King, Jr. Poster Exhibition 2021
The 2021 poster theme, "Creating a Hopeful World," comes from a quote from another Civil Rights icon, John Lewis. View a slideshow of the 2021 students' posters and download your favorites, or watch a video.