Five DCSD Students Receive Scholarships from DeKalb NAACP through Essay Contest

The NAACP DeKalb County Branch and the Remembrance Project Coalition announced that five DeKalb County School District high school students are recipients of a scholarship after participating in the DeKalb Remembrance Project Essay Contest.

The contest coincided with the installation of a historical marker at the DeKalb Courthouse in Decatur. The marker memorializes known and unknown African American victims of lynchings in DeKalb County between 1877 and 1950.

Students were invited to write an essay on the history behind the marker. Druid Hills High School junior Maria Del Nar Castillo Carvajal won the top prize for her essay titled, 1619 and Its Everlasting Effects. She received a $2,500 scholarship.

Chamblee Charter High School senior Rachel Choi received a $2,000 scholarship for her essay: The Scottsboro Boys and their Legacy; Arabia Mountain High School junior Niana Battle received $1,000 for her essay: Separate and Unequal; Mikhail Bracy’s essay, Lynching Marker, earned the Cedar Grove High School junior a $750 scholarship; and DeKalb Early College Academy senior Sherifa Akinniyi earned a $500 scholarship for her essay: The Albany Movement: Marching Towards Racial Unification.

For more information on the NAACP DeKalb County Branch and the Remembrance Project Coalition, email info@naacpdekalb.org.