'Love not Hate': Virtual event honors the legacy of MLK
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Jan. 18—Sixty-five years ago, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. said there's "a power in love that our world has not discovered yet."
"Most men and most women never discover it, for they believe in hitting for hitting," King said. "They believe in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; they believe in hating for hating but Jesus comes to us and says, 'This isn't the way.'"
"Love Not Hate" was the theme of this year's celebration of Martin Luther King Day, said James McKim, president of the Manchester branch of the NAACP, during the 40th annual MLK Day celebration hosted by the New Hampshire Martin Luther King Coalition on Monday.
"Dr. King said hatred paralyzes life, love releases it," McKim said. "Hatred confuses life, love harmonizes it. So many people think of Dr. King as a fighter for equality for Black people. But if you read his writing, listen to his speeches, you know that he was striving for something much bigger — life. Abundant, harmonious, joyous life for everyone regardless of your race, your religion or color."
In her invocation, Rev. Heidi Carrington Heath of the New Hampshire Council of Churches channeled many of King's teachings.
"Grant us courage to stand up, show up and speak out, led faithfully by his example," Heath said. "May we understand that violence against one impacts us all and our liberation is bound up in one another. May we be reminded that none of us are free until all of us are free."
For the second year in a row, the event was held virtually because of the pandemic.
McKim led a virtual choir in the singing of "Lift Every Voice and Sing," written as a poem by NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson.
"Lift ev'ry voice and sing, Till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty," participants sang. "Let our rejoicing rise, High as the list'ning skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea."
Musician T.J. Wheeler was the event's keynote speaker, performing several pieces honoring King and the Civil Rights Movement. He recalled going to the State House to testify in favor of recognizing a state holiday honoring King.
Wheeler said he attempted to sing his testimony rather than speak, but was told "no one is allowed to pick the banjo in the State House."
"I wasn't picking a banjo, but I didn't want to pick a fight," Wheeler said.
More than 20 guests, including Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig, U.S. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan and Reps. Chris Pappas and Annie Kuster, read excerpts on video from the "Loving Your Enemies" sermon King gave at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church on Nov. 17, 1957, in Montgomery, Ala.
Using Matthew 5:43-45 as his text, King emphasized that "hate for hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. . . . The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil. . . . and inject within the very structure of the universe that strong and powerful element of love."
"Now let me hasten to say that Jesus was very serious when he gave this command; he wasn't playing," King said. "He realized that it's hard to love your enemies. He realized that it's difficult to love those persons who seek to defeat you, those persons who say evil things about you. He realized that it was painfully hard, pressingly hard.
"But he wasn't playing...We have the Christian and moral responsibility to seek to discover the meaning of these words, and to discover how we can live out this command, and why we should live by this command."
More than 180 people took part in a Zoom discussion of King's words from the speech. The event featured performances by the Manchester High School West Jazz Band, directed by Rebecca Berger.
Sebastian Fuentes, vice-chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Latino Caucus and a member of the Board of Directors of the NH Progressive Coalition, was announced as this year's recipient of the 2022 MLK Award.
The 2022 Lionel Washington Johnson Youth Awards also were announced during the event. Ariana Metzger, a sixth-grader from Newington, and Drew Verweij, a sixth-grader from Barrington Middle School, finished first and second .
Paul Feely is the City Hall reporter for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. Reach him at pfeely@unionleader.com
