Honoring memory of Martin Luther King Jr., ministers fellowship and NAACP focus on present

Education along with economic and housing development were present-day issues at the forefront of Martin Luther King Jr. Day events hosted by the Interdenominational Ministers Fellowship and the NAACP Nashville branch.

"We cannot just be the now and the then. We have to realize that we are on a continuum because the problems that we had then, we still have now. " said Sonnye Dixon, pastor at Hobson United Methodist Church, at the NAACP panel "Civil Rights: Then and Now." Dixon previously served as president of the local NAACP.

Co-panelists at the NAACP event, the organization's first-ever for a Martin Luther King Jr. Day, on Monday afternoon and speakers at the Interdenominational Ministers Fellowship 33rd annual MLK Day celebration in the morning sent similar messages.

"We must work with the caveat that the arc of the moral universe does not bend on its own. We must work together, pray together, walk together, stand together and always refuse injustice together," said Ilyasah Shabbazz, award-winning author and daughter of Malcom X, at the Interdenominational Ministers Fellowship convocation.

The keynote address from Shabbazz at the convocation was preceded by comments and readings from Forrest Harris Sr., president of American Baptist College, Vann Newkirk Sr., president of Fisk University, Cheryl Mayes, chair of the 2022 Nashville MLK Day Committee, and Aaron Marble, pastor of Jefferson Street Baptist Church, which hosted the event that was streamed virtually for audiences.

Shabazz called out legislative efforts to restrict the way educators teach students about racism. "America’s truth and its history must be taught to our students and every school and at every level. This is just part of our path forward," said Shabazz. "There’s no American history unless each and every voice is heard on the pages of those textbooks."

Following the convocation, the Nashville MLK Day Youth Committee held a book drive at Jefferson Street Baptist Church.

Jefferson Street was discussed in the NAACP panel later in the day during conversations about economic development in North Nashville, a predominantly Black area. Michael Grant, former president of the local NAACP branch, and Stephen Handy, pastor at McKendree United Methodist Church, talked about past and recent efforts to secure contracts for Black-owned development companies to work on projects in North Nashville.

If Black-owned companies developed the area, it would be protected from gentrification's disproportionate impact on communities of color, Grant said. Grant and Handy previously led an NAACP ad hoc committee for economic development.

Attorney Walter Searcy and Pastor Enoch Fuzz joined Dixon, Grant and Handy in the part of the panel featuring historic civil rights leaders and was hosted by Sen. Brenda Gilmore, D-Nashville.

Both Grant and Handy acknowledged they weren't able to accomplish as much as they hoped, but "we were able to move the needle," Handy said.

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That work still remains just as important, especially because of the development boom across Nashville, Handy said.

"The economic development around cooperatives is something that Michael and I understood with Jefferson Street back in the day," Handy said. "We now really need to move forward with the sense of economic development around cooperatives."

Christina Barclay, a local realtor, called Handy's point "excellent" during the second half of the NAACP event, "Civil Rights: Now." Barclay said the decreasing availability of affordable housing in Nashville pushes Black residents out of the city.

That's why, Barclay said, "you can come together with someone in your same demographic group and start purchasing property together."

Other panelists alongside Barclay were Jessica Williams, Jamel Campbell-Gooch, Angel Stansberry and Timothy Hughes, and John Little as the moderator.

Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean. Reach him at ladams@tennessean.com or on Twitter @liamsadams.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Education and development present-day issues at forefront of MLK Day events