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MD Principal Regrets Racial Slur in Talk About MLK

nobelprize.org

HYATTSVILLE, Md. (AP) - A white principal at a private school near Washington says she regrets using a racial slur referring to black people during a Black History Month assembly.

Citing a release from New Hope Academy Principal Joy Morrow, news outlets report a keynote speaker had canceled just before the school's annual assembly, so Morrow decided to give a talk she gave 25 years ago about what Martin Luther King Jr.'s teachings meant to her.

A native of Dubuque, Iowa, she says she warned the children in grades 6 to 12 that she would use the slur to explain what she "experienced growing up in an all-white, racist community."

She said the word inadvertently distracted some students, so she regrets using it. The school has since held discussions with students and faculty.

Don Rush is the News Director and Senior Producer of News and Public Affairs at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.