Today is a national day of service. Sunday, there was a call for action.
At the Lenoir County Courthouse, observers and speakers gathered for the annual Martin Luther King Celebration by the Kinston-Lenoir County NAACP. Before the speeches, Lenoir County Commissioner Jackie Brown said that more could be done to honor King’s legacy.
“We’ve progressed some. But, the way I see it, there’s still a ways to go,” Brown said. “As far as equality is concerned, education is concerned, and things of that nature, we still have a long ways to go. Dr. King called for equal rights for everybody, not just for the African-American community.
“He fought for equal rights for everybody. As a product of the ‘60s, I was a student at A&T State University when the sit-ins and the demonstrations started, and then they spread like wildfire throughout the South. Just having a march signifies some of what he stood for, but it shouldn’t be just one day.”
Rodney Aytch, a Kinston High School sophomore and winner of the Nu Iota Lambda chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha’s Mr. Beautillion 2012, gave the keynote speech. Under a bright sun and wearing the crown and sash that comes with being named “Young Man of the Year,” he exhorted the attendees to make the change they need.
“Now comes the time for us as a people to wake up and take action,” Aytch said. “What good can we do if we acknowledge the dream and do nothing to make the dream reality? The time for thinking is over. We must take action. We can no longer sit around and wait for things to just miraculously happen. This is our community, and our city, as well. We must remember what’s at stake.”
Linda Lanier, vice president of the Kinston-Lenoir County NAACP, also asked the crowd to act on shared struggles.
“(King) took on the challenges that faced him at his time, and we cannot neglect to take on the challenges that face us at this time,” Lanier said. “This march is really emblematic in the fact that we just want to remember Dr. King, but he wants us to remember that we have to take on the challenges that face us.”
Following the ceremony, the crowd moved down East King Street, aided by the beats from the KHS marching band drum line, to a service on the life and legacy of King at the United American Free Will Baptist Tabernacle.
Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 or wes.wolfe@kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at WolfeReports.