The late Martin Luther King, Jr., would have been pleased to see the growth of the Black community marked in several ways on the national holiday marking his memory on Jan. 16 in Giles County.
At an evening program at Pulaski Missionary Baptist Church on Highway 31 South, ministers Marcus and Tim Duke spoke, bringing spectators to heir feet.
Richard Kemp, an entrepenur, gave advice on preparing for the future, financially and otherwise, during the noon program at the Greater Richland Creek Missionary Baptist Association.
The program followed the Unity March from the Courthouse to the association building, whose auditorium was half or more full.
“Are you saving enough?” Kemp asked his audience, which had several young people.
Building up enough assets is important, especially to help meet one’s needs in older age, he said.
“The Word is God,’” Kemp said, spicing his talk with plenty of Biblical references,something the late Dr. Martin Luther King also might have done.
Kemp urged those present to keep God first in their lives, as King would have urged them to do also.
At the evening program,Tim Duke, quoted a Bible passage that has come to symbolize non violence and peace.
“You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy,” he said quoting Matt. 5:43.
Equally well known is Matt. 5:44, “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
“Love keeps no record of wrongs,” he said quoting another Bible passage.
The American Negro, Marcus Duke said, was one of several minorities that has been persecuted since the settling of this country,
The 1950s, he said, could be considered the time of separate Americas, one for whites and another for minorities, such as Negroes, Marcus Duke said.
It was the time when evangelists such as King were finishing college and starting their ministries, starting to speak out against racial and other injustices.
“The time is right to do what is right,” Marcus Duke said, as he ran about he church, encouraging spectators to join in the spirit of King’s message.
Even though he was discouraged by the attitudes of white people, the civil rights pioneer remained upbeat, Marcus Duke said,
“Dr. King said the time was right to do what was right,,” Marcus Duke said again and again.
King was assassinated at a motel in Memphis in 1967.
Other performers at the youth program included Markeyta Bledsoe, a praise dancer; Carter Kelly, a student from Marietta, Ga., who recited King’s “I Have A Dream” speech; Tanisha Hardison, Jeremy Gardner and Genesis Massey, who sang songs; Graham Slam Hoover and Kacetin Jiminez who said prayers and performed scripture,’
Keidron Turner, a college student, was master of ceremonies and Benita Cross, first vice president of the NAAACP, helped coordinate the youth program.