Faith leaders, congregants and the community gathered Sunday evening to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The event, which was organized by the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, began at Prince of Peace Christian Fellowship with a candlelight walk and ended at First Union Missionary Baptist Church.
Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at First Union in 1964 following the disappearance of three Civil Rights workers, who were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan.
Rev. Ecclesiastes Goodwin, president of the East Mississippi Baptist State Convention, and keynote speaker, delivering Sunday’s sermon, said it was an honor to preach from the same pulpit as the revered Civil Rights leader.
“I am honored to be able to stand on such a historic occasion, commemorating the life of a preaching pioneer,” he said.
Goodwin reflected on the freedoms Black Americans now have because of men and women like MLK. Sitting anywhere on the bus, eating at any restaurants and sending children to good schools are all freedoms that have come from MLK’s legacy, he said.
During the March on Washington, Goodwin said, MLK used his platform to share a dream of justice and equality for all.
“He stood and cast a vision for a society that was bound by tradition, bound by racism and ignorance,” he said. “Society, justice, inequality by natural classism and he declared boldly the words, ‘I have a dream.’”
As Americans across the nation come together to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Goodwin said unfortunately the younger generations don’t understand the magnitude of the Civil Rights era and don’t respect the toll their elders paid to bring them these opportunities.
Dr. King would be disturbed, Goodwin said, seeing the younger generations steal, fight and kill each other. The violence and the divisions in today’s society, he said, threaten MLK’s dream for equality.
“Dr. King never intended for brothers to kill other brothers. Dr. King never intend for us to harm each other, to steal from each other, to rob each other,” he said. “I know it would disturb Dr. King to see young boys killing each other in the street.”
Goodwin said the message he had for Meridian as it reflects on the Civil Rights leader is:
“Don’t kill the dream. Keep the dream alive.”