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Lincoln Public Schools Documentary to Profile Scholars Youth Rally and March Performance Journey

Cindy Lange-Kubick | May 2, 2021 Updated Jun 12, 2021

The Black man in the red tie and bowler hat has a question.

What does B stand for?

Belmont!

What does B stand for?

Brilliant!

What does B stand for?

Beautiful!

One by one, the fifth graders answer the man with the booming voice. It’s dinner time on Thursday, and the eight Belmont TRACKS scholars are gathered in a back room at the Lincoln Community Playhouse.

They’ve just watched an hour-long film called “We Will Not Be Silent.”

They are its stars.

Members of the Belmont TRACKS scholars wait before the premiere of a new documentary featuring the students on Thursday.

KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star

The movie documented the weeks they spent preparing to perform at the annual MLK Youth Rally in a year like no other.

It featured the adults that mentored and coached and encouraged them along the way. Mr. Pete. Mrs. E. Miss Shanna.

The man in the hat — motivational speaker Keith L. Brown — had a cameo in the film, recorded over Zoom from his home in Savannah, Georgia.

But he flew in for their big screen debut.

The scholars finish their chicken strips and cookies, wearing their Belmont letter sweaters. They’ll be on the red carpet soon, posing for the cameras with their parents and brothers and sisters.

What does B stand for?

Brave!

What does B stand for?

Behold!

“You behold how beautiful you are,” Brown tells them. “Together you are great and nothing can stop greatness.”

* * *

The Belmont TRACKS Empowerment program has a history.

It started 20 years ago, when Pete Ferguson volunteered for a day with the Watch D.O.G. program at the elementary school on North 14th Street.

“Walk around the building, help kids cross the street, high-five the kids,” he says. “My friend in the nonprofit world thought I acted like a kid and suggested it.”

He visited the lunchroom, read stories, talked about his job, his life, about leadership.

Ferguson is the youth development coordinator for LPS. He was working at Leadership Lincoln the day he volunteered at Belmont. It was a good day and he became a regular visitor in one of the fourth grade classrooms.

He became Mr. Pete.

And at the end of the year, that teacher sent him a thank-you note and a request: Would you be willing to come back next year?

Pete Ferguson poses for a portrait during the red carpet premiere of a new documentary about the Belmont scholars.

He returned the next year and all the years since. He had other ties to Belmont. His wife, Stephanie, taught there. His daughter Jaden, now 20, would become a student there.

Mr. Pete was so popular that every class of fourth graders wanted him to mentor them.

And that was a dilemma. They came up with a solution: Pick students from every class based on their own nomination letter and input from teachers.

“I had always been a big believer in groups,” Ferguson says. “Especially for students of color, the benefit when you’re around people who are like-minded and have the same aspirations.”

The program grew into its formal name.

“I wanted people to have leadership opportunities,” Ferguson said. “I would tell them, ‘You guys are going to make your own tracks.’”

TRACKS is an acronym now: Talent. Respect. Ambition. Commitment. Knowledge.

His biggest goal is that work students do complements the hopes and dreams their parents have, Ferguson said.

And it’s meant as a starting point to bigger things for the young multiracial leaders who earn entry.

“We fail as an education system if this is the highlight,” Ferguson says. “It has to be more than a moment, it has to become a movement for them.”

This is year 14 for TRACKS. Each class standing on the shoulders of the scholars who came before them.

Fifth grade teacher Bobbie Ehrlich has been a part of TRACKS since the beginning. It benefits all of Belmont’s students, said the beloved teacher known as Mrs. E.

“It advertises and opens up a world to kids. They see they don’t have to wait until they are 16 or 18 or 25 to make a difference.”

It’s a mindset of excellence, Ehrlich said. “That’s grown and spread throughout our school community.”

The students spend six weeks learning leadership skills in the spring of their fourth grade year.

And then they have an opportunity — to play a role in the annual MLK Youth Rally and March.

Read a book about the fight for racial justice and equality. Learn about historical figures in the civil rights movement and bring a story to life on a stage in front of hundreds at the Nebraska Union.

They had to earn a spot. No guarantees.

The book project would be work.

A lot of work.

And this school year there would be more — a pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, a summer of protests, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, an empty auditorium on MLK rally day.

Monolith Materials mission is to create Technology for a Cleaner World by preventing one million tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere by 2024. 

“We talk about equity. We talk about opportunity and a lot of things were canceled,” Ferguson said. “If we didn’t do it this year, they don’t get it back.”

* * *

The filmmakers are at the playhouse Thursday night.

Brian Seifferlein in his suit, holding a camera.

David Koehn hefting a boom mic, following the Belmont students from auditorium to the green room to the red carpet.

The pair were new to Lincoln Public Schools last year. They both had experience producing documentaries for NET, and, when the opportunity to become visual storytellers at LPS presented itself, they took it.

And they set their sights on the Belmont TRACKS scholars from the start.

“I have a couple of kids I have always taken to the MLK rally, so I have seen it evolve over the years,” Seifferlein said. “Belmont always stuck out because they were so powerful.”

The first day on the job, they were chatting with their boss, Chris Haeffner, director of Library Services for LPS, in her office.

Ferguson stopped in.

They told him what they hoped to achieve — a visual journey from classroom to stage.

“Show how these kids get to be where they are,” Seifferlein said. “All the bumps and the cracks.”

They showed up at Belmont week after week. They visited students at home. Interviewed parents. Set up their camera in front of Mrs. E and Miss Shanna, LPS Student Advocate Shanna Letcher, who coached and critiqued and cheered the students, too.

Hundreds of hours of footage.

They’d hoped it would be safe for crowds to gather by the time they took the stage in mid-January at the Nebraska Union. They wanted those scenes from the MLK Rally — the energy of a community cheering them on, the emotion of the moment and the impact of their words hitting hearts.

It didn’t happen.

Instead, they crafted a powerful documentary in black and white. A film inhabited by past civil rights leaders, world history in the making and a small but mighty group of change-makers from Lincoln Public Schools.

“The film gave them that energy and experience back,” Koehn said. “It’s sort of a way to give back that moment the pandemic took away.”

* * *

The lobby of the playhouse is lined with movie posters set on easels.

Each of the eight looking out from a glossy print.

* Eveline Ungery

* Alejandra Moreno

* Mohamed Sabiel

* Jevon Payne

* Kenadee Broussard

* Alex Morris

* Leriya’h Clay

* Payton Craine

TRACKS scholars gather after walking the red carpet on Thursday at the Lincoln Community Playhouse for the premiere of "We Will Not Be Silent." Pictured with Belmont teacher Bobbie Ehrlich (back, from left) are Alex Morris, Jevon Payne, Mohamed Sabiel, Eveline Ungery, Keith L. Brown, Kenadee Broussard (front), Leriya'h Clay, Payton Craine and Alejandra Moreno.

There are bouquets of flowers waiting backstage for their parents.

Swag bags for all the guests.

After the show, the man in the bowler hat will call them the Belmont Eight, in the tradition of the Little Rock Nine.

Keith L. Brown will vow to share the film with his wide audience.

He will say they are changing the world while they are still breathing. He will let that truth settle in.

And he will be the first to jump to his feet when the documentary is over and the Belmont TRACKS take the stage in front of a backdrop of stars and reprise their MLK Youth Rally performance in strong loud voices and pause before they take a bow.

And then one more.

I'm tired of being close to justice'; annual MLK Youth Rally calls listeners to action

Margaret Reist | Lincoln Journal Star | January 19, 2021

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Student Union ballroom was empty Monday morning, save for the performers who celebrated the life of Martin Luther King Jr., noted the glaring inequalities that still exist, and called on the community to join them in the fight for equality.

The hour-long program included videos that juxtaposed the protests of the 1960s with the Black Lives Matter protests last summer, the words of King with images of rioters storming the U.S. Capitol less than two weeks ago.

The 26th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Youth Rally and March’s Call to Action program was a combination of live and prerecorded performances live-streamed over several city platforms.

There was no march and no audience because of a pandemic that performers noted revealed and exacerbated many of the country’s social and systematic inequalities.

Kylin Trout, an eighth-grader at Lefler Middle School, quoted rapper Killer Mike, who gave an impassioned speech during the Black Lives Matter protests this spring, urging people to "plot, plan, strategize, organize and mobilize" for change. He noted emotional comments by CNN commentator Van Jones after the election — and he had his own message.

“The fact that we continue to be close hurts people. It hurts me. I’m tired of being close to justice. I’m tired of being close to equity. I’m tired of being close to civility. I’m tired of being close to kindness,” he said, echoing the words of the annual event’s theme.

The program included songs, a performance by the Belmont Tracks leadership group, a reading from a letter by Rep. John Lewis penned just before his death and the history of “Precious Love,” one of the anthems of the civil rights movement.

The group's overriding message: People must commit to work for change together.

“Our steps aren’t as powerful separately,” Trout said. “But if we walk together, I can confidently say we can make a change.”

For more information, visit the Rally and March website:  mlkyouthrally.com | contact Peter Ferguson, Rally and March Community Adult Adviser at 402.730.8709 or mlkyouthrally93@yahoo.com.  Rally and March are available via Facebook and Twitter @MRally93.

Special thanks and appreciation to our Community Stakeholders:  Peter Ferguson-BHS Productions | University of Nebraska-Lincoln | Lincoln Sports Foundation | Lincoln Public Schools | RAAFT by Polytech L.L.C. | Office of TRIO Programs – University of Nebraska-Lincoln | Bratten Performance | J. Roach Presentations | Rutabagas Comfort Food | IC Energy Solutions | Action Electric | Ubuntu Female Basketball Organization | Lincoln Journal Star | Mike Trader’s Mid-America Basketball Camps | Nebraska Juniors Volleyball Club | Oyster Art | Nebraska Community Foundation.

Limitations of a pandemic did not deter MLK Jr. Youth Rally participants who want to use their voices for change

Margaret Reist | Lincoln Journal Star | January 17, 2021 | Updated Dec 3, 2021

There was a moment this fall when Tatum Moore learned that the Martin Luther King Jr. Youth Rally and March was moving forward — despite the pandemic — that she thought, eh, maybe not this year.

But the moment was fleeting, replaced with memories of protesters who filled the streets this spring and summer to proclaim that Black Lives Matter, to fight for change.

She participated in those protests, felt the same anger so many did when George Floyd died at the hands of Minneapolis police. But she also knew violence wasn’t the answer.

“I quickly realized, by doing the rallies and Tracks programs, that the best way to spread the message is with our voices,” said the eighth-grader at Goodrich Elementary, who’d begun performing in the MLK Jr. Youth rallies in fourth grade as part of Belmont Elementary’s Tracks leadership program.

“I realized how much we need it during these times,” she said of the rally. “We really need some inspiration.”

But inspiration will look different this year.

A year earlier — when the event begun by local civil rights icon Leola Bullock celebrated its 25th year — students performed for 800 people who crowded into the University of Nebraska-Lincoln City Campus student union.

A year later, the pandemic meant there would be no crowds, no march through downtown Lincoln to the state Capitol, no performing in front of a live audience.

“We went from 800 people in the room to two,” said Pete Ferguson, the adult adviser who has helped young people organize the rally for more than 20 years. “They’re reaching a wider audience, but there’s literally two people in the room.”

Postponing the rally didn’t feel like an option. Why leave a gap in the annual event for students who look forward to using their voices, to an event that empowers them? Especially at this moment in time?

The divisiveness and the protests made it important, Ferguson said, but for those involved in this march and rally for years there is this truth: It is important every year, the work is always before them, the divide, the inequality still a reality.

“It was just as important last year as this year," he said. “For a lot of us it was always needed.”

In the shadow of insurgents who stormed the U.S. Capitol searching for Congress members and waving Confederate flags, amid threats of violence at state capitols leading up to the inauguration, Ferguson talked to participants about the mood of the country right now.

Not everyone will be excited about their message, he told them. He wants them to be empowered by all those who support them, but vigilant, aware of their surroundings once they leave the safety of the rally’s embrace.

But here’s another truth: Ferguson delivers that message to rally participants every year. It’s always been necessary. People have yelled racial slurs while they’re marching. Once, someone wrote the N-word on a longtime participant’s car.

“People think that’s new but we have that conversation with them every year,” he said. “We’re tired of having to prepare scholars in this way, but we know it’s necessary. When you tell fifth graders and they nod because they get it — that eats at your soul.”

And so they moved forward in a year full of logistical challenges, starting in November instead of October, minus several longtime youth leaders who’d graduated. They met on Zoom for all but four meetings, learning about John Lewis and other civil rights leaders, doing assignments and planning the rally.

One of Tatum’s favorite things about the rally is learning about people important in Black history; not just the icons, but those she doesn’t learn about in school, the events and people not in her textbooks. Being raised by white parents, she said, it’s helped her learn about her culture and history.

And one of those assignments this year was writing a letter to the president- or vice-president-elect, or the current president or vice president.

Tatum chose the first Black woman named vice president — and she’ll read her letter to Kamala Harris from the stage.

I’m speaking for youth and for minority communities when I say there are a lot of boys and girls who look up to you, I look up to you. You have shown me that no matter our gender or the color of our skin we are able to accomplish anything.

They decided to tape all the performances this year, just in case — although they had to rush to find a private company to finish filming after the person with city TV doing the work had to be quarantined.

They pulled in new participants and relied on students like Tatum and Daniel Turner, who’ve been involved for some years.

Turner, who will read the Maya Angelou poem “Continue” about changing the world with kindness, eloquence and gratitude, loves the annual rally because it gives students a chance to showcase the Black leaders that came before them, to let people know young people are following in their footsteps.

“I just want to continue to walk in their footsteps, as well; the footsteps they have set for me to walk through,” said the sophomore at Lincoln Southwest High School.

This is Emma Brown’s first year on the committee, something she decided to try after attending the rally last year. Ferguson coached her basketball team and she knew he oversaw the rally, so she decided to see what it was all about.

When the pandemic hit, she was undeterred.

“I decided to stick it out this year because no matter what kind of challenges you face, you can still work through it,” said the Lefler Middle School seventh-grader. “Just because something is hard for you, it doesn’t mean you should give up on it.”

So the committee forged ahead, on Zoom and a few times in person. They taped all the performances — in part because the directed health measures at the student union kept changing.

Ultimately, they decided to do a combination: Part live performance interspersed with recorded performances. The program will be livestreamed on LNKTV Education website, LNKTV YouTube and LNKTV Facebook.

The performers will be at the union, watching the show in different rooms, socially distanced but there in the moment. A live performance will be followed by a recorded performance, allowing the live performers to switch places — from watch room to stage, and back again.

Ferguson sees an advantage to this pandemic-influenced rally.

“The interesting part of it is it’s opened the door to people and places we normally wouldn’t hit,” he said.

Other schools, including parochial schools, want to use the program as a basis for class lessons. It will be broadcast in the Hastings College union. Friends and former committee members in Kansas City and New Orleans and California will be watching, having their kids participate.

Ferguson is encouraging people who would have been in the audience to have safe, socially distanced watch parties. The committee created a guide to promote discussion and activities that people can download from the mlkyouthrally.com website. He’s encouraging people to chime in on social media using #rally21 or #walktogether2021.

This year’s theme, “Walk Together: Rallying steps toward Equality, Justice, Kindness and Civility,” is a continuation of last year’s theme, one that foreshadowed things to come, a message that carries a renewed sense of urgency.

The events of the last week — the insurgency at the U.S. Capitol — will be addressed at the beginning and end, but the goal of the annual rally is broader, to celebrate King's legacy, his goals, the work still to be done.

That doesn’t mean the weight of it isn’t in the room, the frustration of organizers like Ferguson who know the civil rights leaders before him worked so hard to make sure their children’s lives were different.

But this year’s program will be one Ferguson will remember, a top three, along with the first time his daughter participated and the last time his mom was there.

The young people’s commitment this year has reinforced his own.

“It’s helped me to truly become committed to the purpose I’ve said I’m about.”

Because these kids could have seen the challenges presented by a pandemic and walked away, but they didn’t. They embraced the opportunity to use their voices, their power to push for change.

“There’s a reason they’re at the table,” he said. “There’s a reason they’ve chosen to do it.”

Daniel Turner knows exactly why.

“I just stuck with it because I have something powerful I want to say. It’s been a challenging year but we are not giving up. We will continue fighting.”