Fifty-nine years ago, civil rights leader Martin Luther King climbed the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered his well-known "I Have a Dream" speech.

The video is from 2012. The text below was updated on Jan. 7, 2022.

Since 2005, students of Watkins Elementary in Washington D.C. have honored Dr. King by climbing these same steps and delivering his speech.

Below are reflections from the fifth graders who were excited to perform the speech again this year:

"You get to tell people what he said and what he's done. Since it was way in the past, you get to tell them, like, what he -- what he said to help people, to get people going on, this is wrong and you shouldn't be doing this," -Sky Marey Stringer, 10, Watkins Elementary.

"Martin Luther King gave the speech so he could tell his community to, like, stand up for themselves, so he could rise from segregation and discrimination to freedom and equality," Marsten Davis, 10, Watkins Elementary.

"I think it's the most historic speech ever. But that's just me. And it's like -- it's just a really cool speech," Will Kammerer, 10, Watkins Elementary.

"Martin Luther King was, like, the greatest African-American ever in civil rights history," - Jeremiah Ivan Stroman, 10, Watkins Elementary.

To learn more about this story, read In Smaller Voices, ‘I Have a Dream’ Echoes Again Over National Mall . For another video featuring Watkins Elementary School students, watch Elementary school students lend their small voices to King’s big dream .

Warm up questions

1. Who was Martin Luther King Jr.?

2. What was the civil rights movement?

Discussion questions

1. Why was the civil rights movement important to American history?

2. What are some of the most critical social and/or political issues that affect you?How can these issues be solved?