REMEMBERING DR. KING
Had he lived, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would have been 87 years old on January 15th. And while he was taken from the world too soon, his great legacy of social and moral change is present with us today. Throughout North Texas his life was celebrated in speeches, parades, service projects and church services. The Martin Luther King Jr. Center in South Dallas held a banquet to honor Dr. King at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Dr. Jamal Harrison Bryant, the pastor of the Empowerment Temple in Baltimore, Maryland, reflected on the life of Dr. King, saying that the movement for social change and improvement in the lives of people that was so central to Dr. King’s life must continue.
Dr. King, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, would have been very proud of the events that took place around his birthday. He would have been particularly happy with the performance of ten-year-old ISD student Lyriq Turner, who won the 24th Annual Gardere MLK Jr. Oratory Competition held at the Majestic Theater in downtown Dallas.
Lyriq, a fifth grade student at the Charles Rice Learning Center, thrilled her audience. Her presentation centered on justice, civil rights and immigration. No doubt Dr. King was smiling from above when Lyriq said,” Dr. King would remind us to deal kindly with strangers for we, too, were once strangers in this land. You see, it does not help to build walls. We need to build opportunity on both sides of the border.”
A multi-racial parade was held on Monday, the day that Dr. King’s Birthday was observed nationally. Thousands of people, young and old alike stood in the cold on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. to watch numerous marching bands, choirs and elected officials demonstrate that they believed in Dr. King and in his dream of equality for all and a colorblind world.
The Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, was in Dallas to meet with anti-gang activists, Reverend Omar Jawah and Antong Lucky. In the spirit of Dr. King, the two Dallas men are helping to lead a non-violence movement throughout the United States.
Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson and members of her district staff spent Monday in the city of Glenn Heights, one of several cities devastated by the recent tornadoes. They took off their business clothes and helped residents remove trash from various parts of the city. “Like Dr. King I believe in service,” Congresswoman Johnson said as she addressed volunteers that included a group of Pakistani business leaders who donated badly needed supplies for tornado victims and members of the Desoto Chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.
The celebration of Dr. King’s birthday this year was joyous, peaceful and full of meaning. May it always be that way. May we always honor this great man with wisdom, truth and dignity.
