Today, the nation honors Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his legacy as a civil rights leader, orator, and Nobel Peace Prize winner. Last week, however, in a pair of MLK Day assemblies (one for the Upper School and one for the Middle School), Charlotte Latin School spotlighted a lesser-known part of King’s history: he was also a swimmer. The program, presented by the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in collaboration with the Black Student Alliance, was titled “From Exclusion to Excellence: Access in America.”

The featured speaker was Cullen Jones P ’38, the swimmer who won four Olympic medals in 2008 and 2012, and who remains a world record holder for the 4×100-meter freestyle relay. Even before his child attended Charlotte Latin, he was familiar with the campus, having practiced in the SwimMac Carolina pool for 11 years. Jones told students how he began swimming after he almost drowned at an amusement park at age five (which inspired a lifetime commitment to encouraging other people to learn to swim), shared examples of the racism he encountered on his way to the medal stand, and advocated for the Olympics. “Sports — it crosses over barriers,” he said.

Jones gave students a call to action in the tradition of King: “You are now charged with going out and helping others, whatever that looks like.”

Vernette Rucker, Assistant Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, commented, “Having the opportunity to hear directly from someone who has achieved excellence at the highest level — while also helping students understand the historical context that shaped that journey — is both rare and meaningful.”

“Reflecting on Dr. King’s legacy, we remain committed to modeling the values of courage, empathy, and justice, and to helping our students build the skills needed to engage in complex conversations with care and respect,” stated Erica Moore, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Before Middle School students heard Jones speak, they watched #APeoplesJourney: From Sit-Ins to Wade-Ins, a short film from the National Museum of African American History and Culture documenting the history of unequal access to swimming facilities in the United States — a prime example of the segregation that King spent his life working to abolish. King himself learned to swim at a YMCA in Atlanta, Georgia. Shortly before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed, King inspired a “swim-in” protest in the pool of a segregated Florida motel; the owner responded by pouring acid into the pool. Middle School students will follow up the assembly in their English classes by using King’s “I Have a Dream” speech to inspire their own poetry expressing their dreams for the world.

The Upper School students of the Black Student Alliance, however, decided that they could introduce issues at the intersection of race and sports and culture more effectively by speaking to their peers themselves. And so Lewawit Alemu ’26, Na’il Diggs ’26, Aaron Dunnigan ’26, Janice Obeng ’26, Gabby Turner ’26, Maxwell Williams ’26, and Ethan Worrell ’26 gave brief histories of sports including swimming, lacrosse, and hockey, sharing stories of African-American pioneers, providing additional historical context, and adding personal perspectives.

After the assembly, Williams explained why the students wanted to spotlight those groundbreaking athletes: “Black people have been able to thrive in spaces where they have been disenfranchised.”

“Sometimes you look around and you don’t see people who look like you,” Obeng added. “We wanted to remind people in our community to take pride in what they do.”