WASHINGTON, D.C. – Minnesota Teacher of the Year Abdul Wright learned something about President Trump on Wednesday at an event honoring teachers in the Oval Office.
Trump hosted Wright and other state and national teachers of the year to celebrate their achievements, and was joined by First Lady Melina Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen Pence.
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During the visit, the group recited the Pledge of Allegiance, and afterwards Wright made a special request to sing the Black National Anthem, as well.
Wright regularly sings the unofficial anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing” for his eighth-grade students at Minneapolis’ Best Academy, and Trump was happy to oblige, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
The entire group took a moment to sing the hymn, which was first performed as a poem to celebrate Abraham Lincoln’s birthday in 1900, and Wright was moved by the experience.
“Yesterday superseded politics,” Wright told the news site. “Yesterday was about values, yesterday was about the human experience, yesterday was about the human heart. And I think we got caught up in that.”
Afterwards, Trump thanked Wright for suggesting the song, and later posted to Twitter that it was “a great great honor” to some of the best educators in the country.
“Each of you has dedicated yourself to inspiring young minds and putting our children on a path to happiness and success,” he said.
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Despite the media’s relentless focus on Trump’s allegedly divisive politics, Wright told the Star Tribune his visit to the Oval Office revealed a much different reality.
“I believe that what happened in that office is indicative of what we want to happen across this country – where people want to part of lifting everyone up,” Wright said.
Wright is Minnesota’s first black male teacher of the year and the first from a charter school. The 30-year-old also the youngest person to ever receive the award.
He told Minnesota Public Radio the experience at the White House meant a lot to him and other teachers, as well.
“So many teachers didn’t even know there was a black national anthem,” he said. “Afterwards when people were coming up to me, you had people crying and thanking me, talking about I didn’t know how significant that was and how I was honored to be a part of that.
“That was a beautiful thing,” Wright said. “That was a very beautiful thing.”
Wright, who grew up in inner-city Chicago, told the Star Tribune he shared his experiences with his students through FaceTime each day he was in Washington, D.C., where he visited monuments, memorials and the National Museum of African-American History.
When he returns to Minnesota, he’ll announce the winner of the states 2017 Teacher of the Year award, a program that’s facilitated by the state teachers union.
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