A group of people brave the frigid temperatures to march from City Hall to First Presbyterian Church during an event to remember the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. Sunday in Three Rivers.
By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
THREE RIVERS — The legacy and beliefs of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. were recognized and celebrated in Three Rivers this week, with a number of events, celebrations and reflections.
Called “Becoming the Beloved Community,” named for a term used by King for his vision of realistic and achievable goals for a community when it came to nonviolent protests, events spanned two days, beginning with a march Sunday from City Hall to First Presbyterian Church in Three Rivers, followed by a service at the church reflecting on King’s life and some of the works being done to help people in the Three Rivers community.
The events continued on Martin Luther King Day Monday, with a celebration at New Jerusalem Baptist Church with games, prizes, food and drinks, a healing circle and screening of the “Eyes on the Prize” documentary series about King at The Huss Project, an outdoor book walk and “Beloved Community Gallery” at the Three Rivers Public Library, and a community shopping day at World Fare where 25 percent of sales were donated to the George Washington Carver Center in Three Rivers.
With regards to the march and service, it was the first time since January 2020, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, that such an event had been held in Three Rivers, according to organizer Rob Vander Giessen-Reitsma.
“This was put together by a group of citizens that were interested in making sure we remember Dr. King and talk about what he talked about,” Vander Giessen-Reitsma said.
Around 20 marchers braved the blustery and freezing conditions outside to take to the sidewalk and, briefly, the road, holding a banner that said “Beloved Community,” holding signs with quotes from King, and singing songs from the era of the civil rights movement. They then joined other servicegoers at First Presbyterian for the evening program.
In her greeting to attendees at the program, First Presbyterian pastor Rev. Brenda Deily said it was an honor to host the celebration, adding that there is still “work to do in civil rights.”
“It is important that we recognize what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. left, and use it as a guide in the work we have left to do,” Deily said.
Vander Giessen-Reitsma then introduced a clip from a speech King made after the Selma-to-Montgomery march in Alabama in 1965, saying that hearing from King himself or reading his writings was an important thing to do, given the weekend that Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated on.
The presentation also featured songs sung by those in attendance, such as “Life Every Voice and Sing” and “We Shall Overcome,” an offering for the Ambassadors for Christ Housing Initiative and the George Washington Carver Center, and poetry focusing on the civil rights movement, racism in the past and present, and how to keep King’s dream alive were read out by Aundrea Sayrie and Torrey Brown. Carolyn McNary also gave a talk about the housing initiative and the Carver Center and what they do for the Black community in Three Rivers, and the Three Rivers community as a whole, and Jacob Huff from Three Rivers Area Mentoring talked about a Beloved Community poster project TRAM students did, highlighting influential people in the civil rights movement and influential people of color and talking about them in their own words.
Brown, another one of the more than dozen members of the organizing committee for the event, said it was nice to see people come out to such an event like Sunday’s, but wished they could reach more people. He said there is still a lot of work to be done, such as acceptance that racism and marginalizing is still a thing in the United States.
“Acceptance is the first step, and we’re not past that. Acceptance that, one, that it happened, and two, that it’s still happening as far as racism, divisiveness, marginalizing. That stuff has to stop in order for King’s dream to be realized,” Brown said. He added that a program like Sunday’s was a foundation for that work. “There’s a lot of different small communities that are doing a lot of work, but we have to be better nationally at getting the work done.”
Overall, Vander Giessen-Reitsma said the importance of activities such as the ones happening on Sunday and Monday are to expose people to King’s philosophies and to let people know that many of the things King and the civil rights movement as a whole discussed are relevant to this day.
“King died almost 60 years ago, but if you read his writings, his speeches, and listen to the videos of his speeches, so much of what he talked about, was concerned about is still very relevant,” Vander Giessen-Reitsma said. “I think revisiting that and learning some of the lessons that the movement then has learned is helpful for us as we start to navigate the issues, in part because you don’t have to reinvent wheels. These stories are important. These are Americans who really gave a significant amount of blood, sweat and tears, and their lives, for things we take for granted, like voting rights, equality and those things.”
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
