Dozens of people gathered at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Elm Avenue this past Friday to pay their respects to Dr. King Martin Luther King. Jr., and to remember that there is still more work to be done.
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In 1963, preaching at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “I am ashamed and appalled that 11 o’clock on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in Christian America.”
Five decades later, Sunday mornings remain a highly segregated hour. Roughly 5 percent of the nation’s churches are racially integrated, and half of them are in the midst of transitioning to either all-white or all-black, according to CNN.
The sun set behind the Washington Street bridge Monday evening, while Waco citizens gathered to remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at a candlelight vigil on the east side of the Brazos River.
Baylor University took part in a nationwide event, remembering both the 1963 march on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr.’s historical “I Have a Dream” speech.
More than 20 students, faculty and staff gathered in front of Pat Neff Hall at 2 p.m. Wednesday, the approximate time King delivered his speech 50 years ago, and listened to the Baylor McLane Carillon bells. Baylor’s carillonneur Lynnette Geary performed, “We Shall Overcome,” and “Lift Every Voice and Sing” to commemorate the day.
Although names such as Martin Luther King Jr., Booker T. Washington and Rosa Parks are sometimes the most readily associated with major contributions to the advancement of African-Americans, there are people who have lived in the Waco area and made impacts as well.
Baylor will celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Version of the Bible with an international conference and world-renowned exhibit today through Saturday.
Once upon a long time ago, a tired man faced an audience of public workers. They were on a wildcat strike, demanding the right to bargain collectively and to have the city for which they worked automatically deduct union dues from their paychecks. The city’s conservative mayor had flatly refused these demands.
He said difficult days lay ahead. But from the mountaintop, he could see the Promised Land. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke these words the day before his assassination. According to Rev. Dr. Kenyatta Gilbert, the son of the first black Baylor student, he was right. As a student at Baylor from 1963-1967 and as a civil rights leader and pastor in Waco, Gilbert’s father, Robert Gilbert, suffered severe discrimination and resistance to change.