Bernice King called for a peaceful revolution, while the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church said the president needed to repent, as President Donald Trump's recent words cast a shadow over Monday's annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration at the historic church.
"I think you would agree, in light of the current state of affairs in this nation and in this world, we desperately need my father's voice, his teachings and his love of humanity," King, CEO of The King Center, said, saying the words of the president are not a "reflection of the true spirit of America."
Credit: Phil Skinner
Credit: Phil Skinner
Her father, she said, gave the country “a philosophy, a way of thinking, a methodology” for moving forward through hate. She called for a movement that changes systems in the country — a revolution that would begin with a King Center initiative to do 50 acts of service and kindness between now and the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, in April. King called for people to reach out to those of other races in an effort to reduce the polarization in the country.
“Our collective voice in this hour must always be louder than the voice of one who speaks sometimes on behalf of us,” she said.
Credit: Phil Skinner
Credit: Phil Skinner
The 33rd observance of the federal holiday comes days after Trump asked why the U.S. accepts immigrants from Haiti and countries in Africa, which he called “shithole countries.” Rev. Raphael Warnock, Ebenezer’s senior pastor, noted that Trump signed a proclamation honoring King later in the same week.
Warnock said he was left shaking his head at the “volcanic eruption of hate speech spewing out of the mouth” of the man “who occupies the highest office in the land.” Trump’s statement, he said was not new, “just a new low.”
"A proclamation without apology is hypocrisy," Warnock said. "In fact, it makes a mockery of the man we remember. Mr. Trump, you need to repent."
Credit: Phil Skinner
Credit: Phil Skinner
Warnock urged attendees at the service to “stand up to this madness, speak out against this madness.”
Indeed, that’s why many were there.
Ruben Burney, Sr., who is black, said he found the president’s comments to be “very mean-spirited, very uninformed” and an embarrassment to him and to the country. Trevon Fambro, who is also black, said he came to his first King Day service because it seems “much more urgent now to be here.”
“It’s despicable,” he said of Trump’s comments. “It reveals what the president believes about non-white people. It’s also hurtful.”
Credit: Phil Skinner
Credit: Phil Skinner
‘Part of something positive’
The country has become more racially divided in recent years, said Dwayne Cammorto, an African-American man who has come to every King Day service since 1993. He said he wanted to hear a message of unity. Candice Edwards, who is black and who came from Warner Robins for the service, said she wanted to help achieve King’s goals.
"There's still a lot of hate in the world," she said. "I want to be part of something positive."
Cathy Ragen, a white woman who lives in Chicago and said she taught African-American history for 40 years, said the president’s language was “unacceptable.” Through tears, she said “there should be a huge showing-up at places like this” in response to his comments.
“If I ever had a kid who talked like that, I’d say, ‘What’s wrong with you, where in the world did we go wrong?’” Ragen said.
Martin Luther King III, King’s eldest son, also took Trump to task. On Saturday, at the NAACP’s Legacy Gala on Long Island, he said the president’s comments about African nations and immigration were “disruptive and insensitive and racist.”
On Thursday, in bluntly vulgar language, Trump questioned why the U.S. would accept more immigrants from Haiti and Africa rather than places like Norway, as he rejected a bipartisan immigration deal, according to people briefed on the extraordinary Oval Office conversation.
"How do you say something like 'Well, we should get people from Norway,'? I mean, really? You don't recognize and respect the diversity of your own country," said King, who was the gala's keynote speaker.
Credit: Phil Skinner
Credit: Phil Skinner
During Monday's service, Ben Carson, the secretary of the department of Housing and Urban Development, said language can be "so inflammatory" that the message is lost. He said, as a member of the Trump administration, that the president's message is sometimes lost in how he says it.
“I’m a member of the administration and I don’t agree with the president about everything,” he said. “I don’t even agree with everything that I’ve said.”
Credit: AL DRAGO
Credit: AL DRAGO
Through speaker after speaker, Trump was a common refrain. Bree Newsome — an activist who climbed the flagpole at the South Carolina capitol to bring down the confederate flag — lambasted the “assault on civil rights by this administration” Robert Wright Lee, IV, a descendant of Robert E. Lee, thanked Newsome and others for bringing down the flag and Confederate statues.
Lee said he didn’t know if King’s famous dream would ever come true, but said it partially had by virtue of the nephew of a Confederate general sharing the stage with the daughter of a civil rights leader.
Credit: Phil Skinner
Credit: Phil Skinner
“We can change the course of our very history,” Lee said. “Enough is enough.”
Davena Jordan, who is black and who came to the service with her husband, Tony, said she didn’t think King would be happy with Trump’s comments, if he were alive to hear them.
In trying to move forward in the country, Bernice King said, remembering her father’s words isn’t enough. What is important are his teachings, and manifesting his words into actions.
Credit: Phil Skinner
Credit: Phil Skinner
Warnock, the Ebenezer pastor, said remembering King, and his work, is a "sacred obligation."
“When we remember him,” he said, “it becomes difficult for others to repackage him, reshape him, re-position him for their own political convenience.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story
Credit: Phil Skinner
Credit: Phil Skinner
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