Peggy Wallace Kennedy

     Today Randolph School had a community time about Martin Luther King. It was the day after MLK day, and Peggy Wallace Kennedy came and spoke to our school. To introduce her story to us Mr. Liese showed an old video of Peggy's father, Governor George Wallace, giving a speech in Alabama. In that speech he shouted enthusiastically, "Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!" Peggy was 12 years old at the time. Today Peggy spoke a very well scripted speech about MLK and also her life with her father. Everything she said was very powerful, and it was interesting to experience a speech just like people in generations before me and learn important things from it (just like MLK's famous speech I Have a Dream). Mr. Liese kind of gave the impression that it would be a super intense talk because of the introduction he made for it, but yet it was a calm community time. It wasn't what I expected, but I learned a lot from her. 

      I learned that George Wallace originally ran for governor in the state of Alabama as a racial moderate and lost, but when he ran again as a racist he won. That shows what was going on in Alabama at this point of Peggy's childhood. She grew up with a father who stood in front of school doors to not allow black students to enter, preached about segregation to his community, and publicized his racism to his people. Now, here she was giving us a speech about MLK. She told us that in MLK's speech he had a dream that black and white children would soon grow up and be able to join hands together, and Peggy did exactly that. In the 21st century, Peggy Wallace held hands with Bernice King, Martin Luther King's daughter. 

     Peggy Wallace Kennedy is a strong woman who overcame her father's legacy and became a symbol of how our community should be. She was not judged by who she was raised by, she was judged by who she has become. Although she was raised by a racist through a terrible time in the South, she has made it important to her to show others the importance of equality. She gave us a speech that showed us not only that we should treat all others with equality and that we should be thankful for the great man we celebrate on January 16th, but she also showed us that we can be whoever we want to be and no one can decide how we should act except for ourselves. Stick up for what you believe in.