THE ANNUAL MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. MARCH began, as it always does, with Roots and Heritage Committee co-founder Tim Middleton gathering the marchers in a wide circle and saying a prayer to get folks’ spirits in the right place. March organizer Ryan Brown then leads the way to the Woodford County Courthouse down Rose Hill Road with the Versailles Police Department providing an escort for safety. As Brown said later, “In the 1960s, the police were usually against the marchers. In our town, I am grateful the police support and protect us.” (Photo by Scott White)
THE FOUNDERS of the Woodford County Roots and Heritage Committee, Inc., Tim Middleton, George Higgins Jr. and Kenneth Winkfield, were presented with Certificates of Achievement, and board members Eveleen Morton, Mary Raglin and Sherry Brown received Recognition of Service awards from Woodford County Judge-Executive James Kay on behalf of the Woodford County Fiscal Court. Pictured from left, Middleton, Higgins, Kay, Morton, Raglin, Brown and Winkfield. (Photo by Scott White)
REV. DR. JOSEPH L. OWENS mesmerizes the crowd at the breakfast celebration. (Photo by Scott White)
By Scott White
Managing Editor
The 16th Annual Woodford County Roots and Heritage Committee’s Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Breakfast was held Monday, Jan. 19, at First Christian Church in Versailles, where a crowd of about 125, larger than the last few years, packed the room and were inspired and confronted by the truth of the poetry of Desiree Jackson.
The keynote address was given by Rev. Dr. Joseph L. Owens, who recently retired as the pastor of the historic Shiloh Baptist Church in Lexington, where he served for 25 years. However, Owen’s Woodford County connection is strong, having led Zion Hill Baptist Church in Midway as its pastor for 11 years before hearing the call to Shiloh.
Owens gave a compelling and erudite keynote speech framed around “the assignment given me,” answering the question posed by this year’s theme: “Where do we go from here?”
Eschewing the portrayal of King often deployed in contemporary times— “the nice, sweet, loving Dr. King”—Owens quickly staked his talk to the “Dr. King I knew of who had the courage to say what needed to be said wherever he was with the opportunity to say it . . . (I am speaking of) the Dr. King who knew he was not God, but who knew he was sent by God to make a great difference in this nation. He was not perfect, but there is no doubt Dr. King was prophetic.”
Using the books King wrote as guidepost, beginning with his first book “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story” (1958) and aptly concluding with his final book “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community” (1967), Owens weaved the story of King’s vision of racial and economic justice, rooted not just biblically, but in the American Declaration of Independence, not sugar coating the struggles and violence, which marked the struggle for civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s, but building to a response to the question he said we all must answer in our own time, posed both by Monday’s theme and King’s final book title: what’s next, chaos or community?
As Owen said, “I am impressed with the theme you picked. This is the kind of question which can be nosy, meddlesome and call you out with this question . . . but (with a smile) you picked it and gave me the assignment of wrestling with it.”
Owens then launched into a serious analysis, telling how King posed that very question to 100 leaders at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in August 1967. He summarized King, who said, “Everybody has the right to sit at the lunch counter but can’t afford the hamburger . . . legal access and rights mean nothing if you don’t have the economic ability to enjoy it, this says something about the real freedom a person has. We are in the next phase (of the movement) where everybody has the opportunity to decent housing, everybody has the opportunity to have a job to make a decent income, where everybody has the opportunity at a good education, to have access to good healthcare.”
And then, speaking to an audience of community leaders, elected officials, candidates in an election year and the press, Owens said, “Even though this book was written 57 years ago, doesn’t it sound like the time we are in now? If King were here, I think he’d say enjoy celebrating MLK Day, but don’t forget the work is not finished.”
Arriving at the climax, Owens said, “You better have some determination, which means you have a strong mental resolve to finish what you started.”
He went on to pull from King’s last book that the chaos caused by racism, economic injustice and militarism can only be defeated by the “beloved community,” which centers itself on the love of God.
Owens explained, “This is when people started not to like King, ‘Why can’t you just talk about civil rights?’ they asked. But King replied he couldn’t do just that when people of all races can’t enjoy those rights.”
He concluded with a wry smile, “Where do we, where do you go from here? (pause) It means not to sit down, but to stand up.”
The March
Thanks to the organization of Tim Middleton and Ryan Brown, the annual Martin Luther King Jr. March set off at 5:30 p.m. from MLK Boulevard and ended at the Woodford County Courthouse. A small but vocal group of around 50 were escorted along Rose Hill Road by the Versailles Police Department, trying to stay warm in mid-20-degree temperatures.
The group arrived to hot chocolate and coffee provided by Dunkin Donuts and to the sweet sounds of Sam Cooke singing his masterpiece “A Change Is Gonna Come.” Brown gave brief and thoughtful remarks while folks warmed back up.
“The time is always right to do what is right, that was Dr. King’s vision. A nation free from discrimination was his dream, which will never become a reality unless we do something about it . . . it takes a tight knit community like Versailles to do something,” Brown said. “I remember in the 70s, right here in this very courthouse, an African-American man was considered colored. And so, to see that we’ve come a long way here in this small community shows you we can make change, but it all starts with community, it takes every one of us. Though I’m appreciative of everyone who comes every year, we need more. Next (time) we will do it again, and let’s all of us bring another person to increase our numbers.”