Video: Morristown student Katherine Robertson ‘rises above’ for MLK Day

Three-day weekends are great for sleeping in. Sometimes it’s tempting to do just that on Martin Luther King Day.

Yet every year we resist the impulse, and are mighty glad. Because invariably, Morristown’s celebrations leave us inspired and upbeat.

Without fail, young people take to the podium and make us smile. At the Morris Interfaith Breakfast, 13-year-old Alicia Jamison  spoke from the heart.

And at Calvary Baptist Church, the 42nd annual Service of Celebration featured two Morristown High School seniors who did themselves proud.

JiVaughn Jones, a varsity football player, is more comfortable tackling opposing running backs than speeches. But he turned his apprehension into a theme, explaining that Martin Luther King Jr. assumed tough burdens for the greater good. So why shouldn’t he?

Katherine Robertson is more accustomed to the limelight. The cheerleader will star in this spring’s MHS musical production, Sweet Charity.

She spoke with fire and eloquence about rising above society’s lingering bigotry and pettiness. Determination and achievement cannot be denied, she said.

Both students are members of Union Baptist Church. The congregation has plenty to smile about this week.

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Video: Alicia Jamison, 13, tells Morristown about the enduring legacy of MLK

When your grandmother has been organizing Martin Luther King Day ceremonies for 42 years, odds are pretty good that you will be enlisted as a guest speaker sooner or later.

Alicia Jordan Jamison’s turn came on Monday.  The eighth-grader from Scottsdale, Az., traveled to Morristown to address the Morris Interfaith Breakfast.  It’s one of two yearly events that her grandmother, Felicia Jamison, has promoted as chairwoman of the Martin Luther King Observance Committee.

Alicia, 13, said she wanted to top her two brothers, who have spoken at the breakfast in recent years.  She presented herself as living proof that Dr. King’s ideals are alive and well in a new generation.

“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 told a packed ballroom in the Hyatt Morristown.

Felicia was beaming as she followed her granddaughter at the microphone, to request donations for the new MLK memorial in Washington D.C., the Children’s Defense Fund, and the Martin Luther King Scholarship Fund.

“I feel like I have accomplished something,” Felicia said proudly of Alicia, who tinkered on her speech for about a year but contemplated it for much longer.

“I knew five years ago I would do this,” Alicia said afterward, adding she felt she indeed had outdone her brothers. “They’re not good public speakers,” she said.

And who is she taking aim at next?  Try Chris Rock, Bernie Mack and Kevin Hart.

“I want to be a standup comedian,” Alicia said.

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Video: Parents can’t be kids’ pals, Rev. Freddy Clark tells MLK service in Morristown

The Rev. Dr. Freddy Clark of St. Louis took awhile to warm up his audience at Monday’s 42nd annual Service of Celebration in Morristown.

But then he shifted into high gear, and everyone inside Calvary Baptist Church joined him on an exhilarating ride.

Serving with a Servant’s Love was the theme of this year’s Martin Luther King Day ceremonies. The minister reflected on Dr. King’s leadership–and how there is no glory in being a real leader. Rather, it entails selfless service. That may require dishing out harsh medicine that will make you unpopular.

Yet that is precisely what is needed from parents, who should guide children instead of striving to be pals and “hang out” with them, the Rev. Clark said. Martin Luther King Jr. urged everyone to work together for the common good. That doesn’t mean accepting bad behavior and low-slung pants that hang out your backside to the world, the speaker said.

Dr. Clark was invited by the Rev. Leon Sims, pastor of Morristown’s Union Baptist Church, host of Monday’s service. The event was held at Calvary because it can seat more people.

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Video: A Star-Spangled tribute to Dr. King in Morristown

Pastor Sidney Williams Jr. of the Bethel AME Church called his talk From Nightmares to Dreams, about the life journey of Martin Luther King Jr.

But the title of the pastor’s address to the 27th annual Morris Interfaith Breakfast on Monday also was a metaphor for events in his own Second Ward.

Extending Dr. King’s message of equality to economic issues, Pastor Sidney, who holds a degree from the Wharton School of Business, pressed for affordable housing. He reiterated his hopes that an engineering study will find ways to tame the Whippany River–which flooded his church after Tropical Storm Irene–so that affordable apartments can be built in the neighborhood.

A gifted speaker, the minister also manages to weave the Eagles and Giants into the oratorical mix.

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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.”

 

 

 

 

Martin Luther King’s ‘Letter from Birmingham,’ discussed in Morristown

By Marie Pfeifer

Was Martin Luther King Jr. an extremist?

The adult education group of Morristown’s Presbyterian Church tackled that one on Sunday, along with the role of the moderate white clergy in the civil rights movement.

In King’s famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail,  written to eight members of the white clergy in Birmingham, Ala., he addressed the accusation of extremism and his disappointment with the white moderates. The letter was never sent.

King chose Birmingham for his non-violent demonstrations because it was “the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States.”

His letter states that he felt that he was standing between two opposing forces in the Negro community.

“One is a force of complacency, made up in part of Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, are so drained of self-respect and a sense of ‘somebodiness’ that they have adjusted to segregation, and in part of a few middle-class Negroes who, because of a degree of academic and economic security and because in some ways they profit by segregation, have become insensitive to the problems of the masses. The other force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence.”

The violence, of course, escalated by the expression of the various black nationalist groups that sprang up across the nation. Their cause was fueled by people who lost faith in America and concluded that “the white man was an incorrigible ‘devil.’”

The Southern white Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was an integral part of that violence when it bombed the Byzantine-style 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, killing four young girls – Cynthia Wesler, Carole Robertson, Addie Mae Collins, all 14 years old, and 11-year-old Denise McNair. After that, many more people died for the civil rights movement.

Because King was a peace-loving man who believed in God and loved his Church, he believed in negotiation. He and other black leaders did approach Birmingham’s city fathers to negotiate. They continually refused.

“We had no alternative except to prepare for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and national community,” King wrote.

When the city fathers of Birmingham approved police use of dogs and fire hoses to break up King’s peaceful demonstrations that were televised on national TV, some people proved they were the incorrigible white devils that blacks perceived them to be.

King’s disappointment in the church overwhelmed him. “There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. Yes, I love the church. How could I do otherwise? I am in the rather unique position of being the son, the grandson, and the great-grandson of preachers.”

He felt the church as a whole did not come to the aid of justice. His love of justice prompted him to break unjust, morally wrong laws that were governing black people. He vowed that his people would reach their goal of freedom in Birmingham even though their motives, at the time, were misunderstood, “because the goal of America is freedom.”

 

Martin Luther King’s ‘Letter From a Birmingham Jail,’ discussion on Jan. 15 in Morristown

We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be coworkers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., August 1963

The Presbyterian Church in Morristown will be honoring the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in its Sunday Seminar on Jan. 15, 2012, at 9:15 am. The Seminar, which will be held in the Parish House Parlor located at 65 South Street, will center its discussion on Dr. King’s Letter From a Birmingham Jail. All are welcome to attend and participate in the discussion.

In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King, Jr. specifically addresses the role of the church in the struggle for civil rights and justice. In this session, we’ll examine the prophetic language and Biblical references in this powerful historical document to gain a better understanding of our past, and, hopefully, position ourselves to have more impact today. Though not necessary, it would be helpful to read the letter carefully before class. It can be found at http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/letter_Birmingham_Jail.pdf

Learn more about our Sunday Seminars on our website at http://www.pcmorristown.org/452528.ihtml

The Presbyterian Church in Morristown is now on Facebook and Twitter (@pcmorristown).  Follow us there to learn more about ongoing events and about all the Church has to offer to your life.

Sweaters, Tea Parties and dreams: Podcasts from Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Morristown

You can count on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to produce some soul-searching speeches in Morristown.

Monday was no exception. Here are three talks that provide plenty of food for thought. (Also available on iTunes; search “Podcasts” and Morristown Green.)

In her keynote address at the 26th annual Morris Interfaith Breakfast, the Rev. Janet Broderick traced the inner journey of Dr. King and challenged mainstream America to shelve the holiday sweater sales and search for something deeper.

The rector of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church (a good friend of this website) mixed history and humor in her engaging speech.  She was introduced by Rabbi Donald Rossoff of Temple B’Nai Or.  The musical intro was performed by Rexx Hill of Calvary Baptist Church.

A couple of hours later, the Rev. Carolyn Ann Knight reminded the packed Calvary Baptist Church that Martin Luther King Jr. was, first and foremost, a preacher.

Rev. Knight’s impassioned sermon examined the vital role of dreams for individuals and societies, and mourned the unrealized dreams of Christina Taylor-Green, the nine-year-old who was gunned down this month in Tucson while waiting to meet her Congresswoman.The guest preacher, visiting from Georgia, was introduced by the Rev. Sidney Williams Jr., new pastor of the Bethel AME Church.

Justin Bush is only a teenager, but he’s been around long enough to know that America is far from achieving Dr. King’s dream of a “Beloved Community.”

The Morris Knolls High School senior cited the Tea Party movement as a sign of widening divisions that threaten to undermine hopes for a tolerant, inclusive society.

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The 26th annual MLK breakfast in Morristown serves a call to action

By Barbara Snyder

The last time I went to the Morris Interfaith Breakfast, everybody was still bubbling with excitement after the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency of the United States.  The feeling in the room that day was a sort of quiet pride and happiness — mixed with stunned amazement that Dr. Martin Luther King‘s dream had born such wondrous fruit 40 years after the  terrible day of his assassination.

This year’s breakfast, though, was different; it was a clarion call for a return to action.

Reverend Sidney Williams Jr. of Morristown’s Bethel A.M.E. Church reminded breakfast-goers that Dr. King had not planned his path and where it would take him; instead,  history had run right into him.

King’s acceptance of Rosa Parks’ challenge –  “We have a job for you to do” — ultimately would shake the foundations of Jim Crow America and take the county down a long, sometimes rough, road towards justice — a road we travel on even now.

Click icon below for photo captions

Reverend Williams spoke, too, of other men and women who’d suffered for justice:  Cesar Chavez, the founder of the United Farmworkers in California; Fannie Lou Hamer, a civil rights activist at Dr. King’s side; Nelson Mandela, the man who helped destroy apartheid in South Africa.

Dr. King would challenge us to “Remember the dream,” Reverend Williams said.  He added, “And he’d tell us to resist the temptation to give up the dream.”

Rabbi Donald Rosoff of Temple B’nai Or in Morristown charmed the gathering with the lovely story of an early 20th Century rabbi and his congregation, who wondered together what they could learn from the modern world.

“What can we learn from the telegraph, Rabbi?” somebody asked.

“That every word is counted,” he replied.

Another wondered, “Then, Rabbi, what can we learn from the telephone?”

He answered:  “That what is said here is heard there.”

“But, Rabbi: what can we learn from the railroad?”

“Ah,” the rabbi said.  “We learn that one hot one can pull a lot of cold ones.”

And thus he introduced the “hot one” herself, Dr. Felicia Jamison, the chair of the Martin Luther King Observance Committee – and presented her with a bouquet of roses in gratitude for her tireless work in organizing this event each January.

Dr. Jamison took a minute at the podium to tell how one of the event’s organizers had fallen ill — and to say that many other people had immediately stepped forward to help.  “God is a mighty good God,”  she noted.

The Reverend Janet Broderick of St. Peter’s Church (full disclosure:  I am a parishioner there!) had spoken with Dr. Jamison in the elevator on the way to the breakfast; Dr. J. had looked at her and said, by way of introduction, “Something’s happening, you know….”

Reverend Broderick agreed — and then gave a keynote address that was a clear and ringing call to action.

She ranged widely over Dr. King’s life, describing the events and people that had influenced and changed him — and moved him, each time, closer to the work he’d ultimately do, and ultimately give his life to accomplish.

From college, and the ideas of Henry David Thoreau;  to his study, in seminary, of  the work of Mohandas K. Gandhi; to his work in Birmingham, and the forces of power implacably arrayed against him – forces that meant to crush him utterly, along with the movement;  to the prison cells in which he landed repeatedly.

Reverend Broderick hoped that upon leaving breakfast that morning, we’d all be “itching” to get going – that we’d all be thinking, “Get me a community where I can do this work!”   But, she added,  we’d need some tools — and that Dr. King’s life and work could supply us with some:

1. Do your research; get to know your community and what’s going on.  Find out what work needs to be done.
2. Try negotiation.  It sometimes works!
3. Work at self-discipline and self-purification.  In other words, ask yourself some questions:  “How am I a part of the problem?  How can I take action?  Where is the kingdom of God?”
4. Then:  Take action!

When she was finished, the room stood as one to applaud.  It was indeed a stirring talk:  a tribute to the life of an American hero and martyr to justice.  It told the intimate, affecting story of the man who’d decided, early on, to “give myself to something eternal and absolute.”   Hope and energy rose in us all as we remembered that we had more to do in this world.

And there was the fellowship, too:  The sharing of food and talk with people who’d lived through it all themselves.  Remarkable — stirring — to share a morning with people who often closed their eyes as they remembered the days of struggle and of glory. (And sometimes closed them to listen to, and sing along with, the wonderful Rexx Hill!)

That’s the fortunate destiny — the happy privilege — I found myself experiencing this morning.  And who could have imagined it all, four decades ago  when horrifying events followed one upon another, and the world was shattered, and people were dying, and hope was nearly gone?   But then, the light comes after the dark, too.

Dr. King said it this way:  “There is nothing more majestic than the determined courage of individuals willing to suffer and sacrifice for their freedom and dignity.”  And there was, in truth, majesty in the Hyatt hotel ballroom Monday morning.

VIDEO FROM MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY IN MORRISTOWN

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Video from Martin Luther King Day in Morristown

The dream will not die!

That was the theme of Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations in Morristown. The dream must not die because it has not yet been realized, according to speakers at the Morris Interfaith Breakfast and the service that followed at Calvary Baptist Church.

In separate talks, the Rev. Janet Broderick of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church and the Rev. Carolyn Ann Knight from Georgia challenged everyone to continue the work for which Martin Luther King Jr. gave his life.

Janet traced Dr. King’s inner journey and urged listeners to look deep within themselves to promote positive change.

Carolyn’s focus was outward, on the myriad problems besetting society. She vowed to tackle them one by one, from the lack of civility in Congress to the disturbing availability of guns that contributed to this month’s shootings in Arizona.

The video gives a flavor of the day; stay tuned for audio podcasts of the speeches.

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The 26th annual MLK breakfast in Morristown serves a call to action

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