Despite the cold weather Monday, January 20, many LaSalle residents braved the elements to participate in three Martin Luther King Jr. Day events in Jena.
The first was held early Monday morning as the Men of Focus in Action brotherhood held its annual MLK Prayer Breakfast at L&A Baptist Church in Trout which began at 7 a.m.
Along with various local elected officials, including LaSalle Parish District Attorney J. Reed Walters, LaSalle Clerk of Court Steve Andrews, LaSalle Parish Sheriff Lane Windham and Jena Mayor LaDawn Edwards, the event was also attended by LaSalle Parish School Superintendent Jon Garrett and his wife, Brandy, along with many other residents of Jena.
Along with a delicious breakfast provided by the Men of Focus in Action, the program featured songs and prayers and was called to order by L&A Pastor Chauncey Hardy. The special guest speaker for the event was Alexandria attorney Ingrid Johnson.
The second event was the annual MLK Parade that left the former Jena Elementary complex on US 84 East at 10 a.m. and traveled west through downtown Jena ending at the Jena Community Center. Several residents and groups participated in the parade, some riding floats in the frigid temperatures. The final event was held immediately following the parade at New Evergreen Baptist Church in Jena and was organized and sponsored by the MLK committee. Members of the committee spoke, including former Jena resident President Aaron Dozier, who spoke and encouraged residents to become more active in providing activities and functions for youth. Other committee members included Vice-President Shanita Bowens, Secretary Shanice Thomas and Treasurer Brianna Dozier.
Following a prayer by local deacon Bro. Ricky Parker, attendees enjoyed refreshments and fellowship.
About Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister, activist and political philosopher from Atlanta, Georgia who was one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 in Memphis, TN.
He advanced civil rights for black Americans through the use of nonviolent resistance and nonviolent disobedience against Jim Crow laws and other forms of then legalized discrimination.
He led numerous nonviolent marches for the right to vote, desegregation, labor rights and other civil rights. He oversaw the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, organized the nonviolent 1963 protests in Birmingham, AL and was one of the leaders of the 1963 March of Washington where he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. His life work was instrumental in Congress passing pivotal legislation, including the Civil Rights act of 1964.
Here is the last portion of his famous speech, delivered on August 28, 1963: “Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream to- day!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of ‘interposition’ and ‘nullification’ — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; ‘and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.’
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride, From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that: Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
