Media Advisory 

Ceremony Honoring Winner of Victorville’s Civil Rights Memorial Essay Contest

Victorville student, Natalia Jackson will read her winning essay.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 13, 2023

WHAT: On Monday, Jan. 16, the City of Victorville will recognize local student and winner of its annual Civil Rights Memorial Essay Contest, Natalia Jackson. Natalia will read her winning essay honoring Frances Ellen Watkins Harper at the City of Victorville Civil Rights Memorial. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper is the eighth Civil Rights Leader to be honored with a bronze plaque in the City’s Memorial.

PHOTO OPP: Student, Natalia Jackson, will read her winning essay about American suffragist and women’s rights advocate, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. Victorville Mayor Debra Jones and Victor Elementary School District Superintendent Lori Clark will congratulate Natalia on her outstanding achievement.

WHEN: The ceremony will take place during the Delta Sigma Theta, Inc. Commemorative Peace March Program planned for Monday, Jan. 16 at 10 a.m.

WHERE: Victorville Civil Rights Memorial at Victorville City Hall, 14343 Civic Dr. The Civil
Rights Memorial is located at the south end of the City Hall parking lot area,
near Ramona Avenue.

MORE INFORMATION: The annual essay contest is open to fifth and sixth graders who live in Victorville and attend local schools in the Victor Elementary School District or Oro Grande School District. Students are invited to write essays about a civil rights leader and indicate why he or she should be honored at the memorial. The essays are reviewed by the City of Victorville Community Services Advisory Committee.

A portion of the winning essays appear on plaques displayed at the Civil Rights Memorial as a way to share their stories with the community. Plaques recognizing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Asa Philip Randolph, Frederick Douglass, Cesar Chavez, Harriet Tubman, Lucy Burns, Jackie Robinson, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg are currently displayed at the memorial.

This year’s plaque, honoring Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, is sponsored by Heritage Victor Valley Medical Group.

For additional information or to become a sponsor of future Civil Rights Memorial plaques, please call (760) 955-3306, or visit the City of Victorville website: VictorvilleCA.gov/civilrightsmemorial.

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