MLK Day Activities for Middle School

Why Do We Celebrate Dr King?

Many prominent men and women are considered to have been leaders in the civil rights movement; “The Big Six” is the most widely recognized.

“The Big Six” comprised James Farmer, John Lewis, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, and Martin Luther King Jr.

Still, Dr King has become the most widely known African American leader of the era and is celebrated with a federal holiday, the Nobel Peace Prize and a memorial in Washington, D.C. dedicated to his honor.

There are several reasons for this:

• Dr King’s strong stance on nonviolence during a time of violence stood out.
• His skill as a talented orator inspired others to listen and evaluate their own previously held beliefs. (use this Orator Goals for Speechwriting and Presentation Strategies lesson plan for teaching public speaking and orator goals).
• His insatiable appetite for knowledge, intelligence, and academic and theological degrees gave him credibility. (Read more about celebrating African American culture in your classroom.)
• His record of imprisonment (approximately 30) and near-death experiences leading up to his assassination only provided more proof that he believed what he taught others.

For more on the Civil Rights Movement and Dr. King’s involvement, read A Movement Led by Dr. Martin Luther King. 

Common Misconceptions About Martin Luther King, Jr.

While Dr King’s legacy lives on in our celebrations, including the federal holiday of Martin Luther King Day, the study of King’s speeches in classrooms and lecture halls and how educators continue to commit to teaching tolerance to their learners, there are aspects of Dr King’s life that aren’t as commonly known.

Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. is revered contemporarily as the face of the civil rights movement, but that hasn’t always been the case. It’s a common misconception that everyone loved and respected Dr King as a civil rights leader and believed in his plight for social justice. Many stood in opposition to his platform- one of whom was President Lyndon B. Johnson who was infuriated about Dr King’s speech concerning his opposition to the American involvement with the Vietnam war. In fact, it was because of this that Dr King was never asked back to the White House.

Dr King was passionate about the civil rights movement. It was the topic of his most famous works, such as the “I Have a Dream” speech. But he wasn’t only engaged in civil rights activism. Dr King was an active voice in antiwar activism, segregation and the Poor People’s Campaign from 1964-1968.

The media has portrayed King and Malcolm X as complete opposites in their approaches to activism. While King held a completely non-violent stance as opposed to Malcolm X, they had more in common than people knew. For example, they both were thoroughly against the war in Vietnam and experienced radical political changes due to their experiences as activists.

How Can You Celebrate MLK Day in the Classroom?

There are many ways to bring Dr King to life in your middle school or high school classroom and celebrate the legacy he left behind, on Martin Luther King Jr. day or any day. We invite you to use these teaching ideas, teaching resources and writing activities as you make preparations for the Martin Luther King Jr celebrations to come.

• Listen to the soundtrack of MLK’s time with your class to study the lyrics and the historical significance. Have students identify their favorites, attribute the lyrics to historical events, create a slide deck portraying the background of one of the songs
• Examine the announcement of the Noble Peace Prize as a study on media literature, then have students craft their own acceptance speeches.
• Use our choice boards and/or activity packets as interactive opportunities to encourage student agency and project-based learning.
• Host a scavenger hunt inspired by the life and work of MLK Jr. using these classroom resources. Invite another teacher with their class to join you.
• Apply studies of historical fiction to encourage students to “Dream Big,” using this historical fiction reading warm-up to inspire critical thinking. This activity can also be paired with the dream speech focusing on social-emotional learning, comparing Dr King’s Dream with one of their own, and how they feel about pursuing a dream even if there are many obstacles along the way.
• Combine the study of poetry to increase reading comprehension with Martin Luther King Jr. activities in this Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes Poetry Activity. Have students create a picture book to accompany their own original poetry.
• Watch the “I Have a Dream” speech, read excerpts from “Letters from a Birmingham Jail” or another less well-known clip of MLK Jr. Have students identify cadence, tone, inflection and animation during speech delivery. Then discuss why MLK Jr. would have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and answer these questions.

However you celebrate, it’s clear that Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. deserves the spotlight in your classroom not only on his birthday and during Black History Month but all year. But we shouldn’t stop there. MLK day paves the way for us to highlight the Big Six and the many women who supported the civil rights movement, such as Septima Clark, Daisy Bates, Ella Baker and Joanne Grant, who made it possible for men like Dr King to communicate his message.

Visit the Martin Luther King Day Activities Hub for more printables, coloring pages, lesson plans, worksheets, and teacher resources for MLK Day and Black History Month.

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