March honors Martin Luther King, Jr., turnout disappointing

The nation remembered Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday.

The national holiday held on the third Monday in January near King’s birthday, Jan. 15, honors King, who was the leader of the civil rights movement from 1954 until his assassination in 1968.

In Pittsburg, a group of residents honored King on Sunday with a march from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue to St. Stephens AME Church on West Street where they heard a message commemorating King’s life and message.

Rev. Patrick Lloyd, the pastor of Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church and the president of the Pittsburg chapter of the NAACP, organized the event. He said he was disappointed in the turnout.

“The service was good as always, but it was so sad and disappointing to see the lack of support,” Lloyd said.

Asked how Pittsburg residents are doing in keeping King’s message alive, Lloyd said they must first know what his message is.

“I don’t believe many of us know who Dr. King really was. We have settled for a watered-down version or a misrepresentation of him.”

Golden Murphy, who also pastors at Metropolitan, said even though he had six days in the hospital for heart issues, he wouldn’t miss it.

“I felt like it was imperative that we make it. This march is not about blacks. It is not about a black guy,” Murphy said. “This march is about a man who did incredible things. This march is about a human that did incredible things for individuals. He wanted equality for all.”

Referring to King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, Murphy said his message of equality for all is the reason the annual commemoration is essential.

“It’s important that we keep the dream alive or it is just a dream,” Murphy said. “He fought for civil rights, but it was still human rights.”

Rev. Anthony Walker, who gave the message Sunday at St. Stephens AME Church following the march, called Dr. King a “servant of humanity” and said he lived his life “to be remembered as a servant to others.”

Walker said this year’s theme was “Humanity tied to a single garment of destiny.” He said he believes that means “our lives are unavoidably connected with each other, like a network of threads that can’t really be untied/unknotted, and that we share a common destiny.”

He said the program supported King’s statement, “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” King was saying that in spite of differing opinions, regardless of race, “we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”

Murphy said King’s legacy speaks volumes because he wasn’t reaching out to just one group of people.

“In one of his messages, he said if it’s unequal over here, then know that it is unequal over there. In layman’s terms that basically means you can’t hit a pond over here with a rock and think it won’t ripple on the left and it makes us understand that we are all created equal in God’s eyes,” Murphy said.

Murphy said King, who was a Baptist pastor, approached his activism from a biblical standpoint for it to resonate with Christians and non-Christian alike.

“He wanted us to know that we shall overcome as a people, but we will overcome together,” he said.

He said racism starts at home and parents – black and white – must tell their kids that it’s OK to play with each other.

“If we don’t, they won’t learn it,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing I saw Sunday. There were all types of people.”

Murphy said the march was symbolic of King’s dream of people coming together in love for one another.

“The most important thing that Jesus teaches us as Christians – and I am a Christian – is you gotta have love,” Murphy said.

Quoting King, Walker said, “We can never be who we ought to be until all around us are what they ought to be.”