The 32nd Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Statewide Celebration Kick-Off Program for Missouri was one of reflection, reality and hope Saturday, January 6 at Harris-Stowe State University.
True to this year’s theme – “Stay Focused, Stay Committed … The Pathway to Justice” – awardees, guests and keynote speaker Bakari Sellers reminded the audience to look beyond the romanticized portrayal of Dr. King’s legacy and acknowledge that there is still much work to be done. The recurring message was that many battles still lie ahead before King’s dream of a beloved community – where all people are treated as equals and judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin – becomes a reality.
“We must root the cause of discrimination, inequality, poverty and injustice in order to move and achieve social change in this region,” said commission chair and Harris-Stowe State University President Dwaun J. Warmack.
But in the same breath, all those who stood upon the podium pointed to signs that while there have indeed been setbacks along the way, change is not too far beyond the horizon.
U.S. Rep. Wm. Lacy Clay (D-MO) pointed to new St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Chief John Hayden as a positive sign.
“You have the full support of my office,” Clay told Hayden. “And I fully expect that you will require that the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department take an honest look in the mirror to reveal both the good and the bad. In St. Louis, and in many other communities across this country, young African Americans continue to interact with police officers and wind up dead with zero consequences – and that has to change.”
Hayden nodded from his seat as Clay spoke to the fractured relationship between law enforcement and minorities.
“We have to train local police to deescalate before they become violent,” Clay said. “And we must train them to have a greater sensitivity and empathy for minorities, disabled Americans and new immigrants.”
Clay reminded the crowd of the power of working together, and used the $2.3 billion NGA site coming to North St. Louis as a demonstration of the type of partnerships needed to enact change.
“We have to build coalitions with those who are ready and willing to stand with us,” Clay said. He offered kudos to U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) for his willingness to cross party lines for what he said was the largest federal investment in the history of the city of St. Louis.
Keepers of the dream
Clay’s reminder of the importance of working together for the greater good segued into the presentation of the 2018 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. State Celebration Commission Awards.
“This year the commission chose to recognize four individuals and/or organizations whose body of work answers what Dr. King called life’s most urgent and persistent question: What are you doing for others?” said Carol Daniel, KMOX news anchor, who emceed the event. “Our awardees are everyday heroes focused and committed to the ideal of service to others – striving, each in their own way, to create avenues and pathways to justice.”
The 2018 honorees included Distinguished Community Service Award recipient Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity Eta Boule, Distinguished Drum Major Award recipient Bernie Hayes, and Distinguished Social Action Award honoree state Rep. Bruce Franks Jr. (D-St. Louis).
“He has indeed stood up and laid down for social equality,” Daniel said of Franks.
The Dr. Henry Givens Jr. Legacy Award was posthumously awarded to St. Louis native, comedy legend and human rights activist Dick Gregory. His brother Ron Gregory accepted the award on his behalf.
“For him to receive an award with Dr. King’s name on it, it would just overwhelm him,” Ron Gregory said. “If he could, he would have come back to get this award himself.”
He spoke of the joy his brother felt in 1976 when he had a street named after him that intersected with Dr. Martin Luther King Drive.
“He got involved in activism at an early age, but when he got involved with Dr. King, it took him to a new level,” Ron Gregory said. “Rather than just fighting for conditions on his home front, he found that what he was fighting for was the rights of people on this planet.”
He also gave insight on Dick Gregory’s decision to abandon his trailblazing comedy career.
“It was no longer an offshoot of his entertainment career,” Ron Gregory said. “Comedy became something he would do when he wasn’t marching. It got to the point where he gave up comedy completely because he said, ‘People are laughing at what I’m saying, but it’s not changing anything.’”
He said his brother’s legacy should prompt the living to act: “If he were here today, he would say, ‘I’ve hope I’ve inspired enough people to get out and do something, because if one person can do so much, then how much can masses of people do?’”
Dr. King’s legacy matters
“The struggle for equality is not just a Southern story, but an American one,” attorney and CNN political commentator Bakari Sellers said in his brief but compelling keynote address.
In a few bullets he reminded the audience of St. Louis’ rich history of activism. He pointed to examples that ranged from Mary Meachum to the Civil Rights Movement to the Ferguson unrest.
“I think about Congressman Bill Clay, I think about Frankie Freeman, I think about Mary Meachum, Percy Green, Bernie Hayes, the Eta Boule. I think about Rep. Bruce Franks, Dick Gregory and all of those names that are lost to time and history,” Sellers said. “The stories are innumerable; the sacrifices are unimaginable and unforgettable. We all have a piece of this puzzle – in victory and defeat alike.”
Sellers shared his own piece of the puzzle by laying out the details of his father Cleveland Sellers’ involvement as an organizer for the protest that would become known as the Orangeburg Massacre.
The 1967 protest of a segregated bowling alley left three dead and 27 wounded when law enforcement opened fire on the group of protestors in South Carolina.
“The night of hope and change turned to desperation and despair,” Bakari said. “Lives were forever altered, and dreams were forever deferred.”
The officers stood trial for firing into the crowd, but were found innocent. His father was the only person who served jail time because of the tragedy.
“My father is the only one-man riot in the history of this country,” Sellers said.
Sellers reminded the crowd that April will mark 50 years since Dr. King was assassinated.
“A half-century later, that moment stands before us – a little less than three months away – as a moment that begs reflection,” Sellers said. “As we reflect, we must pose the question that we’ve asked many times before: How do we bring Dr. King’s dream to a new age and make it relevant to a new generation?”
Sellers then took a bitter turn. “I don’t want to talk about that question anymore,” he said, “because I believe that if we are honest there is another question that we must ask ourselves: Does it even matter?”
Sellers told the crowd that it was a question Dr. King often asked himself towards the end of his life. “He was a man struggling with his own legacy,” Sellers said. “He struggled with the question of: Does it matter?”
He said King found it hard to escape the delusion and betrayal of watching his dream be constantly deferred – and used today as an example that the deferment continues and escalated under the presidency of Donald J. Trump, who was endorsed by Blunt.
“While I can point – and I wish Senator Blunt was still here, to be honest – while I can point to the steps forward from the civil rights act to the election of Barack Obama,” Sellers said, “the fact is that 50 years after Dr. King, the three evils of society – systemic racism, generational poverty and unchecked militarism – continue to plague our national conscience.”
As a sidebar, Sellers also told the audience to take stock of who was in the building – and more importantly, who wasn’t – to commemorate Dr. King’s life and legacy when elections roll around. Among those noticeably absent were Gov. Eric Greitens and U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO).
He said his father’s generation saw the ghost of Emmitt Till – and this generation is haunted by Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown and Walter Scott.
“The parallels aren’t that far away: Four children killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963 and nine gunned down at Mother Emanuel in 2015,” Sellers said. “They pay us minimum wage for maximum production while convincing us we are lucky to have a job at all.”
He spoke of the war on terror being for this generation what the Vietnam War was for Dr. King.
“And the war at home is that our police become militarized and our prisons become privatized and every felony and misdemeanor – Ferguson – is monetized,” Sellers said.
He closed by telling the audience that whether King’s Dream matters is not the point.
“You don’t do the right thing because of its personal benefit or reward,” Sellers said. “You do the right thing because it is simply the right thing. Tonight, we must rededicate ourselves to continuing our struggle and continuing our story. Not because we can, but because we must.”
