Breakfast speaker reminds us to continue Dr. King's goal of fairness for all

[January 16, 2018] 

LINCOLN

In spite of snow and bitterly cold weather, approximately 200 people ventured out Monday morning, January 15 for the 10th annual Joyce Kinzie/Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast at Lincoln College Davidson-Sheffer gymnasium.

Attendees were served a large buffet style breakfast followed by a program of inspirational words and song. The scholarship breakfast committee consists of the Reverend Glenn Shelton, Les Plotner, Debbie Ackerman, Ron Keller, and Jen McMillin.

Reverend Glenn Shelton, a member of the planning committee for the breakfast, gave the invocation asking God to have his "way in this place today."

Lincoln College history professor and Master of Ceremonies Ron Keller welcomed everyone and thanked all who helped make the event possible.

Lincoln College President Dr. David Gerlach said the event started in 2009 as a way to provide funds for a minority scholarship. Last year, the school was able to endow the scholarship which means it will go on forever. Over $50,000 has been raised for this scholarship and Gerlach said "scholarships like this make it possible for so many students to find success at Lincoln College."

Gerlach showed a video with 1987 Lincoln College graduate and present member of the board of trustees Phil Stiles, who talked about the importance of scholarships for helping pave the way for many to go to college. Stiles said professors and coaches at Lincoln College taught him a lot about life.

The 2017-2018 Martin Luther King Minority Scholarship recipient is Kayla Hunt, a Lincoln College sophomore who moved to Lincoln in 2013 and graduated from Lincoln Community High School. Hunt is enrolled in a pre-nursing program and has been on the President's List in previous semesters.

Hunt said she was involved in many activities in high school such as sports and band, the Future Business Leader's of America Club, the yearbook staff, and assisting in the office. Discipline, hard work, encouraging teachers, and inspirational coaches prepared Hunt for her senior year. Hunt became a manager at Bergner's at age 18.

Hunt recalled that in Martin Luther King's campus newspaper, the Maroon Tiger, he talked about the purpose of education. King said "the function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically." She said Coretta Scott King once stated, "... the greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members."

Hunt said Lincoln College's ongoing support of LCHS students is special and appreciated, and she thanked the scholarship committee, Lincoln College, and all the community supporters. The scholarship has enabled Hunt to focus more on her studies.

Hunt closed with a quote from Langston Hughes, "I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting anywhere you want to go if you really want to go."

Keller introduced keynote speaker Katherine Harris, who was a librarian at the Illinois State Historical Library and then the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. Harris has portrayed Harriet Tubman, Elizabeth Keckley, Sadie DeLaney, and Jarena Lee many times and headed several organizations including the Illinois Library Association and Abraham Lincoln Association. She has been dubbed as Illinois' First Lady of History.

Harris said it was an honor to speak at the 10th annual breakfast. She thanked Reverend Shelton for helping establish the breakfast to honor Dr. King and scholarship recipients. Harris said, what you do you say on a day set aside to honor Martin Luther King whose life changed our history and whose legacy lives on throughout the world. King's name is synonymous with the quest for racial equality, justice, fairness; and Harris focused on that theme.

Harris said Dr. King was a true believer in the Declaration of Independence, especially the ideals of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity of all men. When King spoke on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, he said a promissory note given to black Americans and presented at the bank of opportunity was returned and marked insufficient funds. This quickened King's resolve to fight for equality and justice and became a call to action.

Harris said in 1955 Dr. King set out to change life in Montgomery, Alabama and all our hometowns. King embarked on a long journey towards racial justice, equal opportunity, and fairness for all, ripe to be picked in the segregated south and segregated north as well.

Harris said Martin Luther King holiday, established in 1986, is the first federal holiday to honor an African American. Attempts to mark the day started at the Southern Leadership Conference in 1971, but failed to get enough support. Supporters persisted and Illinois was the first state to honor King's Birthday. Former President Barack Obama was in the General Assembly at the time.

To honor King's memory, his widow Coretta Scott King worked to have Dr. King's birthplace in Atlanta, Ebenezer Baptist Church where he served as pastor, and the Martin Luther King Center for Social Change, recognized by the National Park Service. Ronald Reagan made Martin Luther King Day a federal holiday in 1986 and Bill Clinton signed the Martin Luther King Holiday and Service Act in 1994, proclaiming it a day of community service, interracial cooperation, and youth anti-violence initiatives. A national memorial dedicated to King in 2011 is the first to honor an African American and only the fourth to honor a non-president in the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Harris said Martin Luther King is worthy to be honored and is ranked as one of the most admired and influential people of the twentieth century. On a Smithsonian Institution list, King is ranked first in the category of rebels and resistors. He is fourteenth on the list of the most influential people of all time, one spot ahead of Abraham Lincoln.

Harris said though Martin Luther King is an "iconic and historical figure," he "lost the respect and esteem of many of the American public" during the last years of his life as he spoke out on issues other than civil rights. King spoke out against economic, social, political, and moral injustices facing the poor, immigrants, and marginalized people in society, but was rebuked by many.

January 8th, President Donald Trump expanded the boundaries of King's National Historic Site to include the Prince Hall and Masonic Temple King spoke at. Harris said the action was ironic in light of Trump's much discussed comments later in the week.

Harris said King authored five books and gave over 450 speeches, and reflected on several of King's quotes. In April 1967, King said in his sermon "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence" that seeing black and white boys killed together on the nightly news in a faraway nation that cannot seat them together at the same school is unconscionable.

After Bloody Sunday in March 1965, King stood on the steps of the state capitol in Alabama and said, "Like an idea whose time has come, not even the marching of mighty armies can halt us. We are moving to the land of freedom." King's refrain was "how long, not long" and his words “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice" were borrowed from activist Theodore Parker.

In a July 1965 speech, King referred to his 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech and said the dream had become a nightmare. Just a few days later, the nightmare ended as Lyndon B. Johnson signed the voting rights act with King there to witness it.

Harris said in 1952, King wrote that he was more socialistic in economic theory than capitalistic and felt justice could not come without radical changes in our society's structure. King thought power and wealth should be shared by blacks and whites.

As Harris closed, she encouraged everyone to read King's works and be moved to action and inspired to serve. She ended with King's quote, "Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love."

As the Second Baptist Youth Choir prepared to take up a collection for the Scholarship Fund, Reverend Shelton spoke of serving through giving. Everyone joined the choirs in singing "We Shall Overcome" as the collection was taken.

During the morning's program, the Second Baptist Youth Choir also sang "Break Every Chain" and "God is Keeping Me," and the Lincoln College Chorale performed "Up to the Mountain."

Reverend Shelton closed the morning's events with a benediction asking for blessing on this institution of higher learning, Dr. Gerlach, and its faculty and staff, so the students may increase their learning and take reigns of leadership.

[Angela Reiners]