The Ohio Civil Rights Commission is excited to announce the winners of our 2018 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Art, Essay, and Multimedia Contest! This year's theme was "Be the Change." 

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. studied many of the world’s great leaders and philosophers when framing his own beliefs. One of the most influential of those philosophers was Mahatma Gandhi, who Dr. King called, “the guiding light of [the] technique of nonviolent social change.” In 1959, Dr. King even traveled to India to walk in Gandhi’s footsteps and learn from Gandhi’s followers there. Dr. King and Gandhi shared the belief that love and peace are the best way to change the hearts and minds of the public. Both men understood that if they wanted to inspire their community to change, they had to make the same changes themselves. Gandhi said, “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him.” Dr. King lived this philosophy by practicing peaceful protests instead of trying to counter hatred and violence with more of the same.

2018 Contest Winners:

Art Winners:
6th Grade Art: Gabrielle Herlocher- Waggoner Road Junior High School
7th Grade Art: Mohammed Maalin - Waggoner Road Junior High School
8th Grade Art: Caroline Ryan - Waggoner Road Junior High School
9th Grade Art: Paige Householder - Arlington Local School
10th Grade Art: Selena Chen - Lakota East High
11th Grade Art: Taylor Smith - Washington High School
12th Grade Art: Cassandra Frederick - Garfield Heights High School

Essay Winners:
6th Grade Essay: Genevieve Judson - Ontario Middle School
7th Grade Essay: Seth Stuber - Kimpton Middle School
8th Grade Essay: Anna Knauss - Bluffton Middle School
9th Grade Essay: Meagan Warren - Bexley High School
10th Grade Essay:  Danielle Pratt - Westerville North High School
11th Grade Essay: Cody Gaham - Vantage Career Center
12th Grade Essay:  Lane Moore - Dover High School

Multimedia Winners:
Multimedia: Emmet Looman, Eva Groff, Christine Shaw, James Shoemaker - Schilling School for Gifted Children