At UMSL’s MLK Day observance, speaker warns education content battles now shape civil rights struggles

MLK Day message frames curriculum disputes as a new front in equity debates

At the University of Missouri–St. Louis’ annual Martin Luther King Jr. holiday observance on Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, keynote speaker Mary Elizabeth Grimes argued that current disputes over classroom materials and instruction have become a defining civil-rights issue in education.

Grimes, president of Marian Middle School, spoke at the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center during a program themed around “The Purpose of Education,” a reference to a 1948 essay King wrote while a student at Morehouse College. In that essay, King wrote that education should cultivate both critical thinking and moral character, warning that intelligence without ethics can be socially harmful.

From access to content: a shift in the education fight

In her remarks, Grimes drew a contrast between earlier civil-rights struggles centered on access to schooling and today’s conflicts over what is permitted in classrooms. She told the audience that debates over instructional “truth” and the removal of books are reshaping the environment in which educators work and students learn. Her speech described heightened scrutiny of teachers and a narrowing of history instruction as central concerns.

To underscore the historic fight for educational access, Grimes referenced landmark youth-led moments of the civil-rights era, including the 1957 integration of Little Rock Central High School by the “Little Rock Nine” and the 1963 Birmingham Children’s Crusade, when large numbers of students protested segregation and were arrested.

Persistent gaps in student outcomes remain central

Grimes also argued that long-standing inequities in educational outcomes continue to affect students, particularly students of color, and said progress since the civil-rights era should not be mistaken for the elimination of barriers. She cited national indicators showing disparities between Black students’ outcomes and broader student performance.

Structural pressures and institutional stability

Her address pointed to a set of pressures she said can intensify inequities, including reduced investment in public education and instability across school systems. She also raised concerns about policy-level changes that could affect the structure and oversight of education.

• Debates over curricular boundaries and instructional topics
• Book removals and challenges to school library collections
• Resource constraints and governance disputes affecting school systems

Call to action anchored in King’s writings

Grimes closed by returning to King’s arguments about education’s civic purpose and to his broader warnings about the costs of silence in the face of injustice. Her message placed today’s education controversies within a longer continuum of civil-rights struggles, contending that what students are taught—and what is restricted—will shape democratic participation and opportunity for the next generation.

“The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically.”