LUMBERTON — Robeson County residents used praise, services and a march on Monday to acknowledge the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr’s legacy of fighting for justice for all.
About 100 peole attended the Robeson County Black Caucus’ annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration at Bethany Presbyterian Church in Lumberton, where pianist Delano Townsend and church’s choir filled the sanctuary with song, evoking emotion from audience members and making way for keynote speaker the Rev. Henry McNeill.
McNeill, the senior pastor of New Horizon Baptist Church in High Point, grew up in Lumberton. During his speech he compared slavery and the civil rights movement in the United States to the biblical story of Moses, who led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.
“God has always been on the side of the underdog and has always been for the oppressed,” he said.
He said Moses had an encounter with God, through the burning bush spoken of in the Bible, and believes King accomplished so much because he also had an encounter with God.
“He chose a path that was a godly path,” McNeill said. “He could have easily been violent and lead people to be violent, but he chose nonviolence, using the instrument of love against hatred.”
McNeill challenged those in attendance to become more engaged in their communities and to stand up and speak out against injustice wherever it may be. He said the church, overall, has become a lazy institution and has resisted pointing out wrong.
“What happened to that Hispanic girl (Hania Aguilar) is atrocious and the church is silent,” he said. “We should be concerned about everybody, whoever is suffering, everybody who is going through pain.”
McNeill said King new that sacrificing oneself in service of others and God is the way toward change.
“You have to be willing to make it better,” he said. “You have be willing to die to make it better. God has the power to make it better.”
Donald Leach, 70, of Lumberton, said McNeill spoke the truth.
“I think it was a wonderful event to bring back the remembrance of Martin Luther King,” he said. “Everything that McNeill said was justified. It opened our ears.”
In Maxton, residents remembered King by honoring his words at an event titled “Renewing a Spirit of Empowerment: Following King’s Example as Champions for Justice and Civil Rights.”
About 50 people gathered for brunch and a presentation on King’s life at the Renaissance Event Center. Assistant district attorney and judicial candidate Vanessa Burton was the keynote speaker and her main points were how King fought for the rights of all, and how Robeson County should take advantage of those rights.
“We had an extraordinary turnout, but everybody didn’t vote,” Burton said about the November general election. “So what we have to do — everybody we meet, regardless of race, regardless of status — we have got to say ‘A vote is your only voice.’”
Burton shared accounts of marching alongside her family and being taught her rights early in life.
“Back then when they said all men were created equal, they meant white men; not women, not black men, not brown men, not Native Americans,” Burton said. “What Dr. King was able to do was create unity.”
Another key point in Burton’s speech was the importance of getting the African American youth more knowledgeable about their history.
“The only thing that I would change about this gathering of people is that we had more young people,” Burton said. “They don’t know about the suffering. These young people come into the world and they don’t know our history.”
Nora McEachin, event organizer, said she hopes the event will encourage the community to get out and do more.
“We’re going to put out a challenge to the people,” McEachin said. “Everybody is not to be an advocate but you can do something. Sometimes it’s just writing a letter or making a phone call, but we all got to be vessels of change because we can’t sit back and do nothing.
“We don’t want to move back. We want to move forward.”
Students at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke recognized King’s dedication to service by spending the holiday applying at the University Center for community service opportunities. Starting Tuesday and continuing throughout the week, students will disperse to different service opportunities in the county.
This year’s opportunities include assisting at My Refuge soup kitchen in Lumberton, reading to children at Prospect and Peterson elementary schools, performing outreach services at the Pembroke Housing Authority, and helping pick up litter along county roads.
In Rowland, people took to the streets to march in remembrance of King, his message and his accomplishments, and then moved to a celebration at Southside High School Alumni Headquarters.
Isaac McKinnon, a Rowland native who moved away for 40 years, had serious thoughts about King.
“Martin Luther King was one of a kind,” McKinnon said. “He was special, like a messiah. He was able to do things I hadn’t been able to see others do. And he knew whatever he had to do, he wouldn’t be able to live.”
Eddie Franklin said he believes young people are losing the understanding of what King did.
“King’s legacy is still going,” Franklin said. “Some have lost stamina of support for what he did for where we are today. More people should get involved.”
Churches, schools and history books should be more involved in teaching about King, he said.
“The march every year is to a good purpose,” Franklin said. “I hope people come and not just sit here, but support the celebration. A lot of people died for this. I want more young people to get involved. Eventually, they’ll get it.”
