Montgomery celebrates MLK's legacy honoring four local leaders

Editor's Note: This article has been updated to correct the date that Martin Luther King, Jr. marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, two days after Bloody Sunday.

Every third Monday in January for the past 37 years, the federal government has stopped regular operations to celebrate the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. — the man who prominently led the civil rights movement while championing nonviolence.

In his fight for racial and economic equity, King traveled across the United States, spreading his message at churches, rallies and protests. Much of his work, though, leads back to Montgomery.

From 1954 to 1960, King served as the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. There, King insisted that every church member become a registered voter and a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

He also became president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, the role through which he coordinated the Montgomery Bus Boycott — a 13-month mass protest that started with Rosa Parks and ended when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional.

About nine years later, on March 9, 1965, King returned to Alabama to lead hundreds across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma to peacefully protest for the right to vote. Protesters planned to march to Montgomery two days earlier, but instead, state troopers stopped them on the other side of the bridge with violence. The day became known as Bloody Sunday, and it shocked the nation into the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

King wanted to lift up the Black community. He wanted peace and equality in the United States, and he worked toward those goals until his assassination on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.

Now, the country and beyond remember him for his valiant efforts.

Event honors those who carry out MLK Jr.'s values

Montgomery’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration, hosted by the nonprofit Friends of the Theatre, is in its 9th year celebrating the civil rights legend. The event not only remembers King, but it honors his legacy and the people that continue to carry out his values in the Montgomery community.

“It's just important to me that what happened in the '60s is something we reinforce to remember and give purpose to our daily lives,” MLK Celebration creative director Tommie Tonea Stewart said.

Stewart started the program in 2014 after having created a similar celebration in her home state of Mississippi. When she moved to Montgomery, she wanted to continue it.

“There are persons in our community that we just need to acknowledge because they are keeping the beloved community alive, because they are fulfilling the dream that King had,” Stewart said. “He dreamed that we would help each other, love each other, work together as a community. And that's how we will survive and thrive.”

This year, the celebration's four honorees are Pastor Ken Austin, Sieu Tang Wood of Tang’s Alterations, Carver High School choir director Henry Terry, and Tuskegee University President Charlotte Morris.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the celebration has been aired on local news channel WSFA instead of in-person at the Davis Theatre. The program was to be broadcast on Jan. 14 and Jan. 15 at 6 p.m., and Jan. 16 at 6:30 p.m. Next year, Stewart hopes to return to an in-person celebration.

A 'shepherd' for the community, Pastor Ken Austin

The MLK Celebration committee selected Austin as an honoree because of his undying dedication to the people in Montgomery who are in need. Through his roles as senior pastor at New Walk of Life Church and executive director of the nonprofit Mercy House, Austin feeds, clothes and shelters hundreds of individuals every month.

“I refer to him as a shepherd because his work has not gone unnoticed,” Stewart said. “Any walk of life, when a family has a tragedy, children shooting and fighting and killing each other, Pastor Ken Austin is the first person there to offer prayer and hope. He has a prayer walk. They walk throughout the community and pray for the residents there every month.”

Austin said the honor means the world to him. He lives his life with the goal of bringing opportunities to “broken communities.”

“I think any positive good inside of this community is the difference that you see being made,” he said. “And that's what Dr. King did. He had a dream, and he orchestrated it. He put those things together and caused us to be where we are today in the world.”

Adding up 'the little things,' Sieu Tang Wood

Sieu Tang Wood, owner of Tang’s Alterations, was overwhelmed by the honor. She said she never dreamed that she would be included in the same celebration as King.

“Dr. King, all he has done for this country, is very important. He says ‘beloved,’ and that's so important for this community, that everybody respects each other,” Tang Wood said. “We cannot go by any day without somebody's help. Where I am today, I've been helped by so many other people.”

Tang Wood came to the U.S. as a single mom with $275 to her name, and she said her success — her six storefront locations — only happened because she was able to rely on others for support.

Beyond her business, she dedicates her time to volunteer work through Meals on Wheels, the Montgomery Area Council on Aging, and a transportation service for kids who need to get to the hospital.

“If I cannot help a lot, at least I do a little bit,” she said. “If the work I do only helps one person, or two people, that’s still something good. It’s little things.”

Tang Wood has helped far more than one or two people with her service.

“This woman has single handedly helped so many people and never announced what she's doing,” Stewart said. “Mrs. Sieu Tang Woods has been a part of the community as a beloved community representative, and I don't even know if she realized that what she was doing was so impactful.”

Spreading joy through music, Henry Terry

For the past 33 years, Henry Terry has dedicated his life to music and the children of Montgomery. As the choir director and music teacher at Carver High School, he’s seen so much change, and he said much of that reflects what King worked toward.

“I have so many students who have gone on to college and are doing well as college graduates. Those were some of the things that Dr. King and others marched for. To see students take advantage of those opportunities, that means a lot,” he said. “This is a huge honor.”

Many of the students that come to Terry’s class have not had a lot of music exposure because of the “lack of music programs” in the elementary and middle schools that feed into Carver. He often sees so much untapped talent in kids, and he wants to be there for each and every student that needs him.

“He has planted hope and vision and structure in the lives of young people. I've had many of his students to study under me, and the discipline that they have, the positive energy that they have, is a result of being a part of a recognized choir that toured all over the United States,” Stewart said. “Everywhere that they go, audiences stand to their feet, applauding the work of Dr. Henry Terry, an honorable person, a determined person, a talented person.”

Building up students, Charlotte Morris

The fourth honoree of the 2023 MLK Celebration is Charlotte Morris, president of Tuskegee University. She began her current tenure as president in 2021, but she has been working to serve the university community for over 30 years.

“She could just go to work every day, and get her paycheck at the end of the month, and not concern herself with grants or relationships to help propel the careers of young people as they graduate from Tuskegee,” Stewart said. “When you take that kind of a commitment under your wings, and you try to prepare a pathway for people so that they can survive, we need to say, ‘thank you,’ to people like that.”

Morris said she was grateful to be included among Austin, Tang and Terry as an honoree.

“I am a product of the era when Dr. King was a living example in the fight for equal rights, and I often think about how wonderful it is to see that his words, his dedication and his mission continue to inspire this country and those around the world," Morris said in a statement to the Advertiser. "Using his birthday as ‘a day on, not a day off’ helps to ensure we honor him with a day of service while working to uplift our community.”

Hadley Hitson covers the rural South for the Montgomery Advertiser and Report for America. She can be reached at hhitson@gannett.com. To support her work, subscribe to the Advertiser or donate to Report for America.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Event celebrates MLK Jr.'s legacy by honoring four Montgomery leaders