Around 200 people marched in Greenwood Sunday celebrating the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and acknowledging the work remaining to be done in the name of racial equality.
Sen. David Jordan, D-Greenwood, and a contingent of elected officials led the march down Avenue I from the St. Francis Center to Martin Luther King Drive, and on to Friendship Missionary Baptist Church on the eve of today’s 32nd observance of the national holiday honoring the civil rights leader, who was assassinated in 1968.
The march is held annually by the Greenwood Voters League, of which Jordan is president.
The program at the church began with congregational singing of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and included prayers, a panel of teenagers discussing bullying, music and an address by keynote speaker Derrick Johnson, president of the Mississippi branch of the NAACP.
Johnson parsed the theme of the day’s event — “Stop the Hate. Come Together. We have the Power to Make Change.” — and focused on the phrase “We have the power,” reminding those gathered not to give it away.
“Have you done honor to all that happened right here in Greenwood?” he said, referring to key events of the civil rights movement. “For 32 years now you’ve honored Dr. King. You should also honor the work you’ve done here.”
Johnson recalled the historic 1963 March on Washington, during which King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, and the civil rights workers from Greenwood who took a bus to the nation’s capital.
“When the march concluded, they realized they were gonna come back to the same hell they left,” Johnson said. “A speech wasn’t going to change the conditions. They had to come back to Belzoni, McComb, Magnolia, to Greenwood to continue the work.”
The unique thing that happened in Mississippi, Johnson said, was that the people, not a charismatic leader, did the work.
“We must begin to love our history,” he said. “What if this community taught its rich history?”
Johnson told the crowd that the health of a society is measured by three criteria: How well it prepares its young people, how well it cares for its elderly, and how well it protects the disadvantaged.
He repeatedly urged those gathered to prepare for the work to come, protecting those values.
The gathering ended with the Drum Major for Justice Award presented to Mayor Thelma Collins of Itta Bena for her continued work on behalf of that community, and the MLK Scholarship awarded to Tierney Holmes, a Greenwood High School senior who will be studying next year at Belhaven University in Jackson.
•Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@gwcommonwealth.com.
