MLK Essay contest winner reflects on Dr. King’s vision for community

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial is seen in the foreground with the Washington Monument in the background, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025, in Washington. The memorial covers four acres and includes the Stone of Hope, a granite statue of civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr. carved by sculptor Lei Yixin. (NASA/Bill Ingalls/Commons.Wikimedia.org)

FORT WORTH — “How can love help diverse peoples to discover a way to live together in peace, thereby creating a psalm of brotherhood?”

That was the prompt for this year’s MLK essay contest, and with more than 200 entries, diocesan students had a lot of thoughts on the matter.

While the 40th annual MLK Mass on Jan. 24 was postponed due to inclement weather, the essay contest associated with the Mass went on as scheduled.

This year, Nolan Catholic High School senior Josephine Vu won first place in the high school division.

To build community

Vu, a member at Christ the King Church in Fort Worth, said for her essay, she was inspired by King’s mission to create a “Beloved Community” in which there is racial equality and peace.

“When I was pondering my essay’s approach, I thought about my own communities,” Vu said. “I felt that I had my own ethnic community through being a Vietnamese American, but I also had the community I formed with girls I danced with. I am very privileged to experience a combination of both — being surrounded by people of many different backgrounds united through their love for dance.

“Because of this, I believed that my experience in both communities would be the perfect example of Dr. Martin Luther King’s mission being put into fruition in our present-day society.”

Vu said she discovered a lot about herself through the research and writing process of her essay.

“I found myself being deeply understood by others that I have no relation to,” Vu said. “Although we may sometimes feel isolated when we face our own difficulties fighting against discrimination, we are unknowingly being unified with others who have persevered through similar situations. I also realized that although we continue to face setbacks, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream is still coming into fruition today.”

Vu said she believes that winning the contest means that her own life has the power to inspire others.

“It further highlights that my experiences are evidence of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s impact on our society, and the beauty of the change that he was the catalyst for,” Vu said.

Vu received a monetary award for winning the contest, but she felt most gratified through her essay-writing experience.

“Although the money was certainly helpful, it’s having someone understand and appreciate my experience that is most rewarding for me.”

A vision to realize

Deacon Donald Warner, director of deacons and chaplaincy for the Diocese of Fort Worth, was impressed by the level of participation in this year’s event and said the contest is important for three reasons.

“It helps young people to understand the significance of Dr. King’s work for peace and justice,” Warner said. “It helps our young people to think about ways in which they can engage in the work of peace and justice as it relates to their Catholic faith, and it demonstrates that after more than 60 years following the death of Dr. King, his vision has not been realized, and that the work continues today in the lives of all as we work to create a world, according to the Gospel, in which all people are treated with equal dignity and respect.”

Marian Sims, a member of St. Michael Church in Bedford who serves as the MLK Mass Committee Chairperson, said she hopes this year’s participants take away a couple of things from participating in the contest.

“With this year’s essay focusing on the diversity of all God’s people and the emphasis on love helping us to co-exist peacefully with each other, I hope that in researching and writing their essays, they recognize what thoughts, actions, and responsibilities it will take on their part to help themselves ... to live in peaceful harmony with others,” Sims said.

Love, faith, and law

King was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1964.

In his acceptance speech, he said, “Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve, for all human conflict, a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love…”

The Most Reverend Bishop Joseph Perry, a former auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Chicago and past vice-president of the board of the National Black Catholic Congress, had been scheduled to deliver the homily at this year’s annual January Mass.

Bishop Perry said King’s story teaches us about the importance of faith and how he tried to incorporate his religious beliefs into his goals for the Civil Rights movement.

“Believers over the millennia have used their faith to conquer many of the great challenges of life, believing a higher power aids in our living rightly, thinking rightly, and doing rightly,” Perry said. “MLK knew that mere civil rights were not a total answer to the long-standing racial problem of U.S. society, so he attempted to appeal to that inner voice of conscience that aids with personal conversion to possibly assist with a turnaround in attitude and social functioning in our society. 

“After all, from a Christian perspective, Jesus Christ taught a neighbor ethic of regard and human dignity that continues to drive human conscience and that overrides mere legal statements of what must be done with consequences for noncompliance, and remedies for violation of the laws.”

A winning comparison

As she completed her award-winning piece, what struck Vu most about King was not just the enormity of his vision, but his conviction that ordinary people, through their everyday interactions, could fulfill that vision.

“He truly believed that people could come together to build a ‘Beloved Community’ by having empathy and a shared purpose,” Vu said. “Hence, my analogy [in her essay] to ‘The Nutcracker’ ballet dance, where all the dancers of different backgrounds came together because we were united in our purpose of creating the best show possible. Furthermore, even when faced with injustice and division, Dr. King chose love and understanding rather than hate.

“That perspective again made me reflect on my own dance group as well as my school community. Although outright discrimination is illegal, moments of exclusion and misunderstanding still occur. Dr. King’s message reminds me that building the ‘Beloved Community’ is an ongoing effort, and I must always be vigilant.”

MLK Essay contest winners

The winners of the 2026 Martin Luther King Essay contest are as follows:

Group 1 – Elementary School

1st place: Penelope Stahl, St. Joseph Catholic School, Arlington

2nd place: Nico Colsant, St. Martin de Porres Catholic School, Prosper

3rd place: Allen Pham, St. Joseph Catholic School, Arlington
 

Group 2 – Middle School

1st place: Belen Peña, St. George Catholic School, Fort Worth

2nd place: Garner White, St. John the Apostle Catholic School, North Richland Hills

3rd place: Margaret Olivas, St. John the Apostle Catholic School, North Richland Hills
 

Group 3 – High School

1st place: Josephine Vu, Nolan Catholic High School, Fort Worth

2nd place: Alissa Broadway, Nolan Catholic High School, Fort Worth

3rd place: Annabelle Tenorio, Nolan Catholic High School, Fort Worth