MORGANTOWN — Mahalia Jackson, the legendary gospel singer, wasn’t just in possession of a big voice.
She also had an equally abundant capacity for social justice.
On Aug. 28, 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, in Washington, D.C., she used both to capture the ear of Martin Luther King Jr., who was addressing the masses that day.
“Masses,” is right.
More than 250,000 gathered on the mall in the nation’s capital that day, in front of the marble edifice honoring a president who would die for the cause in act of trying to mend a torn country.
Just five years later, King would also be dead from an assassin’s bullet in attempt of the same, but on this day, he was alive, and in the moment.
And King seized that moment, when Jackson said what she said, as he neared the end of his prepared remarks.
The people on the mall didn’t hear her, but he did.
“Tell them about the dream, Martin! Tell them about the dream!”
In earlier talks and sermons, King was known to tell congregants and committee men alike of a simple dream he had of little black kids and little white kids being just that: Kids.
Kids who shared the same schools, playgrounds, swimming pools and water fountains.
Jackson’s voice pealed like a church bell on Sunday morning.
“The dream, Martin! Tell ‘em!”
And King did, breaking from his words on the prepared page, to improvise it all:
“ … And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream … ”
On it went, for several minutes: A preacher, chronicling the human condition with a message of hope, spilling over into the margins and paragraphs of a text that came from the heart.
Several minutes later, when King was spent and 250,000 people finally let their breath out in one collective whoosh, a dream became The Dream.
MLK Day at WVU
Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the national holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader.
Across Morgantown and WVU, the day will be marked with remembrance, reverence and a call to service.
WVU begins the morning with a longstanding tradition. The university’s Center for Black Culture and Research is hosting its annual Unity Breakfast from 8-10 a.m. in the Mountainlair Ballroom.
Meshea Poore, WVU’s vice president of the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion will deliver keynote remarks. The university will also present its annual MLK Scholarship and MLK Achievement awards.
After the breakfast, students and others will fan out across Morgantown to share the template of The Dream.
They’ll talk to youngsters about King’s legacy, serve community meals and help work on several beautification projects in the area.
Visit https://wvutoday.wvu.edu/media-center-blog/2019/01/15/media-advisory-wvu-to-host-martin-luther-king-jr-unity-breakfast-followed-by-a-day-of-service for more details.
‘Kids in Action’
Morgantown’s annual celebration of King’s life and times will begin at 2 p.m. on the stage of the Metropolitan Theater, downtown.
Al Anderson, the rock ‘n’ roll soul singer and community activist who heard King speak on the National Mall in 1963 will perform songs with his “Al Anderson and Friends” group.
School choirs from Mylan Park Elementary and Cheat Lake Elementary will also offer songs along with the Morgantown Children’s Choir.
On display will be posters and other art promoting King and the event by students from St. Francis Central School.
Stories and essays will be read by Jeremy Thomas and area youngsters to keep with the celebration’s “Kids in Action” theme.
People are also asked to bring individual servings of snack crackers, cereals, pasta and the like as a donation to the Scott’s Run Settlement Backpack Snack Program, which distributed more than 19,000 food-laden backpacks to nutritionally needy youngsters across the region last year.
This is the 13th year for the celebration, which is hosted by Morgantown and sponsored by the Community Coalition for Social Justice and Main Street Morgantown.
Visit www.ccsjwv.org for more information.
