Last month we held a poetry contest for local middle and high school students in honor of Ruby Bridges. Students submitted original poetry addressing the prompt "Who deserves an American education?" You'll find the winning entries below. Congratulations to the winners and thank you to all who participated!

Who deserves an American education?

By Finn Brandon, 1st place winner—High School category

They say that prejudice lies in our past

In the days where little girls

Walked by seas of white

Coffins shoved in their faces

Threats of death screamed in their ears

When people couldn’t see

That they were the same as you and me

But even today

These ideas still stand

Covered up by red hats

With four lettered bands

A kindergartener sits in his room

Stomach aching for

Something more

After the stamps were cut

Which filled his belly

In the dark of the night

A second grader approached in the hallway

Coaxed by ICE to surrender her rights

On the way to the lunch line

By the promise of a paycheck

Which will turn the heat in her house on

For a night or two

A fourth grader denied the right

To test in a private room

Despite the presumptions of her IEP

As her teacher screams in her face

About the crutches

Of stupidity in this day and age

A middle schooler clad in Hijab

Whom all eyes drift to

As the Pledge of Allegiance is recited

“One nation under God”

But their God doesn’t look like her

A highschooler shunned and shoved

With new bruises laying upon his face

When his classmates find out

That he indulges in love

In which their Bible considers sin

A college student who is laughed at

When mentioning their family in the Gaza Strip

During a lecture on foreign affairs

And is told that those Arabs

Are a lost cause

Every day at school

The US proclaims to be a nation of liberty

United for all

Standing for freedom

Whilst so many kids

Are vehemently hated and neglected

Under the assumption that they are

Too poor

Too dumb

Too dark

Too gay

Too different

In a society which integrally

Fails its people every day

I think the real question is:

How do we make the American education system deserve them?

Who deserves an American education?

By Madeleine Lilly Smith, runner-up—High School category

When I was a little girl I remember running around in the grass like nothing in the world mattered.

I remember blowing small bubbles of soap in my brother's face and watching it pop.

These were the things that mattered to me.

Yet I didn't know what I was going to be.

Later, I went to school, learned math and how to write.

Then I'd come home knowing I’ve done right.

I've been good in school my entire life.

Then I think of the lessons I’ve learned.

The big brick wall that stood in our way. The hardships that we face everyday.

Today is no different. I know that much is true. All you have to do is get through.

I think back to my history class, learning what we went through.

The beatings. The arrests. The rebellions.

All because we wanted knowledge.

Knowledge about the world.

Knowledge of literature.

Knowledge of the things men get taught.

(Pause) But not women.

Why should they get to know everything but not us?

Why do they get a job but not us?

Why do they get to have everything they want?!

Then I see today that brick wall full of shame. Not as tall but still there. I can hear all the cries and yelps of pain in it. The screaming that fills my head.

The piles of bodies in that wall. The souls dancing around those bricks and at the center of it all. A spark. A fire lit in the dark.

In a place full of despair hope lies there. So I think to myself what can I do.

So I decide to fight in any way I can, to be better than any man.

So in October I want to carry the biggest pumpkin.

So in school I will try to be top of the class.

I do this not for me.

But for the act itself because that right there means something of itself.

Everyone.

By Radley Ferguson, 1st place winner—Middle School category

Look out there

At all those people

Who deserve an American Education

Black, red, and white

Yellow and brown

All the people in the town

From San Francisco to the tip of Maine

Even in Puerto Rico,

It’s all the same

Everyone.

Deserves an American Education

Everyone.

Who deserves an American education?

By Hannah Valerio, runner-up—Middle School category

who will work hard every day

who will be determined to learn every day

who got said “you wont go to school your not good enough”

who will be the change in the world they wish and deserve to see,

who will have the courage to say something against the unfairness in the world

That keeps spreading every where

So who deserves an American education?

Only the ones who are willing to fight and stand up to the world are the ones who deserve it the most.

Who deserves an American education?

By Qlaschelle Scholten, runner-up—Middle School category

Ruby walked, and the world knew,

Ruby walked, with her tiny shoes.

Her tiny steps said, “Let me learn,”

And the world began to turn.

Tiny steps on huge ground,

Steps that were heard by freedom’s sound.

Because Ruby walked,

The classroom widened,

Because Ruby walked,

Bravery grounded.

We now sit where once she once stood,

Learning, smiling, she knew we could.

Because Ruby walked,

We all move forward.

Because she stood,

We stand for fairness.

A desk, a pencil, and open doors -

That’s how her dream still burns.

The light that Ruby carried then

Now shines in each who learns.