'Stay woke': Nashville honors Martin Luther King Jr.

Attitudes were bright and passions fiery despite the blustery cold weather Monday morning, as droves of Nashville residents met to honor Martin Luther King Jr. on the federal holiday that bears his name.

Hundreds of attendees gathered for the traditional King Day march in front of the historic Jefferson Street Missionary Baptist Church for the first time in two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizers expressed excitement for the large turnout.

“Every year just gets bigger and bigger and bigger, so it’s just so exciting to see this many people,” said Krista Hayes, director of promotions and marketing for Cumulus Media Nashville, as she managed the entertainment booth at the beginning of the march. “It’s exciting to get together and fellowship with one another. You see all types of backgrounds. ... And it’s just a tough time out there lately, so it’s so nice to see everyone get together.”

Marchers, young and old, surged down Jefferson Street towards Tennessee State University's Gentry Center with signs aloft and banners flying to show support for King’s dream of the elimination of racism.

Inside Gentry Center, the passion for change was further on display as a number of speakers addressed the event's theme — “Protecting the Dream, Confronting the Assault” — and expressed the need for community action.

“Marginalized and working class folks of Tennessee are under attack,” said Charlane Oliver, newly elected state senator for District 19.  “The assault on our voting rights, civil rights, women’s reproductive rights, immigrant rights, health care rights, human rights, public education, private life, our right to housing, to protest, and our right to go to the grocery store and not get shot by an AR-15 are all under assault.”

Oliver urged attendees to remember King’s dream.

“We won’t get to the promised land being more devoted to doing things in decency and in order, for the sake of respectability politics, than doing what’s necessary to secure our rights and freedoms,” she said.  “We can’t protect the dream by telling young people to wait their turn while sitting idly by while they get massacred by AR-15s in school.

“I urge you to reflect on Dr. King’s word and recommit yourself to non-violent direct actions. Get in the fight. The movement needs you."

Keynote speaker Michael Eric Dyson, ordained minister, academic, author, radio host and commentator, joked that Oliver had “assaulted his planned speech” with her fervor.

“They told me I was the keynote speaker,” he said with a laugh.

Dyson agreed with Oliver, emphasizing the need to "continue the dream."

“(Dr. King) said it was a dream. It ain’t no reality,” Dyson said. “When folk remind us, ‘My God, you’re speaking about race again! That’s not what Dr. King wanted!’ You apparently ain’t heard the speech. He said, ‘I have a dream that one day ...’ But that day hasn’t arrived yet.”

Dyson went on to encourage attendees to “stay woke” in the fight for equality.

“While you’re talking about King’s dream, I need you to stay woke,” he said. “And you know we have a bunch of politicians mad at wokeness. I’ve never seen people celebrate going to sleep so often. … Why, all of the sudden, when Black folk get woke, you all want to go to sleep?

“Stay woke. Don’t go to sleep. Stay alert to what God is doing in your town, … because God is still moving. The throne of justice is still real. The possibility of transformation is here if you stay woke.”

Just minutes down the road at the Tennessee State Museum, the 22nd annual Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast commenced, welcoming guests and speakers from across Nashville.

U.S. Sen. Corey Booker, D-New Jersey, a speaker at the event, expressed his appreciation for being welcomed to the event.

"I was very moved by what started as nine people talking about how to incorporate King's legacy into their lives,” Booker said, referring to the nine founders of the annual breakfast. “Not just to talk about the larger social challenges in our country or challenges of justice, but how to live daily the way King did. Not being drawn to the low ground of hate, showing love in uncommon ways. This was an incredible invitation to me to be a part of an amazing Nashville community, and I'll treasure it the rest of my life."

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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Protecting the dream: Nashville honors Martin Luther King Jr.