Columbia reverend calls for community to act on continuing legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

A sense of urgency was clear Monday evening at St. Luke United Methodist Church during a service honoring the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

The Rev. Dr. Clanton Dawson spoke on King's legacy and delivered an urgent call for voting rights legislation to pass through Congress, despite the hurdles the legislation is facing.

Bills have passed in the U.S. House, and the U.S. Senate took up the legislation Tuesday.

Dawson is pastor, president and CEO of Dawson Journeys Ministry and an adjunct associate professor of philosophy at Columbia College and Moberly Area Community College.

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King's hope was that people can be changed, but it's difficult to see that goal becoming reality in many parts of society today, Dawson said.

"I watched them arrest the head of the Oath Keepers and he did not say he was sorry," Dawson said, referencing the far-right militia group. "I watched those folk who stormed the Capitol a year ago and they did not say they were sorry.

"I hear folk talk about moving toward unity and we cannot even get a voting rights act."

Dawson was asked recently if prejudiced people among the population can have their hearts and minds changed about the experiences of the Black community, he recalled. This person also referenced people who pat themselves on the back for simply attending a King-related event, Dawson said.

"I am tired of feeling good. ... I want to feel right about what it means to be a community," Dawson said.

Addressing recent community violence in Columbia

The recent uptick in community violence needs an inward examination, Dawson said.

"Young people model adults. ... When they hear grown Black folk talk badly about other grown Black folk — we may not kill one another with a knife or a gun, but we kill one another with our mouth," he said.

If the negative language is addressed at home, there is a chance to move toward unity in the community, Dawson said.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy and motivations

King had three motivations when it came to laying out his philosophy, Dawson said.

The first, Dawson noted, was that while the U.S. Constitution was written through the lens of privileged white men, it is a document that is bigger than its authors, remains living today, and is open to change and interpretation.

The idea that all people are created equal should bring about multiculturalism, he said.

"We have to think bigger than what we used to think," Dawson said, noting King's second point. "(King) had hope in humanity that people can be changed."

The third was the hope that God was part of human history, he added.

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King also knew that to bring up the economic tide, Black residents have to financially support Black-owned businesses, Dawson said.

"If we invest in one another, we can make significant change in this community," he said. "We need to come together about economics."

Realities in the Columbia, MO community

King's dream becomes a nightmare if only simple words and platitudes continue, Dawson said.

Speech without action to improve the community keeps people from being able to access basic needs because of their financial situation, he said.

"There are folk in this room who work in hotels they cannot afford to stay in," Dawson said. "There are folk in this community who need medication, but cannot afford to buy them because they have to decide between eating or do I take my medication.

"What would Dr. King say?"

Seeds of hope

Despite the everyday challenges facing the Black community, there are seeds of hope, Dawson said.

"Hope demands the possibility of the materialization of a belief," he said. "I have hope because I have seen the first fruit of that hope becoming real."

The coming together of multiple cultures and communities to say without equivocation "Black Lives Matter" was part of that, Dawson said.

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"I have watched some folk who were scared to take a vaccination because they remember Tuskegee (syphilis study) and how we have been experimented on," he said. "There are signs of hope."

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Clanton Dawson calls for action at Martin Luther King Jr. celebration