I had the opportunity, and to be honest, the pleasure, of attending the 30th annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration Association's Founder's Banquet this past Saturday, January 3, 2015. We guesstimated about seven hundred people in attendance. There were many notable Valdosta citizens there, including Mayor John Gayle, City Manager Larry Hanson, city councilman Alvin Payton, city councilwoman Sandra Tooley, county commissioner Joyce Evans, state representative Dexter Sharper. along with many other lesser known, but very important citizens of our community.
Most of the tables seemed to be sponsored by different churches in the area, along with other charitable organizations, and probably the city government, considering the mayor, city manager, and chief of police were in attendance. I was with the Lowndes County Democratic Party table. I noticed the Republicans were nowhere to be seen.
However, on a sadder note, I also noticed there were merely just a handful of white people in attendance. There is no reason that we white people cannot honor the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr, and celebrate his memory with our African-American fellow citizens of our great country. He was highly instrumental in obtaining basic Constitutional rights to an historically oppressed and abused racial minority, and bringing it through peaceful, non-violent tactics and techniques, even in the face of the most vicious and violent opposition; an opposition that stretched all the way into the upper echelons of American government and society.
There is a greater, spiritual, context to these issues that MLK was aware of and talked about. We do well to leave what others tell us of MLK, and go to the source. Read, watch and listen to what he said, Then decide for yourself.
