Advancing the Dream

NAACP honors Dr. King with annual program

Unity through diversity was the message Monday at the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. program sponsored by the Greater Texarkana Branch of the NAACP. Bishop Terry Taylor gave a rousing speech on the program’s theme, “Advancing the Dream,” and said when King gave his famous speech 54 years ago in Washington, D.C., he was giving an outline of how things should be and that people today should carry that further.

“Dr. King wanted to show us that each and every one of us ought to have a dream, but not only have the dream, we’ve got to learn how to advance and live in the dream we have,” he said.

“Advancing means to move forward in a purposeful way…push on, push forward make progress.”

Taylor said the community must also learn to promote its people, along with their strengths and abilities.

“We’ve to got to be the biggest promoters and promote what ought to be ours anyway,” he said. “We have the bravest. We have the brightest. We have the smartest, so we’ve got

drop-outs, all of them are likely, more then ever before, to either be unemployed, stay unemployed or wind up on death row.

“While things have improved racially, there still remains a disparity,” he said. “Both Blacks and Hispanics are, to this day, still less likely to own a home even when they earn as much money as whites. We need to be mindful that there is still a lot of work to be done. Children who are now in pre-kindergarten through the third grade - are now in the most important three grade levels of their lives.”

Williams added that while the Civil Rights Movement received inspiration from the song lyrics “We Shall Overcome,” additional positive change now needs to come from being fully engaged and inspired to by the need to persevere.

“We have made great progress, but there is still more work to be done in order to maintain it, so put your hope in the Lord, renew your strength and fight, fight, fight.”