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Gathering recognizes Emancipation Proclamation
By Sean Barron
BOARDMAN
By early 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had launched his Poor People’s Campaign to bring thousands of impoverished blacks, whites, Mexicans and others to Washington, D.C., the following summer to nonviolently force the political establishment to see the real faces of poverty and its effects on them.
Also during that time, King felt he needed to travel to Memphis, Tenn., to support and advocate for that city’s estimated 1,300 striking sanitation workers who were earning about $1.60 an hour with no health care benefits or sick time. Despite warnings from some members of his Southern Christian Leadership Conference to cancel the trip because of threats to his life, King was determined to lead a nonviolent march along the famous Beale Street on the workers’ behalf.
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Another underlying reason King went was because he felt he could not turn his back on those struggling workers who embodied what his campaign was about, a longtime civil- and human-rights activist explained.
“No wonder Dr. King ended his life with a Poor People’s Campaign. It is a campaign that is incomplete,” the Rev. Dr. Otis Moss Jr. told a congregation of several hundred who attended Monday morning’s annual Community Emancipation Proclamation & Installation of Officers Service at Calvary Baptist Church, 1463 Shields Road.
Hosting the three-hour service, themed Our Challenge: A Call to Conscience, were the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance of Youngstown & Vicinity and the Baptist Pastors Council of Youngstown & Vicinity.
The gathering also recognized the 156th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, which helped free many slaves during the Civil War.
The Rev. Mr. Moss, pastor emeritus of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland, was a friend of King’s and served as co-pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta while working with King’s father, Dr. Martin Luther King Sr.
He also was the keynote speaker for Monday’s service, at which he centered much of his presentation on drawing parallels between what he said it was like to be oppressed and in captivity during slavery and now. Using theological language that often echoed the younger King’s, Mr. Moss told his flock that “the spirit of the Lord is upon me to bring the good news” to those who are suffering in such ways.
More specifically, he said that it’s imperative to seek God’s help in tackling the problems of mass incarceration, hunger, poverty, poor education and societal greed while fighting for economic justice, something that “must be part of every pastor’s, politician’s and parent’s agenda.”
“God provided enough for our needs, not for our greed,” Mr. Moss intoned. “We’re caught up in a network of satisfying greed for a few folks and neglecting the needs of many. We have a culture that cultivates others’ greed while ignoring children’s needs.”
Regarding hunger, he added, “You can recite Scripture all day to a hungry child, but until you give that hungry child some food, he can’t hear you.”
In addition, Mr. Moss, who also was a trustee and board member for the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, recalled having been arrested at the South African embassy in Washington, D.C., while protesting that country’s apartheid system and demanding the release of political prisoners.
The Scripture reading was from Isaiah 58:6-12, which talks in part about how removing chains from those unjustly imprisoned, sharing food with people who are hungry and giving clothes to those in need are true ways to worship God and quickly be healed.
Freedom is derived in stages, and a key step is in changing people’s hearts, said the Rev. Gena Thornton, retired pastor of Grace AME Church in Warren, who added it’s essential to honor slaves and others who made tremendous sacrifices.
Also during the service, The Rev. Kenneth L. Simon, pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church in Youngstown and the Community Mobilization Coalition’s chairman, received the Rev. Elizabeth Powell Heritage Award. Recipients have been honored for their humanitarian efforts and for upholding the principles of the late Rev. Mrs. Powell, who led numerous social-justice causes, organized labor groups and championed human-rights causes until her death in 2007 at age 105.
“This award belongs to those before me and those still here who have greatly impacted my life and ministry,” an emotional Rev. Mr. Simon said while invoking his father, the late Rev. Lonnie K.A. Simon, and several others who he said were highly influential.
Making additional remarks were the Rev. Lewis W. Macklin II, pastor of Holy Trinity Missionary Baptist Church; the Rev. Jeff Stanford, pastor of Beulah Baptist Church; the Rev. Dr. Robin Woodberry, the Mahoning Valley Association of Church’s executive director; the Rev. J. Dwayne Heard, pastor of Elizabeth Missionary Baptist Church; and the Rev. Michael Harrison, president of the Ohio Baptist State Convention.