'Where do we go from here? We go about doing good. We go about doing justice'

Sam Lisec, The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.
Updated ·2 min read

Jan. 14—URBANA — Members of the public, local clergy and nonprofit leaders gathered Sunday evening to remember the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and honor some of those who practice what he preached.

Champaign County's 39th annual celebration, which attracted a crowd of about 175 at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts on a frigid night, was presented with the theme "Where Do We Go From Here?"

Champaign Mayor Deb Feinen, Champaign County Executive Steve Summers, Parkland College President Pam Lau and University of Illinois Vice Chancellor Sean Garrick took turns reading the proclamation establishing Jan. 8 as the county's day of remembrance for King and its commitment to his dream of unity and justice.

Pastors then read scriptures, offered prayer and led the hall in hymns to the accompaniment of a community choir.

The event's featured speaker, the Rev. William H. Foster Jr. of the Providence Baptist Church in Chicago, gave a sermon on the question that was the title of King's last book.

"Fifty-six years ago, after the death of our modern-day Moses, the late Dr. Martin Luther King, our world has been faced with pain and prejudice and poverty and faces the perplexities of life," Foster said. "But we are still looking for prosperity in the promise land of freedom.

"Just don't love the man, Dr. King, do what the man loved," Foster went on to say. "You know what he loved? He loved God and he loved human-mankind. Where do we go from here? We go about doing good. We go about doing justice."

The event also honored the 10 student recipients of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "Living the Dream" scholarship and the three recipients of the MLK Countywide Committee Community awards.

Pascaline Phongo, a senior at Rantoul Township High School, was one of the 10 students who received a $1,000, four-year renewable scholarship.

She said she plans to put the grant toward her goal of entering the medical field.

"It'll help me with my career to be a pediatric neurosurgeon, and just helping the voices of little Black girls and White girls and White boys and Black boys, just feel heard and feel united that there's no difference in your skin color and how much help you'll get when you get to the doctors," Phongo said after the ceremony.

Also honored with individual awards were Marco Price, director of the Universal Cultural Collaborative Organization; Minnie Pearson, president of Champaign County's NAACP branch, and the Rev. Herbert "Hub" Burnett, founder of the Not on My Watch nonprofit.

"God said what you do in darkness, he will reward openly," Burnett said after the ceremony. "This award means a lot to me because it motivates me to continue to do what I'm doing. I'm making a difference."