Signed into law in 1983, and first observed in all 50 states in 2000, Martin Luther King Day has for years been celebrated in honor of a great leader who challenged America to “live out the true meaning of its creed.”
Yet, on Monday, it was celebrated with as much of an eye toward the future as the past.
McComb’s MLK Center filled with chants of “Yes, we can!” and “Yes, we did!”, on the eve of the inauguration of 44th President Barack Obama, the first black president elected in the United States.
“I am a happy woman,” Pike County Supervisor Lexie Elmore, who emceed, said jubilantly. “I am an Obama woman, and see I got my bling bling on, my Obama shirt on, my Obama pin and my Obama bracelet. … I love Obama!”
With NAACP leaders touting the 100th anniversary of their organization, the annual recognition of Dr. King and the commemoration of the birthday of local civil rights leader C.C. Bryant, performers came from local churches to sing, and from the Mississippi Kids Academy to recite King’s legendary “I Have a Dream” speech.
“Dr. King said one day that we will not be judged by the color of our skin but by the content of our character,” Elmore said. “He said that America has given the Negro people a bad check, which has come back insufficient funds. Tonight we are celebrating not only Dr. Martin Luther King (Jr.)’s legacy and C.C. Bryant’s legacy … but 100 years of the most hated, the most despised and the most loved institution in the country. The NAACP has been working for over 100 years to make this moment possible.”
The night was highlighted by a speech from interim McComb city attorney Angela Taylor Miller, who spoke of the historical plight of African-Americans in the U.S., with details ranging from information about General Sherman’s Special Field Order No. 15 after the Civil War, to the presence of names of local leaders in sovereignty commission reports in Mississippi.
“It’s a pleasure to speak to you this evening and it’s also an honor,” Miller told the standing-room only crowd. “It’s a seminal triumphant moment in American history such that we as a nation have only rarely witnessed.”
Miller spoke of the path taken to this point.
“When the first shot was fired in the revolutionary war, this nation set forth on a march toward creating a new concept of government, bringing together the ideals of equality that we took from the French Age of Enlightenment and liberty which we took from the English Magna Carta,” she said. “When the first shots rang out at Fort Sumter in 1861, to bandage a wound called slavery, a wound that had swollen, festered and rotten, each new state that was admitted had to grapple with the question. … America had refused to accept its destiny of inclusion of our people. America refused to rise to the level of its greatness. There was a war inside the soul of our country.”
But Miller emphasized that the union may not have persevered if not for the lofty ideals on which it was founded.
“Over 600,000 died. Northerners and Southerners lost their lives. Black men fought for the North, and, believe it or not, for the South,” she said.
And Miller discussed the work that remained to be done even after the Civil War, from the Freedmen’s Bureau to the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, to the election of the nation’s first black mayor in Natchez in 1870, to the founding of historically black colleges and universities such as Alcorn State and Jackson State, to the founding of the NAACP after a riot in Springfield, Ill., in 1909.
She said the organization had been instrumental in lobbying and litigation efforts against segregation and Jim Crow laws, and painted the historical narrative leading up to the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycotts in 1955 as preparing a place for Dr. King to rise to prominence.
“An unlikely leader assumed the helm, 25 years old, recently moved to Montgomery, a young minister,” Miller said of King. “He was almost selected by chance to lead the Montgomery Improvement Association. I choose to believe that nothing happens by chance. How many children do you know who graduate from college at 19? Hold Ph.Ds at 25? Had Dr. King not had the pedigree of being the son of a Baptist minister, it’s unlikely he would have been able to transcend the politics of the black church and use it as a vehicle.”
She reminded the crowd of King’s unequivocal devotion to equality in his refusal to exclude whites from the equal rights movement.
“At every successful turn, blacks and whites had stood together,” she said. “Today, blacks and whites have campaigned together here in Mississippi and across the country like at no time in history. I cannot say that Dr. King’s dream has been realized … I can only say that together, we’re well on our way.”
Miller praised local civil rights pioneer C.C. Bryant as well, asking the audience to imagine the fear he overcame as she read newspaper articles about bombings near Bryant’s home and barbershop.
“We are all capable of making a contribution,” she challenged the crowd. “If there is, as some say, a manifest destiny for this country, we will only get there by standing together.”
But if Miller’s speech was passionate, it was not the only such rally call during the event.
“We have come a distance, but we have not arrived,” said the Rev. Curtis C. Bryant Jr., C.C. Bryant’s son. “I see the changes that need to take place and I see the changes that are taking place. We have a great opportunity, we have a great future and it lies with our youth.”
Bryant told attendees to take responsibility for helping make that future.
“Our failure is when we fail to teach our children,” he said. “We’re going to have to assume the responsibility of everybody is every child’s parent. … The various people that helped us to make it, they are dead, they are gone. … I challenge you young people, the opportunities are available to go to school, learn and participate. … Parents, spare the rod and spoil the child. … Men, stand up and be men to your wives and to your children. … Do whatever it takes to help your children get an education.”
NAACP President Anthony Witherspoon, meanwhile, shared his excitement about Obama’s election.
“There’s some symbolism here with what’s going on tomorrow,” Witherspoon said of the inauguration. “Sometimes doing this kind of work you get frustrated … Sometimes God lets you see what you’re fighting for so you don’t give up on it. In 1968, I imagine Martin Luther King was pretty frustrated, too, with his people, because I know doing this work it doesn’t take long to get frustrated. … Exactly 40 years later, we have the fulfillment of what is the beginning of the fulfillment of that dream.”
Local musician Da Minista chimed in, too.
“We’re excited about what has taken place, we’re excited about what we’re getting ready to see tomorrow and what we’re getting ready for,” he said. “We should thank God extensively for what He has done for us. No longer do you have to say that the sky is the limit and not really mean that the sky is the limit. You can be whatever you want to be and we thank God for that. We’re going to keep pressing until we get everything we deserve.”
Bobby Talbert, who also was involved in civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s, spoke specifically of local progress.
“We’re the only county in the United States that has three black mayors and three black chiefs of police,” he said. “All I want you to do is help the cause.”
And Dorothy Johnson summed up the enthusiasm with a comparison to MLK events a year ago.
“I remember last year I counted 25 people here,” she said. “I can’t even count them tonight.”She said the organization had been instrumental in lobbying and litigation efforts against segregation and Jim Crow laws, and painted the historical narrative leading up to the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycotts in 1955 as preparing a place for Dr. King to rise to prominence.
“An unlikely leader assumed the helm, 25 years old, recently moved to Montgomery, a young minister,” Miller said of King. “He was almost selected by chance to lead the Montgomery Improvement Association. I choose to believe that nothing happens by chance. How many children do you know who graduate from college at 19? Hold Ph.Ds at 25? Had Dr. King not had the pedigree of being the son of a Baptist minister, it’s unlikely he would have been able to transcend the politics of the black church and use it as a vehicle.”
She reminded the crowd of King’s unequivocal devotion to equality in his refusal to exclude whites from the equal rights movement.
“At every successful turn, blacks and whites had stood together,” she said. “Today, blacks and whites have campaigned together here in Mississippi and across the country like at no time in history. I cannot say that Dr. King’s dream has been realized … I can only say that together, we’re well on our way.”
Miller praised local civil rights pioneer C.C. Bryant as well, asking the audience to imagine the fear he overcame as she read newspaper articles about bombings near Bryant’s home and barbershop.
“We are all capable of making a contribution,” she challenged the crowd. “If there is, as some say, a manifest destiny for this country, we will only get there by standing together.”
But if Miller’s speech was passionate, it was not the only such rally call during the event.
“We have come a distance, but we have not arrived,” said the Rev. Curtis C. Bryant Jr., C.C. Bryant’s son. “I see the changes that need to take place and I see the changes that are taking place. We have a great opportunity, we have a great future and it lies with our youth.”
Bryant told attendees to take responsibility for helping make that future.
“Our failure is when we fail to teach our children,” he said. “We’re going to have to assume the responsibility of everybody is every child’s parent. … The various people that helped us to make it, they are dead, they are gone. … I challenge you young people, the opportunities are available to go to school, learn and participate. … Parents, spare the rod and spoil the child. … Men, stand up and be men to your wives and to your children. … Do whatever it takes to help your children get an education.”
NAACP President Anthony Witherspoon, meanwhile, shared his excitement about Obama’s election.
“There’s some symbolism here with what’s going on tomorrow,” Witherspoon said of the inauguration. “Sometimes doing this kind of work you get frustrated … Sometimes God lets you see what you’re fighting for so you don’t give up on it. In 1968, I imagine Martin Luther King was pretty frustrated too, with his people, because I know doing this work it doesn’t take long to get frustrated. … Exactly 40 years later, we have the fulfillment of what is the beginning of the fulfillment of that dream.”
Local musician Da Minista chimed in, too.
“We’re excited about what has taken place, we’re excited about what we’re getting ready to see tomorrow and what we’re getting ready for,” he said. “We should thank God extensively for what He has done for us. No longer do you have to say that the sky is the limit and not really mean that the sky is the limit. You can be whatever you want to be and we thank God for that. We’re going to keep pressing until we get everything we deserve.”
Bobby Talbert, who also was involved in civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s, spoke specifically of local progress.
“We’re the only county in the United States that has three black mayors and three black chiefs of police,” he said. “All I want you to do is help the cause.”
And Dorothy Johnson summed up the enthusiasm with a comparison to MLK events a year ago.
“I remember last year I counted 25 people here,” she said. “I can’t even count them tonight.”
