A day on, not a day off

NEWBERRY — The march from Miller A.M.E Church on Caldwell Street to Bethlehem Baptist Church marked an occasion to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a program organized by the Newberry Martin Luther King Jr. Foundation.

Presiding Rev. Freddie Smith welcomed the community into Bethlehem Baptist Church and offered words of encouragement to continue to stand and face the struggles of an everyday changing world.

“Where schools are talking less and less of the Civil Right Movement and what it took to get here. Where change was started when Rosa Parks refused her seat in Montgomery, Alabama,” he said.

Rev. Rembert Billie delivered his invocation and many pastors from the community joined for the reading of the scripture. Following the reading, all those in attendance sang “We Shall Overcome.” The program also included hymns sung by the New Vision Ministries and a special appreciation from Newberry School Legacy Steppers, to commemorate the day.

This year’s guest speaker, Reverend James Wesley Dennis III, thanked Newberry County Councilperson Travis Reeder for the invitation.

“I believe if you really want freedom, you had to fight for it. That sometimes it took violence to create a revolution,” Dennis said. “The argument that King said was that if you were going to practice nonviolent resistance, you have to volunteer to be hit because if you volunteer to be hit, you volunteer in hopes that the person who is hitting you will realize the error of their ways and change their minds.”

Dennis went on to say: “He was a brilliant man because he believed in that little speck that is within all of us to change our own ways. He recognized a hope that there is still room for good, even in the worst person. There is still potential for change. Like Jesus, Martin Luther King teaches us that you don’t get to live unless you found a reason to die. This is a difference between being famous and having a purpose.”

He concluded with asking the elected officials present to fulfill their purposes and to make a change in the lives of the youth and their community. The presentation concluded with the hymn “Lift Every Voice” and a thank you from Reeder to everyone in attendance

“I started this as my purpose to call on our youth and, year-by-year, it is getting bigger,” Reeder said.

Thanks was given to the guest speaker, the pastors in attendance, Robert Matheson, Pi Beta Omega Chapter and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc, the Martin Luther King Jr Foundation, the City of Newberry and all of the community in attendance.