January 19, 2010


  • MLK Day in Nashville Finds the Dream Marching On

View the entire article online at The Tennessean

The Rev. Kelly Miller Smith Jr. used to think all families' dinner-table talk revolved around how to get one's child enrolled in a segregated school. He was 5 years old when his father, the first NAACP Nashville chapter president, became one of the first parents to sue to integrate the city's schools.

"What you remember is the brick thrown into a home, the house set on fire," said Smith, 55, a Hillsboro High School graduate and pastor of Mount Olive Baptist Church-East in Knoxville. "My sister had dogs sicced on her."

On Monday, Smith delivered a speech to thousands on the Tennessee State University campus, observing Martin Luther King Jr. Day 50 years after his father filed that desegregation lawsuit and a year into the term of the nation's first African-American president. He said the invitation to speak made him reflect on the enormous impact having those dinnertime conversations, and taking action despite the dangers, had on this nation.

Middle Tennesseans prayed, marched and donated time to their favorite causes to commemorate the civil rights leader. In Murfreesboro, several hundred marched from Central Middle School to Patterson Park, some holding framed photos of King. At a Gallatin Unity Day celebration, speakers noted the long effort even to get Martin Luther King Jr. Day recognized as a federal holiday and then to get all 50 states to recognize it.

A day of strength, hope

About 6,000 people marched down Jefferson Street through the heart of North Nashville. For Madge Johnson, 52, an outreach worker with the Nashville Homeless Power Project, this Martin Luther King Jr. Day was one she had been waiting for her entire life.

"Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" Johnson said. "Black people today have a reason for strength and hope."

The march attracted participants of many races and ethnicities, hundreds marching in smaller groups from their own neighborhoods to meet up with the masses, police cars controlling traffic to keep them safe.

Eva Abdullah marched for the first time. Abdullah said she decided to come to this year's event because she wanted her son to know the significance of equality and justice. She said that, as a Muslim, she draws many parallels between her faith and the teachings of Dr. King.

Joseph Morton, a professional artist at the march with his family, said the essence of King's work extends to all parts of society.

"Equality is over all issues," Morton said. "It's not just a race issue."

Some used the event to promote ideas, marching with signs about green energy, living wages and ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It wasn't what high school student Nekisha Lester, marching with her friends, wanted to see — people using Martin Luther King Jr. Day to push a political agenda.

"It's a day for Martin Luther King, not health-care reform," Lester said.

Lessons in nonviolence

Inside TSU's Gentry Center, Etta Simpson Ray, a Freedom Rider who was arrested and imprisoned for more than 30 days, was handing out brochures. She started college at Tennessee State University in 1960 and was recruited by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to promote social change.

Ray set up a table Monday to educate visitors about the Nashville Student Movement Legacy Foundation, an organization that seeks to preserve the history of Freedom Riders and other protesters of the civil rights era, and to teach a new generation about nonviolence.

In 1959, Nashville's African-American college students began protesting segregated businesses with lunch counter sit-ins, but their efforts didn't gain attention until early 1960, when the practice spread across the South.

A piece of paper on Ray's table outlined the simple rules the student protesters had to follow:

1. Show yourself friendly and courteous at all times.

2. Sit straight and always face the counter.

3. Report all serious incidents to your leader.

4. Refer information seekers to your leader.

5. Remember the teachings of Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Love and nonviolence is the way.

Sometimes the protesters were attacked by whites. Sometimes they were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. But by May 1960, Nashville was one of the first major cities to begin desegregating its public buildings.

Ray said today's students need to learn alternatives to violence, and it's a lesson her generation can teach them.

"I think people have forgotten, and we need a refresher on this," Ray said.
 
Gannett Tennessee's Doug Davis and Eric Miller contributed to this report.