Freedom’s Sisters essay winners
Above: Winners of the Freedom’s Sisters essay contest. (Photo by Francine Halvorsen)
On Monday, while visiting Baltimore’s Reginald F. Lewis Museum on Martin Luther King Day, I had the pleasure of hearing the winners of the Freedom’s Sisters essay contest. Six middle-school youngsters who tackled a highly competitive and rewarding exercise read their winning work.
Freedom’s Sisters is a show featuring, in image and text, the lives of 20 outstanding African-American women who have fought for human rights from the 1800s to the present.
The show has been traveling since 2008, sponsored by the Cincinnati Museum Center the Smithsonian and the Ford Motor Company as well as the institutions at which the exhibit has been viewed. Ford provided the prizes after blind reviews by people from all the exhibiting museums, the Smithsonian and Ford.
The essayists were introduced by the very empowering address by Clara Floyd, President of the Maryland State Education Association.
For her 1st place insightful essay on Barbara Jordon, Nicole T. Johnson, an 8th grader, from Our Lady of Victory School in Baltimore, won a $5,000 US Saving Bond. Second place winner, Sinclaire A. Jones, wrote about Rosa Parks and delivered her essay, “Holding My Ground,” in a most eloquent way. Third place Naomi Gabrielle Jones, a 7th grader at Redland Middle school in Rockville, wrote about Septima Poinsette Clark from a personal perspective.
Nicole T. Johnson, an 8th grader from Our Lady of Victory School in Baltimore, won first place for her essay on Barbara Jordan. (Photo by Francine Halvorsen)
First runner-up, Conner A. Jones, brother of Sinclaire A. Jones, also wrote about Septima Poinsette Clark with an individual point of view. He and his sister both attend the Pennington School in Manassas, VA.
The 2nd and 3rd runner-ups, Tamya Anderson, Riverdale Baptist School, Upper Marlboro, and Lindsey Edwards, Roland Park Country School in Baltimore, shared their views with great understanding and articulation. They bowled me over and I am sure we will hear from them again and again. I hope that they all realize that they are, each of them, true Super Bowl Winners.
I want to especially thank Cherrie Woods, media contact at the museum… On what is surely at least one of the museum’s busiest days of the year, she graciously led me to all the right stuff.
– Francine Halvorsen can be reached at francine.halvorsen@baltimorebrew.com.