Current Theme & Handbook
2025-2026 Contest Theme
Lift Every Voice
For the 2025-2026 MLK Educational Contest, students from across Fresno County will explore ways to be courageous, seek justice and show love. Prepare a speech, create a piece of art, or write a composition that reflects courage in the face of challenges, the pursuit of justice for all people, and the transformative power of love in alignment with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s hope of creating a “beloved community.”
Grounding Quote:
“The aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community. The aftermath of nonviolence is redemption. The aftermath of nonviolence is reconciliation. The aftermath of violence are emptiness and bitterness. This is the thing I’m concerned about. Let us fight passionately and unrelentingly for the goals of justice and peace. But let’s be sure that our hands are clean in this struggle. Let us never fight with falsehood and violence and hate and malice, but always fight with love, so that when the day comes that the walls of segregation have completely crumbled in Montgomery, that we will be able to live with people as their brothers and sisters.”
“The Birth of a New Nation,” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1957.
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Please click here to explore the event handbook and access more information about this year's theme, contest rules, and other details.
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Note that each school is limited on the number of entries they may send to the County Office for final evaluation. All entries must be submitted under the knowledge of an advisor at your school campus. If you are unsure who your advisor/point of contact is, please reach out to your campus administration.
NEW THIS YEAR: Students may compete in multiple competitions. For example, a student may submit one entry for Art and another entry for Composition. However, when entering the Composition competition students must select only one sub-category in which to compete (essay, written speech or poetry).