Beverly Elementary Students Celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Legacy

Students in the Birmingham Public Schools did not have classes Monday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but a few select classes had an opportunity to celebrate the late civil rights leader with an inspirational message last week in Detroit.

A group of third, fourth, and fifth grade students from Beverly Elementary School remembered Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during a tribute at the DSO/Mac Fisher Music Center, last Friday. During the event sponsored by Wayne State University, the students heard keynote speaker, Dr. Mae Jemison, who served for six years as a NASA astronaut and was the first African American woman in space, district officials said.

Dr. Jemison shared many positive messages about her journey with the students in attendance, including:

• There are 86,400 seconds in every day – “Make every second count!”
• The civil rights movement had a big impact on NASA.
• Actress Nichelle Nichols, who played Lt. Uhura on Star Trek was used by NASA to recruit women and minority astronauts.
• Many of the technological devices that we enjoy on earth were first developed for NASA – the GPS and the MRI, to name just a few.
• Dr. Jemison’s new venture is 100 Year Starship, which will develop technologies for future interstellar travel.  While it may seem far-fetched now, so did the idea of travel to the moon, she said. Most important is that the technologies created by 100 Year Starship will have the potential to benefit life on earth.