By Courtney Dentch
Living proof of the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. filled the Roy Wilkins Park Family Center last Thursday in celebration of what would have been the civil rights leader’s 75th birthday.
While offices and banks were closed Monday in a national celebration of Martin Luther King Day, Borough President Helen Marshall, Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott, York College President Robert Hampton and others gathered in St. Albans to toast King’s actual birthday last Thursday.
“We’re here to celebrate the legacy of a man who made it possible for all of us to live in harmony, even though it hasn’t always been so easy,” said Curtis Archer, one of the masters of ceremonies. “We truly have a legacy right here among our honored guests.”
The evening was marked by musical performances from the IS 109 Gospel Choir, Oginski Male Choir and the St. Albans Congregational Choir as well as a dramatic presentation by Gloria Lowery Tyrell, who donned a cleric’s robe and a false mustache to re-enact the “Drum Major Instinct,” one of King’s most famous sermons.
Marshall, whose office sponsored the event, talked about her experience as a black woman coming to power in an era when race made it that much more difficult for her. She said it was discouraging at times.
“It’s a mindset — I can, I am and I will,” she said. “The difference between today and yesterday is that I can, I am and I will are a lot easier today than it was before Dr. King.”
In his keynote address, Hampton used the metaphor of bridges to stress the importance of connecting the past, present and future and overcoming racial differences, he said. King himself led droves of activists over the Edmund Pettis Bridge into Selma, Ala. to protest civil rights violations in 1965, he said.
“We must build a new kind of bridge, a two-tiered bridge,” said Hampton, “one that maintains our original framework for those moving at a slower pace, but at least they’re moving in the right direction. It also has room for those of you moving a little faster, unencumbered by social injustice and hatred. The bridge is our common ground.”
And while we call King and his followers activists, others called them agitators and troublemakers out to demolish the status quo, Hampton said. But those seeking to fight injustices must be proud to take up the mantle of agitator, he said.
“The point of this celebration is to teach us that we can and must work to reshape our destiny,” Hampton said. “In other words, we have to be agitators.”
But as the struggle for true equality continues, the growing generations already have the right ideas, Marshall said.
“I’m absolutely astonished by our young people — astonished at their brilliance, at their confidence and even sometimes at their nerve,” she said. “They embrace opportunity, they think outside of the box and they achieve. We have to remember to always be the one who encourages them.”
Reach reporter Courtney Dentch by e-mail at news@timesledger.com, or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.
