Morristown interfaith speaker encourages listeners to embrace King’s dream

By Sharon Sheridan 

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech was historic, but the dream is not just history, nor is it his dream alone, a Morristown pastor told those attending the 27^th annual Morris Interfaith Breakfast at the Hyatt on Monday. 

“Every year, we come to celebrate that dream of Martin Luther King as if it’s something different and special and apart from the American Dream. Martin Luther King was simply an American who dreamed, like everyone else dreamed,” said the Rev. Sidney Williams Jr., pastor of Bethel AME Church. “We should acknowledge it as an American dream.” 

Williams sees that dream resonate today in the streets of Morristown in the hope for affordable housing and better education for minorities. 

“What can we see by the dawn’s early light?” asked Williams, who began his speech on the theme “From Nightmares to Dreams” by asking the audience to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” accompanied by Bethel’s new music minister, Brian Cunningham, on the saxophone. Quoting the Bible’s Proverbs, he said: “‘Joy comes in the morning.’ Every day I wake up is a chance for a new beginning.”

Williams greets each dawn believing the county can come together and do something to prevent flooding in the “Hollow” and create more affordable housing, he said. “I’m not convinced that grandchildren and children can no longer live in Morris County and be here to care for their parents because there’s insufficient affordable housing. I believe we can do better.” 

Photos by Bill Lescohier, Scott Schlosser and Kevin Coughlin. Please click icon below for captions.

“We should be having all of our children doing well on tests and academics,” said Williams, whose church has started a community development center  whose goals include helping students achieve proficiency on state tests. “I’m not convinced that black and Latino children should consistently score beneath the radar. I’m not convinced that community college is the only option.” 

Just acknowledging the dream isn’t enough, the pastor said, challenging his listeners to “accept Dr. King’s dream as our dream” – and as God’s dream. 

“Prophets are those who receive dreams from God and have the audacity to share that dream,” Williams said. “It’s a dangerous thing to accept a prophetic mantle, because we kill prophets. … I just imagine the struggle that Dr. King had when he talked about ‘longevity has its place.’ I’m sure there were some bedroom conversations between [him] and his wife asking, ‘Is this our fight?’” 

“Today we sit here and celebrate … as if we actually accepted Dr. King’s message when he was among us,” Williams said. He recalled the letter the civil rights leader, who was assassinated in 1968, wrote to other clergy while he was jailed in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963. 

“Clergy must be called into accountability,” Williams said, as the hotel lights suddenly dimmed.  

“Oh, the devil’s mad now, but I’m going to keep going,” he joked before urging listeners to study the letter. “It was clergy who told Dr. King he ought to retreat, and Dr. King simply wrote back: ‘How long? How long must I wait?’” 

“This morning, I want to challenge us to accept the dream as God’s dream,” he said. That doesn’t mean just coming to a breakfast, he said. “The only way you can make peace with God is to believe in God’s dream.” 

“The challenge is: Do we approve of the dream, or are we still rejecting it?” he said. “I’m convinced that when the best people get in the room and God shows up that the best is yet to come.” 

Earlier in the program, 13-year-old Alicia Jordan Jamison of Scottsdale, Ariz., spoke about what King’s dream meant to her. 

“We are so close to satisfaction. We are so close to ending racism. We are so close to gaining freedom economically … so close that we can taste it, and it’s just as sweet as chocolate,” said Alicia, granddaughter of local Martin Luther King Observance Committee Chair Felicia Jamison. 

What sets King apart, she said, is “that he did something about his dream. He gave up everything for that dream, and he succeeded.  

“I am living proof. The dream lives in me … and it’s in you, too. This day is now and ever shall be a day of freedom, a day of honor, a day of family, a day of brotherhood and a day of happiness.” 

Alicia, who received a standing ovation, ended by singing, “I can see clearly now the rain is gone.”  

“I feel like I have accomplished something,” her grandmother said as she took the microphone to encourage people to contribute to the day’s offering. The donations will benefit the fund for the new King memorial in Washington, D.C.; the Children’s Defense Fund; and the Martin Luther King Scholarship Fund. 

This was the first year that Donia and Michael Ewing of Mendham brought their children, 3-year-old Kayla and 6-year-old Michael, to the breakfast.  

“We figured they were just getting old enough to appreciate it,” said Donia, who said they discuss King and civil rights history at home. First-grader Michael is learning about them in school as well. 

“It’s nice to begin to have those discussions,” she said. “He’s asking questions.” He recently wondered when the King monument in Washington was finished and was surprised it happened so recently.  

The breakfast included comments and prayers from Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11th Dist.) and representatives of area Christian, Jewish and Baha’i communities. A service of celebration followed at noon at Calvary Baptist Church. 

Rabbi Menashe East of the Mount Freedom Jewish Center delivered the morning’s benediction, quoting one of the psalms: “The heavens belong to God, but earth is man’s.” 

“We are given the earth,” he said. “We are given the choice: Do we want a world of love and beauty, or do we want a world of hate and evil? That is our choice, and that is our power. … It is up to all of us to make [the world] a place of love and beauty. Please, God, let’s make it so together.” 

The breakfast concluded with the audience standing, hand in hand, singing “We Shall Overcome.”