Choirs give rousing performances at MLK celebration at Columbia State Community College

Citizens of Maury County and the surrounding area celebrated the life and impact of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during an annual program at Columbia State Community College at the Cherry Theater on Wednesday.

A couple hundred attendees watched rousing performances by a half dozen community choirs at the theater, singing spiritual hymns and songs of joy, worship and celebration from the era of King.

Eddie Wilkes, Exalted Ruler of Harlan Flippin Lodge, delivered the keynote address titled “Dr. King, Jr., His Teachings and Impact in our Communities Today.”  

Christa S. Martin, Assistant to the President, Access & Diversity, Columbia State Community College, also shared words about King's legacy with the audience while Kaliente Conway Glenn, vice president of GFWC Maury County Women’s Club, served as emcee of the night.

Music was performed by Marcel Fleming, St. Paul AME Church Praise Team, Hannaway Original Church of God, Wayman Chapel AME Church Choir, Sharon Frierson, Mt. Calvary M.B. Church and Jadonna Secrest.

'Dream' fading but 'we have to keep it alive'

Wilkes praised the performers at the program on Thursday and its focus on spiritual songs before addressing the crowd.

"We need to lean on each other and trust in the hands of the Lord," Wilkes said, highlighting King's focus on nonviolence despite relentless opposition, being arrested 29 times and the constant threat of violence around him.

"Dr. King had a vision in which we can all exist in a society where race is not an issue in how people are treated and how they should live their lives ... Dr. King was criticized. He was beat down. Yet he still preached nonviolence and never once in any rally that he led did he lead with a violent hand. Yet at our nation's capital on Jan. 6, people died, yet no one has been held accountable for the deaths."

King played a part in a multitude of well-known Civil Rights movements such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Memphis Sanitation Workers' Strike. He delivered the famous "I Have a Dream" speech delivered during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. In the speech, King called for men to be judged not by their color but by the content of their character.

"No battle is perfect in the war for Civil Rights, but Dr. King and people like him made it so this world is just a little bit better than it was the day before," Wilkes said. "We still have to keep the fight going. Dr. King's dream is fading, but we have to keep it alive. If we don't, then we are failing him.

"King said, 'You can kill the dreamer but you cannot kill the dream.' If that doesn't move you, something's wrong ... To keep the dream alive, we have to call out these inequalities, these wrongdoings, these senseless murders."

Wilkes also said "we have to take responsibility for our own actions first."

"If we do not do that, we ourselves, are killing the dream."

He added that achieving King's vision of equality is "still off in the distance."

"Dr. King provided a model for social activism and showed us how to call our problems and move toward a positive change ... moving forward is not an option but an obligation."

This article originally appeared on The Daily Herald: Choirs give rousing performances at MLK celebration at Columbia State