MLK day celebrated in Littleton

By John Peters
Editor

More than 100 people braved the blustery winter weather Monday to watch the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in downtown Littleton.

Many of those people then journeyed to Oak Grove Missionary Baptist Church for a ceremony of celebration and commemoration for King and his work during the Civil Rights Movement.

The parade was a mix of local ROTC cadets from Warren County High School and Northwest Halifax High School, the Student Government Association from McIver Elementary School in Littleton, and various community leaders.

While short -– the procession took less than a half-hour to make its way through town -– the event elicited cheers, smiles, and responses from those people standing along Main Street. And when several people in the passing parade cars flung candy toward the crowd, children along the street scurried to scoop it up.

The service at Oak Grove lasted an hour and a half, and offered a varied mix of dance and song, words of warning and encouragement, and reflections on the life and work of King.

There were greetings given by the mistress of ceremony Dorethea Paige, scripture reading and prayer led by Dr. Annie McCollum, and congregational singing.

The audience clapped, swayed and shouted their support to two dance groups that performed --– the Oak Grove Dance Ministry and the Piney Grove Dance Ministry, each featuring youth from their churches offering praise and entertainment with interpretive dance numbers.

The Oak Grove Dance team, after giving a performance that included children and teens, then pared down to the older members, who gave a brief overview of the fraternities King and his wife, Coretta Scot King, belonged to. The group then launched into a couple of traditional dance line numbers that had many in the church on their feet clapping with the group.

Several speakers addressed the audience, including Savannah Copeland, a student at Halifax County School of Ecology. She won an essay contest on King, and she presented her essay Monday.

She told of King’s dream of equality for all Americans, regardless of race, and how King and his generation had sacrificed much to set the nation on the path toward reaching those goals.

African-Americans, she said, had gained much in the intervening years, but now many in the African-American community had taken those gains lost the vision King had, instead working for individual fame and riches while ignoring society as a hole.

She said 25 percent of African Americans still live in poverty -– “that is nine million people ,” -– she said, and that is because, at least in part, the entire African American community is no longer striving for equality as a race.

She said the gains African Americans have made over the past four decades are due, in large part, to King and his generation working together for a common cause. “More changes can be brought about, if the African American community would work together,” she said.

Kathy Alston-Kearney addressed those gathered at the church to tell them about efforts to building a Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Garden in Washington, D.C., as a tribute to King’s work in bringing about non-violent social change, and she asked those in attendance to consider donating to the establishment of the memorial.

Many of the other speakers focused on young people and the need for church and community leaders the point those youth away from influences such as gangs, crime, drugs, and the fixation on material wealth.

Dr. C.E. McCollum, pastor at Oak Grove, encouraged those in attendance to take heart in the social changes brought about by the Civil Rights Movement, and to dedicate themselves for continued work.

“Today, while we were marching, we had no fire hoses turned on us,” he said of the parade earlier in the day. “No dogs were sicced on us, out biggest complaint was it’s cold.”

While that represents significant progress from the days of King’s marches in the South, McCollum said there is much that yet needs to be done.

He said people today are hurting, economically, emotionally, and spiritually, and that hurt crosses racial lines.

He said everyone needed to dedicate themselves to bringing about social change, to reach out to all people, and most of all, to their own children, grandchildren, and other youths. “Let’s get involved in the lives of our young people,” he said.

Rep. Angela Bryant was also on hand, and she said her work in the North Carolina House of Representatives is, at least in part, to protect the children of her district and state.

She said she is working to make sure children have adequate health care, proper representation when they are in the court system, protection from gang influences, and get help in school through drop-out prevention programs.

Bryant also encouraged the congregation to vote.

“Dr. King fought to make it so his people could be elected,” she said. With same-day registration and early voting now in place in North Carolina, and the fact that even felons can now vote if they have served their prison time and made all court-order restitution, she said it is easier for state residents to vote than at any time in history.

“You have literally no excuse in North Carolina not to vote,” she said.

Dr. Ervin Griffith, president of Halifax Community College, also spoke. He told those in attendance that he, too, believes there are plenty of opportunities for youth to go the wrong way. There is a need for increased results in education, and there are signs that today’s young people are in trouble.

But, he added, “I haven’t lost faith (in them),” he said, before adding with a smile, ‘…because I can remember some of the things I did in my youth.”

As people get older, he told the audience, sometimes they forget some of the things they did in their youth, activities that would sometimes prompt adults to say “you weren’t going to make it.”

It is important, he said, not to lose faith in the youth, and that God will one day return those youth from wayward ways and bring about changes in their lives.

“Forty or fifty years ago, someone had the faith that one day there would be an African American president at Halifax Community College,” he said. While social conditions might have said that would never happen, while events in his own life might have led people to question where he was headed, today he is the answer to that faith.

While trusting in God and working in the community, he encouraged those in attendance to “not forget about education.” People often forget that King was a well-educated man, again serving as an example for people to follow.

“It doesn’t matter the level of the education,” he said. “Just don’t forget about it, continue to pursue education.”