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Workshop celebrates life, legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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Bishop Durant K. Harvin III preached to a full congregation at a community service at Tabernacle Baptist Church on Arlington Avenue on the North Side on Sunday. It was a commemoration of the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Harvin, of Baltimore, was once pastor of a Youngstown church.
By Sean Barron
YOUNGSTOWN
There was a time when Janae Ward and her friends innocently made jokes and certain assumptions about people of other races.
A 10-day, life-changing bus trip through the South in 2009, however, changed that.
“Sojourn to the Past made me realize African- Americans died [during civil-rights struggles in the 1950s and ’60s], and that death is not a joke,” the Chaney High School junior said, referring to the yearly trip in which high-school students meet people and visit places in five states that were prominent during the civil-rights movement. “It made me realize language is powerful and has to be used the right way.”
Ward also was a panelist during Monday’s 28th annual community workshop celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at First Presbyterian Church of Youngstown, 201 Wick Ave.
More than 100 people attended the 2 1/2-hour program themed “Empowered for Social Justice Through Nonviolence” and sponsored by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Planning Committee.
It’s vital that more people use the King holiday to reflect on the countless risks he took on behalf of others as well as develop a deeper understanding of what he stood for, Ward noted. In addition, she said, the civil-rights movement should be a greater part of school curriculums.
Keynote speakers were Bishop Durant K. Harvin III, pastor of Emmanuel Christian Community Church in Baltimore, and Gordon Wean, board chairman of the Raymond J. Wean Foundation.
Many people are too quick to affix blame when simple answers can’t be found for complicated problems years in the making, such as the difficult economy, and others are apathetic, Bishop Harvin said. That was a situation King often spoke about, he told the audience, adding that King also stressed the importance of confronting many social ills with urgency.
“He said you can’t look out the window to gradualism because gradualism becomes do-nothingism,” the bishop added.
Wean said that his foundation follows many of the late civil-rights leader’s teachings, especially those pertaining to philanthropy, and recalled that in 1963, King visited an Episcopal church in Cleveland Heights after an uncle of Wean’s had invited him.
Other panelists were Francine Jefferies, a member of the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative and president of the Newport Neighbors Association; Jimmy Pugh of the Warren School District’s Gridiron Club; and Dr. Thomas Welsh, head of the crime and safety initiative, Alliance for Congregational Transformation Influencing Our Neighborhoods.
Nonviolent, grass-roots organizing was part of King’s vision, and neighbors finding common ground with one another is a first step in such efforts, Jefferies noted.
In keeping with King’s teachings, Jefferies helped organize a safety prayer vigil in her neighborhood after a traffic fatality. The effort caused neighbors to mobilize and led to a good relationship with city officials, she recalled.
The gridiron program started in 1987 and tries to help youngsters, most of whom come from single-parent homes, tap into their areas of expertise and pull them from poverty, Pugh noted. All participants of the program have graduated from high school, he said, adding that many young people’s anger stems from having no father figures.
ACTION also upholds many of King’s principles, in part by organizing peaceful demonstrations against crime and blight, conducting youth seminars and giving citizens tools for effective collaboration and mobilization, Welsh pointed out.
Additional remarks were from the Rev. Lewis W. Macklin II, pastor of Holy Trinity Missionary Baptist Church in Youngstown, and Atty. Yulanda McCarty- Harris, director of YSU’s Equal Opportunity & Diversity program.
Moderating the session was Dr. Sherry Linkon, co-director of Youngstown State University’s Working Class Studies program.
The event wrapped up with several “Sojourn to the Past” students’ call to action asking the audience to step-up volunteer efforts.