King & My Dream

A few weeks ago:

Hey, Ains. What did you learn in school today?

We learned about a king. He got the black people freed.

You mean a president?

No a king.

You mean somewhere else?

No here.

This is America. We don’t have kings here. We have presidents. Could they be talking about Abraham Lincoln?

No, it’s a king. And we also get to not go to school on Monday.

It says on the lunch calendar that there is lunch on Monday. You just got done with Christmas break. I think you have school.

No, they said there won’t be any school because of someone’s birth day.

A week later at dinner.

What did you learn in school today, Ainsley?

We learned about Martin Luther King. He got the whites and the blacks together.

Right. A king. That brought freedom to black people. No school on Monday. Martin Luther King Day.

Mommy did you know they used to not let blacks and whites go to school together or drink out of the same drinking fountain? Did you know they weren’t allowed to be friends or be together in the bus?

I know.

Isn’t that terrible?

It is terrible.

Isn’t it happy that we all get to be together now?

Yes, very happy!

My dream is that she’ll have a similar conversation with her daughter about women’s equality.

Mommy, did you know that women didn’t used to have equal rights?

I know honey. Isn’t that crazy? she’ll say, remembering absurd it was.