On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I was watching the video of his famous speech from 1963 in Washington, DC.

This last weekend, my family and I went to South Seattle. We drove in front of Franklin High School and we saw MLK Jr.’s big drawing there. This area used to be our hometown.

I used to take my daughter, when she was a toddler, to Garfield Community Center next to Garfield High School. They had story time in there. Everybody was African-American for the story time except one white mother, her toddler boy, my mixed toddler girl and I.

I was recently thinking about Ruby Bridges, who was the first African-American child who attended the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in 1960. All the white kids’ parents took them home and the teachers ignored Ruby, except Mrs. Henry. Angry white parents were protesting in front of the school and calling her names and threatening to kill her. This little girl was very courageous. She kept on going to the school.

It was 57 years ago when Ruby attended that school. It was 54 years ago when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous speech, “I have a dream.” It was 53 years ago when the Civil Rights Act was passed.

Are we moving forward? Are we carrying his dream? Now, William Frantz Elementary School and some schools are increasing school segregation: http://rubybridgesasingh.weebly.com/ruby-bridges-foundation.html

I often hear from people saying that “South Seattle is a dangerous place, don’t go there, there are many black people there” and “Sammamish is a safe place because there are no black people here.”

Is segregation truly over?

Kimiko Hihara

Klahanie