By Kerri Pepoy,Staff Writer

HEBRON – When asked what she thought of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Leah Schultz summed it up nicely.

“It’s really cool,” the Hebron Academy ninth-grader from Harrison said on Monday. “He knew so much about history.”

Schultz and other students said they were impressed by King’s letter because he framed segregation and oppression in his own lifetime in the context of history, including Adolf Hitler’s oppression of Jews and other groups.

“I didn’t think he was super smart, I just thought he was a great leader,” said ninth-grader Kees van Haasteren from Raymond. “Now I realize he is really smart.”

English teacher Carnie Burns said she gave the assignment to her students so they would have a broader understanding of the civil rights leader, who was honored Monday with the annual federal holiday.

“Most people think of Martin Luther King and they think of his I have a dream’ speech,” Burns said. “I wanted students to have a broader sense of who Dr. King is.”

King penned the letter in the spring of 1963 while in jail in Birmingham, Ala. He had been arrested after refusing to follow a court injunction that forbade peaceful marches in the city King once called the “belly of the beast” because of its segregation policies.

A group of white clergymen that had been receptive to King’s long-term objectives publicly criticized King’s actions and called the protests “unwise and untimely.”

The letter is the response from King, who wrote it in the margins of newspaper pages and on pieces of scrap paper. In it, King argued that individuals have a moral obligation to disobey laws that are unjust.

Burns said Hebron Academy had not marked the federal holiday with King-themed lessons or activities for several years, until last year when an African-American student, Algerson Andre of New York City, questioned why the school was not doing anything to honor King.

“Because of that question, I met with him,” said Burns. “He made a difference.”

Burns approached school officials and began organizing ways to teach students about King’s efforts and legacy.

On Monday, all English classes discussed the Birmingham letter, and all history, philosophy and religion classes incorporated lessons about King, said Burns.

There also were musical performances by students and faculty, including an instrumental gospel group and jazz performances, and a keynote address delivered by Marcus Bruce, a professor of philosophy and religion at Bates College in Lewiston.