Passing on King's message

Source: Odessa American, TexasJan.存倉 21--Through 100-year-old spirituals, interpretive dance, Bible scripture and a symbolic Freedom March in south side Odessa, several hundred people gathered to honor slain Martin Luther King Jr. 46 years after his assassination.The message Monday on the federal holiday, commemorated by the Black Cultural Council of Odessa, was to keep the message of King alive, pass it on to the next generation and the effort by the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s is not yet fulfilled."Today makes me remember how important it is to keep it going," Bobbie Caulfield said.Caulfield, who has attended King Solomon Baptist Church for 50 years, landed on one word when asked what about King's legacy resonated with her."Persistence," Caulfield said."No matter what it is. Regardless of what gets in your way, no matter the obstacles you have to keep pushing on," Caulfield said.The afternoon was first spent outside the Southside Senior Citizen Center on South Dixie Boulevard where Black Cultural Council of Odessa president Jo Ann Davenport Littleton guided the rally. Five local churches organized children and teenagers to put on a song, dance or skit for the crowd of a few hundred people of all ages.Permian junior Christian Love was given the microphone to share what the day meant to him as a young black man. Despite his own support of racial equality, Love believes King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech and message of the Civil Rights movement would today fall on deaf ears.People are still being judged by the color of their skin, Love said: "We today, are still not free," he said. "He only started what we are here to finish."Love learned an important lesson from his mother as a child: "a man that does not work, does not eat." That statement started a chain reaction of laughter in the crowd, though Love had a more meaningful take-away: Love dreams of world where racism no longer exists and people are not judged by the "color of their skin, but the content of their character," as King spoke several decades ago."Stop talking about things need to change and do something about it," Love said.The program also showed off the singing talents of about 30 children from Bethlehem Baptist Church, where Dominique Williams is the youth directress. They sang "Wade in the Water.""儲存oday means everything," Williams said after the rally.Every child should understand what King's efforts meant, much of which was rooted in the teachings of the Bible, she said, adding that it's critical for the church and adults to play a role in molding and shaping responsible youths.Between 1957 and 1968, King traveled more than 6 million miles and spoke more than 2,500 times. He stood against injustice most notably during the March on Washington and at the protest in Birmingham, Alabama that caught the attention of the world, according to King's entry with the Nobel Prize.At 35, King received the Nobel Peace Prize and was at the time the youngest man to receive the honor. He donated the prize money to the civil rights movement.On April 4, 1968, King was assassinated in Memphis while standing on the balcony of his motel room. Since 1986, Martin Luther King Jr. Day has been a federal holiday, though King has been celebrated as a leader of African-Americans and a world figure.Like it is for Williams and for many in the black community, the day is about freedom."Being able to express myself without being judged by the color of my skin means everything," Williams said.Children held signs during the Freedom March -- a representation of the March on Washington in 1963 attended by 250,000 people -- that started at Southside Senior Citizen Center and headed north down Dixie Boulevard to the Woodson Community Center on East Murphy Avenue.Holly Edwards was one such young person. She's too young to have experienced the Civil Rights movement, but King is like a father to the 16-year-old. What he believed in affects Holly today, she said."To me you can do anything no matter your race," Holly said.She's a New Tech Odessa student and is planning to become an architect and plans to pursue a master's degree too."We have a dream still that no one can take us down. No matter what color you are," Holly said.Littleton summed it up succinctly."It's refreshing that people still believe in keeping the dream alive," Littleton said.--Contact Lindsay Weaver on twitter at @OAschools, on Facebook at OA Lindsay Weaver or call 432-333-7781.Copyright: ___ (c)2014 the Odessa American (Odessa, Texas) Visit the Odessa American (Odessa, Texas) at .oaoa.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉