ACS 4th grade students had the unique opportunity this week to learn about the important work of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King as a key leader in the civil rights movement from an ACS grandparent who met and interviewed Dr. King in the 1960s. February is Black History Month and 4th grade teacher Eric Tardif invited Mr. John Frasier, who is 4th grader Xavier Johnson’s grandfather, to speak to the students on Thursday about his encounter with Dr. King and the impact of his work.
Mr. Frasier, who lives in Atlantic City, had a 34-year-long career in broadcasting and had the memorable opportunity as a reporter with radio station KPRS-AM in Kansas City to interview Dr. King in 1963. Mr. Frasier showed the students a framed newspaper article from 1963 with a photo of him with Dr. King and a paper containing Dr. King’s autograph. “Dr. King believed in peaceful resistance and that’s what made him so different,” said Mr. Frasier. “He prayed and spoke about us all being together as one.” Mr. Frasier talked about Dr. King’ s life-long efforts to eliminate segregation and racist policies in America, working tirelessly until his assassination in 1968. “As I look around this classroom and see the many students sitting together here from different ethnicities I can tell you that you are what Dr. King lived and died for; you are his dream come true,” Mr. Frasier said.
