'Privilege unchecked equals oppression': St. Johns County residents honor MLK Day

When news anchor Melanie Lawson-Minor spoke about freedom during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event in St. Augustine, she spoke about her daughter's hair.

Lawson-Minor described a visit when a friend of her daughter, Layah, 7, asked Layah, "What's wrong with your hair?" Lawson-Minor said she felt the need to explain. But her daughter didn't "bat an eye" at the comment.

"I was thinking I needed to come to her rescue, the rescue of my little girl," she said. "But she was OK because she was free, free to wear her hair the way she wanted to wear it, free to live in a neighborhood and go to a school where most of the kids don't look like her, and free to have the confidence to still walk proudly in her brown skin with her free hair.

"Today's theme: 'No one is free until we are all free.' But what does freedom look like to you? What is your free hair? And how does it impact the lives of others? Does it lift them up or does it crush them flat, never giving you the opportunity to understand freedom from different perspectives?"

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Freedom, personal responsibility and forgiveness were in focus on Monday as people celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day in St. Augustine. Annual celebrations drew people downtown for speeches, prayers, songs and messages of encouragement.

The theme of the day's events was a quote from King, that no one is free until everyone is free.

Residents, church leaders, St. Johns County and St. Augustine officials and others attended the events.

The morning began at Flagler College with the 37th annual breakfast honoring King, where Lawson, an anchor with WJXT news, was the keynote speaker.

Remembering events over the past couple of years, including the death of George Floyd and the attack on the U.S. Capitol, Lawson-Minor described a country where racism and discrimination are "alive and well."

"We can't ignore that much of this country is miles away when it comes to defining what is freedom," said Lawson-Minor, who lives in St. Johns County with her family. "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness: In this country, attaining that has historically happened on the backs and at the expense of others. Seeking your freedom should not rob or destroy mine."

Being an anti-racist and not being a bystander "requires that we all check our privilege," she said.

Lawson-Minor talked about a lack of diversity in newsrooms. And she said in her work she recognizes her own privilege of being trusted, and she seeks to lift others up. She tells stories about good things happening in local communities, not just the bad, she said.

"Privilege unchecked equals oppression," she said. "When you claim and leverage your privilege for yourself, it is always on the backs and to the demise of others. But when you leverage privilege for others, you're not actually giving up anything. You're creating something.

"You're creating freedom. You are creating more space in the lives of others for success. You're creating more understanding for people who don't look like you, sound like you or have the same opportunities as you. No one is free until we are all free."

In the footsteps of 'freedom fighters'

Around 11:30 a.m. Monday, close to 200 people marched from St. Paul AME Church, where King spoke during the civil rights movement, to the Plaza de la Constitucion ― where, until 2020, a memorial to Confederate soldiers stood.

Deborah Cannington and Tricia Finkenberg, Jacksonville residents and teachers from Jacksonville Country Day School, attended the march. Third-grade students came to St. Augustine on Friday and took a civil rights history tour, Cannington said.

King, she said, "made it possible for many people to be free."

Finkinberg said many people aren't aware of the importance of St. Augustine in the civil rights movement.

"And I'm honored to be able to walk in the footsteps of all of these people who were freedom fighters," she said.

Finkinberg said that this month fourth-graders from the school will tour Fort Mose, which was the first legally sanctioned free Black settlement in what would become the United States. The site is just north of downtown St. Augustine.

After the march, the crowd gathered around the Plaza gazebo and heard from several speakers, including Flagler College students.

Ashley Chatmon, 19, a sophomore at the college and member of the Black Student Union's executive board, talked about the opposition King faced and his focus on poor people as well as racial issues.

"When I think of Dr. King, I think of our collective duty to mirror what Dr. King stood for, not just in sentiment but in deed," she said. "It is not enough to just abstain from prejudice. We must actively live out pushing toward equity with our time, with our money, with our votes, not just along the lines of race, but wherever there are those who are underrepresented, underserved, or in need. If we forsake this, if we fail to humanize the impoverished, if we turn our back on the laborers that make us, we turn our backs on the mission MLK died for."

The Rev. Anthony Britton, pastor of New Mt. Moriah Christian Ministry, grew up in West Augustine. He told the crowd he is a great-great-grandson of slaves.

"And to be brought up right here, to stand before you this morning a free man, we can make a difference. I'm proud to be a Black man. I'm proud to be able to love all men, knowing what our people went through for us to have this freedom," he said.

The theme of the day's events was a quote from King, that no one is free until everyone is free. Britton said that all great freedom fighters have been motivated by compassion for hurting people and a conviction and commitment to do something about it.

He said King "created a coalition of Black and white, Jews and gentiles, Republicans and Democrats to stand up and say that we can make a difference if we come together."

Quoting the Bible, he urged people to build bridges and forgive ― yet not forget.

"I want to appeal to you that believe in the dream, that believe in freedom, let's build this bridge that some in America is trying to tear down," he said. "If we're really going to be freedom fighters, we have to love our oppressors. … I'm not telling you to get in agreement with white supremacy. I'm not telling you that we should not fight for our voters' rights, because we should. But if the bridge is going to get built, who is going to build it? If the change is going to come, where the change going to come from?"

This article originally appeared on St. Augustine Record: St. Johns County residents honor MLK Day with annual march, breakfast