Pastor: People need 'regular injection' of King's 'I Have A Dream' speech

In the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 "I Have A Dream" speech in Washington, D.C., the civil rights leader wanted to awaken the consciousness of the nation about segregation, discrimination, injustice and raise the awareness of voter's rights, said the Rev. T. Ray McJunkins Monday.

But it was gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, McJunkins, the pastor of Union Baptist Church, noted, that prompted King to tell the crowd about "the dream."

"Right there, Clarence Walker, who would normally write (King's) speeches, was amazed because (King) shifted midstream and began to go into his dream," McJunkins said. "It pricked the very ethos of Dr. Martin Luther King. He put his notes away and began to talk about his dream. He no longer talked from the paper but from his inner being."

'He was always encouraging': Freedom Rider Charles Person reflects on King, making history

The speech, made at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, was very much on the minds of the speakers at the 47th annual Martin Luther King Memorial Breakfast at the Springfield Wyndham City Centre organized by the Frontiers International Club.

The Rev. William DeShone Rosser, pastor of Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, said there should be "a regular of injection of Dr. King's 'Dream' speech."

"My discouragement is that it only happens once a year on the holiday," Rosser said, in an interview before his talk.

McJunkins and Rosser pinch-hit Monday for scheduled keynote speaker Charles Person, who canceled his trip to Springfield on Saturday.

One of the original Freedom Riders who rode a bus from Washington to the deep South in 1961 to test the then-recent U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring segregation in interstate travel unconstitutional, Person said he couldn't fully give the reason for his cancelation when reached at his home in Atlanta Monday.

Person and Henry "Hank" Thomas are two of the original 13 Freedom Riders still living.

Rosser told the crowd of more than 150 who attended the annual breakfast King's "dream" isn't dead yet, but it is "on life support."

"We still have an opportunity to revive it and make it real and to touch the lives of people who may not have been as advantaged as others," Rosser said.

The problem, he said, is King for many people becomes a one-day out-of-the-year fashion.

"We pick (this holiday) to exalt this great leader that we had in the Black community and now it seems after that day is over, things go back to normal," Rosser said. "We go back to work. Everybody goes back to the office and there's no real progress. People make great speeches all through the day. We need to do this, we need to do that, but when it comes down to it, how many of them have the courage to put some of those things in motion and move forward?"

The church, Rosser added, should be "on the forefront of everything that happens with the civil rights struggle as far as voting, as it has been before. It began in the church. It should remain in the church.

"My role as a pastor is to be the spiritual leader for the people, to connect them with what God says and to move them in a social justice direction because we serve a social justice Jesus. Jesus didn't come to just feed people. Jesus came also to upset apple carts and to reform institutions."

The key, McJunkins said, is "to bring energy to (King's) dream."

"In 1968, the dreamer was assassinated but the dream lives on, so the importance is that we keep each year revitalizing the dream," McJunkins said in an interview before the breakfast. "It was not only Dr. King's dream. We each should each have the same dream, regardless of your race or your creed or your religion."

For Donnie Carter and his wife, Samantha, and their four children, the King breakfast has become an annual tradition.

See also: Springfield Police Chief Kenny Winslow announces retirement effective Jan. 28

From his vantage point, Carter, who belongs to Brown Street Church of God in Christ, sees a bright future for his children in Springfield.

"The object is always to give your children better than what you have and the way we're going, I'm very optimistic," Carter said before the start of the breakfast. "I feel 20, 30 years ago an interracial couple (like us) would probably have been frowned upon. Now, my wife and me have been together 14 years. We have four beautiful children.

"We've never had people stick their noses up at us, or give us funny looks, so there's progress in that regard and it helps our children to see that."

Amir Upshaw of Springfield went through Frontiers International's youth programs, Positive Youth Development in fifth through eighth grades and Junior Frontiers in his high school years.

Upshaw, now a 19-year-old student at Lincoln Land Community College studying communications, said he was happy to see young people attending Monday's breakfast.

"It's a day off from school, so I'm glad they made the decision to be here," Upshaw said. "They're keeping a tradition.

"My message (for them) is stay strong and develop a plan. You develop a plan for a result to happen down the line. You don't develop a plan for things to happen in two or three days or two or three hours. It takes time. Once you develop a plan, stick with it. Go through with it and trust the process."

Community Service Award

The Rev. Blythe Denham Kieffer, pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church, accepted the community service award from Springfield Frontiers breakfast chair Larry Hemingway Sr.

The church, which dates back to 1835, was racially integrated by 1848 when Jamieson Jenkins, a neighbor of Abraham Lincoln and conductor on the Underground Railroad, joined the congregation along with his wife Elizabeth.

Westminster's Steadfast Neighbor Endeavor engages church members with neighbors in doing minor repairs like painting, power washing, yard cleanup, and repairs on decks, ramps, and fences. The project’s namesake comes from Psalm 36 in the Old Testament.

The project "articulates what we believe about God and affirms our commitment to the neighborhood,” Kieffer said.

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Springfield, IL holds annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Breakfast