Community leaders honor MLK legacy
WOONSOCKET – As a new generation of social activists comes of age, community leaders yesterday invoked the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy of making “good trouble” as a map for the foot soldiers in the battle for political change.
In a gathering to mark what would have been King’s 90th birthday had he not been slain in Memphis in 1968, Deacon Thomas Gray of St. James Baptist Church said political agitators are often demonized as troublemakers today, just as King was. But King’s followers recognized the moral authority of their mission and wouldn’t give up, no matter how much they clashed with law enforcement or other barriers.
“That was trouble for a good cause,” said Gray. “That’s basically what the whole civil rights movement was all about.”
Gray was the moderator for a slate of speakers who gathered for a wreath-laying at The Millrace Monday, moving the ceremony indoors amid ice-clogged streets and temperatures in the single digits after a wintry storm. Normally, the daylong celebration is held at The MLK Sculpture Garden at Mason and South Main streets.
Also on hand were U.S. Rep. David Cicilline, Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt, Police Chief Thomas F. Oates III, State Sen. Roger A. Picard (D-Dist. 20); State Rep. Robert Phillips (D-Dist. 51); and the Rev. Jeffrey Thomas, pastor of St. James Baptist Church.
An honorary guest accompanied them at the podium – Dora Wilson – a spearpoint of the skirmishes for civil rights with city government during the King era. With Baldelli-Hunt standing beside Wilson her to assist her, Wilson took her place with the speakers, nodding
affirmatively and smiling as she listened to them lionizing her hero.
Now 84 years old, Wilson was a participant in the 1963 March on Washington, which is widely viewed as a turning point in the civil rights movement. At the culmination of the march, some 250,000 people converged on the Lincoln Memorial, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.”
A South Carolina native who moved here in the 1950s, Wilson was a central figure in advocating for equal rights for African-American residents of the city in housing and education, recalled Gray, who remembered participating as a child in some of the events she organized.
“Her significance to the local community was to open up doors for housing, school integration for African-Americans in the city, mentoring and leading young people to know how to fight against racist treatment and be the best we can be,” he said.
Sen. Picard said he sees many parallels between the culture wars of today and
those of King’s time.
“A lot of turmoil. A lot of discord, not unlike today,” said Picard.
In the political din of those years, King’s voice of reason and wisdom cut through the noise and remains as relevant now as it was then.
“Dr. Martin Luther was one of the voices that had the ring of truth,” said Picard. “It rang true then. Rings true today.”
Addressing about 50 spectators who gathered for the event, Cicilline encouraged them not to lose sight of the core message of King’s legacy.
King may be best recalled for his “beautiful words” and masterful powers of oration, said Cicilline, but he was invariably speaking on a single theme – action.
“What he always spoke about was the necessity for action,” said Cicilline. “It wasn’t enough to talk about the beloved community. It wasn’t enough to talk about human dignity and freedom. It was important to act to make those things come about. This is a community with leaders that understand if we’re going to achieve all the things that Dr. King imagined for the beloved com-
munity of this country, this state and city, it’s by working together and taking action to achieve those objectives.”
The congressman also praised Wilson, regaling her as “an icon for this area” who set an example for others by standing up for what’s right and speaking out.
Baldelli-Hunt said she’s was just a little girl when she met Wilson, to whom she was introduced by her late grandmother.
“We really have come a long way,” said Baldelli-Hunt. “As long as we commit to each other and we respect each other, we can get anything done.”
The wreath-laying and prayer ceremony was just part of a series of events that began last Friday, with the J.W. Hinson Scholarship Dinner at The Millrace – a flexible “event center” operated by NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley at 40 South Main St. Organized by the St. James Baptist Church’s MLK “Community Committee,” the celebration was supposed to include an Interfaith Worship Service on Sunday, but that ended up being canceled due to inclement weather.
After yesterday’s ceremony, celebrants noshed on a smorgasbord of homemade brownies, cookies and other treats in a “community pot- luck,” followed by a roundtable discussion about race and other social issues.