Remembrance Project for High School Teens, Racial Justice Essay Contest

ALACHUA COUNTY ‒ The Alachua County Community Remembrance Project in partnership with the Equal Justice Initiative of Montgomery, Alabama, is offering three Racial Justice Essay Contests.  

Each contest is open to all students in grades ninth to twelfth at the following Alachua County High Schools:   Santa Fe High School (cosponsored by the Alachua/Newnansville Remembrance Subcommittee, the High Springs Remembrance Subcommittee, and the Monteocha-Gordon-LaCrosse Remembrance Subcommittee), Hawthorne High School (cosponsored by the Hawthorne/Waldo/Campville Remembrance Subcommittee and the Micanopy/Rochelle Subcommittee) and Newberry High School (cosponsored by the Concerned Citizens of Newberry and the Concerned Citizens of Archer).  

It is also open to home schooled students zoned for any of these schools as well as students who live in these communities but attend a school in Gainesville.

The deadline for contest submissions is Friday, April 8, at 11:59 p.m. EST.  

There will be five winners from each high school.  The first place winner will receive$2,500 in scholarship prize money.  The other winners will also receive scholarship prizes.  The total amount of prize money awarded will be $5,000 to each high school.

The purpose of these contests is to encourage students to learn the history of lynching and racial terrorism in Alachua County, and in the United States, and how that terrorism has left a legacy of racial disparities.

Students are encouraged to use local historical events and/or examples of current injustices in their essays.  They will be judged and prizes awarded by Equal Justice Initiative.  They are judged on content, not grammar.

The Alachua County Library will offer writing hours virtually to assist students in using library resources for their research and provide time to write in an organized, virtual setting.  There will be three writing sessions offered in February, March and early April.  

Students will be able to register for any or all of the times to attend a writing hour session.  

To learn more, visit EJI Racial Justice Essay Contest or truth.alachuacounty.us/EssayContest.

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