Residents listen to famous MLK speeches, celebrate his life

WADESBORO — Several rows of cars parked at South Piedmont Community College Lockhart-Taylor Center to join together and celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Jan. 18.

Since 1986 Anson residents have gathered together on the third Monday of January to honor Martin Luther King Jr. He was a civil rights leader, minister and activist. He campaigned for racial justice in the United States through nonviolence and civil disobedience.

King led marches for desegregation, labor rights and voting rights for Black people.

King’s fight towards racial equality has remained pertinent to this day, especially as protests and rallies broke out around the world following the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer. These protests called for an end to police brutality and other racial biases within the legal system.

The event at the Lockhart-Taylor Center brought community members together while maintaining social distance. The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Planning Committee was determined to still celebrating the King even through a pandemic.

Last year, the county celebrated all weekend long with table talks of discussing ways to end division in the community, a community prayer breakfast performances and a march. As most annual events have changed layouts or have been postponed, this Martin Luther King Jr. celebration was no different.

The drive-in event mimicked the feeling of going to a drive-in movie theater. Everyone was able to stand apart from each other throughout the parking lot. Some people brought out chairs in front of their cars with blankets to brace the slight cool breeze as they listened to Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches. Others stayed inside with their windows rolled down.

Each car also received a bag filled with masks from the Martin Luther King Jr. Planning Committee. This allowed people to safely celebrate, listen and honor Dr. King while staying safe from COVID-19.

Leon Gatewood, CEO of the Holla! Center, volunteered to bring speakers and equipment to project the speeches. The U.S. and North Carolina state flags swayed in the wind in front of the Holla! van. Heart shaped balloons and happy birthday balloons were tied to the van.

The event started with a prayer and music played in between excerpts from some of his most famous, speeches such as the “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, given on April 3, 1968 in Memphis the day before he was assassinated. In this speech, he recounted his time in the hospital recovering from a stab wound he suffered 10 years prior, when the doctor said that, because of the knife’s proximity to his heart, that if King had sneezed, he would have died.

“If I had sneezed—If I had sneezed I wouldn’t have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation, and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill. If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have had a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America about a dream that I had had,” he said. “I’m so happy that I didn’t sneeze.

“We’ve got some difficult days ahead,” King continued. “But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop.”

The present-day listeners clapped to his resonant words and praised his life.

Marlene Richardson of the planning committee was thankful for Dr. King to bring the sunshine and beautiful weather to honor him on Jan. 18.

The community has been so involved with the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in the years past because of the school support, according to Richardson. She believes the next generation will continue on celebrating him and bringing the community even closer together.