Matthew Floyd Awarded Second Place in MLK Jr. Essay Contest

West Roxbury, Mass.-- King Boston awarded Catholic Memorial School junior Matthew Floyd, of Natick, second-place in its Martin Luther King Jr. essay contest on Tuesday, the organization announced in a congratulatory letter.

In addition to a $500 cash prize, Matthew will attend an honorary ceremony with Boston Mayor Marty Walsh on Monday at the Museum of Fine Arts.

The King Boston non-profit works to create new programs honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King in Boston and build a new memorial in their honor. Inspired by the legacy of Dr. and Mrs. King, the essay contest presented a prompt to Boston students in grades 6 to 12 that asked, “what issue of ‘economic justice’ would the Kings be working on in Boston today.”

Matthew, a student in Mr. Vin Bradley’s AP United States History class, wrote about how low-income areas in Boston have been re-gentrified. He also wrote about the rise of food deserts in the city.

“I’ve lived in Natick my entire life and was surprised by some of the information that I found in my research of food deserts and gentrification,” said Matt, a member of the CM varsity soccer team and a peer minister.

“I always ate at home when I was a kid. I had no idea that there were as many food deserts as there are in Boston.”

Matthew researched both of his topics through a set of panels on the Harvard Kennedy School of Government website. He said that he used insight from Harvard Sociology Professor William Julius Wilson to support his argument.

When submissions to the contest ended on January 7, staff from the Catholic Schools Office and the Boston Compact education community selected the top 12 essays for the King Boston Essay Selection Committee to review. Writers of the top three essays selected from that group received a cash prize.

“[Matthew] provides great insight into the issues at hand,” said Mr. Bradley.

“He’s good at cutting to the heart of the matter and then offering an analysis of why it’s important,” Mr. Bradley added.

King Boston only accepted essays 500 words or less. Aside from Matthew, CM junior Kevin Prou earned Honorable Mention honors and CM junior Ryan Horrigan earned recognition as a finalist.

In its congratulatory letter to Matthew, the King Boston Essay Selection Committee supported Mr. Bradley’s assessment of his student.

“You earned this accolade by bringing your best insights to the topic of economic justice and working hard to express yourself with clarity and coherence,” contest representatives wrote to Matthew.

Matthew said that he hopes to expand his scope of economic injustice when he attends CM’s Blessed Edmund Rice Solidarity Initiative to Lima, Peru in February.

“I think I understand the issue of housing a lot better now and how wide that struggle for food really is,” said Matthew.

“I’m really interested to see how this applies on a global level when I visit Peru.”