Outside, the rain poured and the sky was gray, but inside Booker Arts Magnet Elementary in Little Rock, the lights were bright. The children laughed, and the grown-ups traded war stories.
They gossiped about tornadoes and storms that popped up through the years on this date, April 4, when civil-rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. They said the day's rain wasn't anything compared with the twisters of yore.
All listened when civil-rights leader Annie Abrams told the children, "I can be anybody, and I can do anything, because I have a right to be free."
Abrams, who adults and kids alike affectionately call mother, knew King and said so on Thursday, during a Youth Community Service Day event that marked 51 years since his assassination. In her younger days, Abrams joined King in his fight for equality and has preached his messages throughout her 87 years.
Tiffany Pettus, the executive assistant with the Arkansas Martin Luther King Jr. Commission, which organized the event, shouted in a call and response to the kids, "I am great," she said, and the kids repeated, "I am great." Pettus added in answer "because I can serve." The crowd responded "because I can serve."
The commission hosted the event to honor King's life and legacy. Throughout the day, the elementary school pupils remembered King as they learned about financial literacy, as they heard speeches and as they listened to teenagers who read aloud books inspiring people to action.
Gerald Canada, who sits on the commission, remembers playing with toys when he was 6 the day he learned that King was assassinated.
"I didn't understand the relevance then," Canada said of King's death. "I want kids today to understand the relevance now."
Canada said children need to understand the importance of education. He wants them to know about finances and value education.
"This would be his [King's] dream," Canada said. "He would smile down on today."
The King Commission works to promote equality and justice for Arkansans through an emphasis on King's significance, Executive Director DuShun Scarbrough said.
In years past, the commission held events honoring King's death through a vigil at the state Capitol, but this year the group decided to hold the event at the school with a focus on education, which King advocated for during his lifetime.
Speakers from Arvest Bank and State Farm insurance taught the kids about budgeting, using games, and volunteers read the children books.
Halee Griffin, a 16-year-old culinary student at Little Rock Job Corps, read the book Say Something to third-graders in Carrie Porter's classroom. The book encouraged the kids to speak up when they see injustice.
When Griffin finished reading, Porter asked the students what they thought the moral of the story was.
Tiny hands rocketed into the air. They all had opinions on the meaning of the book.
"Every time you say something, you could show it in creativity," Kristian Bullard said.
Andrick Stewart said that when the students see someone lonely on the playground, they should ask if the child wants to play.
"I learned like whenever you're sad or something or feel left out, you should say something," Riley Young said.
Sanaa Jackson added that the children shouldn't be afraid to share their ideas.
At the end of the day, the kids all filed into a gym to hear Abrams speak. Fifth-grader Kennedy Sanders read the poem "Hey Black Child," to the audience of mostly black children.
"Hey black child, do you know you are strong? Really strong," she read.
Tiana Redmond, Miss Freshman at Philander Smith College, encouraged the children to volunteer, and girls with Arts in Motion, the school's dance group, bopped to moves they choreographed themselves.
"When I say ML, you say K," the girls chanted, waiting for the audience responding 'K.'
Eventually, Abrams rose to speak. She wore a shirt that read "I am black history," and clutched a purse embellished with the American flag.
"I'm of the same period when he was born," Abrams said about King. "When he was born, I was born, and it was hard times."
Abrams is 87, and King would be 90 if he were alive today.
Abrams pulled from her purse the U.S. Constitution, the New Testament and a $5 bill, which bears Abraham Lincoln's face. She said it reminds her of the Emancipation Proclamation.
"I haven't always been free," she said. "There was a time I was a slave."
She said she carries the three items with her any time she volunteers.
"My philosophy is service is the rent you pay to stay on this earth. I'm just paying rent, so I won't be evicted from heaven," Abrams said in an interview earlier in the day.
Metro on 04/05/2019