Posted: January 20th, 2010 James Willamor

Hundreds crowd inside as a line waits to get in for the Levine Museum of the New South for the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebration on Jan. 18.

Children squish together on the floor while others sit on parents’ shoulders to watch the McCrorey YMCA Senior Drum and Dance Troupe take their seats in the main hall.

Suddenly, colors explode above the bare floors and white walls as hands met drumheads. Yellow and purple robes twirl. The troupe encourages the crowd to dance. Soon young and old, black and white join in.

The crowd sings along with Friendship Missionary Baptist's Youth Choir as Deejay Boyd leads the modern and traditional African-American gospel songs.

As I take photos, I think about Dr. King.

In elementary school, we watched the “I Have a Dream” speech during Black History Month. I respected Dr. King as an important civil rights leader but, as a boy, I didn’t feel he was extremely relevant to me.

During a post-college period of contemplation of my values and morals, I rediscovered Dr. King's sermons and speeches. I learned that not only did he speak out on the important issue of race, but also on poverty, war, violence, charity and social justice.

I realized that Dr. King’s words are as alive and important now as they were then.

Today, I feel as though Dr. King was speaking about our nation's current economic climate when he said, “We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

I feel as though Dr. King was speaking to the racial, political, economic and ethnic division within Charlotte when he said, “Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when it helps us to see the enemy's point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves,” and, “Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”

I feel as though Dr. King spoke of the men and women – the working poor – whom I’ve met at Hall House and the Homeless Men’s Shelter when he said, "True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."

I feel as though Dr. King was speaking of the man searching for food in a trash can under the skyscraper of a bank headquarter when he said, "A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth."

I feel as though Dr. King was speaking of my own neighborhood when he said, "On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will only be an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway."

The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day event at the Levine Museum was not so much a celebration of someone who had lived, but of someone whose ideals are still alive and still meaningful today.

Tweet

Previous Page