‘These are earthquake times,’ MLK Day speaker says

As Ralph West, a guest speaker from Houston, built his sermon to a crescendo on Monday – “These are earthquake times, these are earthquake times” – the audience responded with a roar and clapping and shouts.

The speech culminated a gathering of hundreds of Wichitans for a celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. in the theater of Wichita State’s Metropolitan Complex.

And by earthquake times, Barbara Smith thought she knew what West meant: “The earthquake right now is the presidency and what that has done,” she said. “A part of it is Black Lives Matter. And the economy.”

King was born at the start of the Depression, during earthquake times, West proclaimed, lived through World War II and then helped define the “most tumultuous decade,” the 1960s. So now is the perfect time to reflect on King’s legacy, West said.

“This is an inspiration because of all the negativity out there,” said Nicki Childers, who added that she comes to the event every year. “It’s good to get away from that and just come and celebrate, celebrate life, to have love, a chance to get together with others and celebrate.”

As President Obama’s presidency comes to an end this week, the only speaker to specifically invoke his name was Lavonta Williams, the vice mayor of Wichita.

“You will be challenged and tested on a regular basis,” Williams told the crowd. “But so what? So were your ancestors. They were challenged, they were put through ridicule – even John Lewis.”

The reference to Lewis was a nod to the U.S. representative from Georgia. Like King, Lewis was a leader in the civil rights movement, but in the past week, he has feuded publicly with President-elect Trump and has refused to attend his inauguration. After Lewis said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he does not see Trump as a “legitimate president,” Trump dismissed Lewis, who was brutally beaten and repeatedly imprisoned as he protested for voting rights in 1965, as “all talk” and “no action.”

Williams also reminded the crowd of Wichita’s central role in the civil rights era, when several members of the audience sat at the Dockum Drug Store lunch counter every day for three weeks in July 1958. The downtown drugstore, which had a segregated lunch counter, changed its policy because of the protest.

The Greater Ministerial League, made up primarily of black pastors in Wichita, gave out several awards, including to pastors Wade Moore and Sam Muyskens. Together, the two have organized events specifically focused on bridging divides and celebrating differences.

Moore said he recently visited the hotel in Memphis where King was shot and noticed the room number, 306.

“My wife leaned over and told me the room that we are staying in – ‘We’re room 306,’ ” he said.

Moore said he took it as a challenge.

“The Lord began to speak to me and said we’re all in Room 306. Now we have got to have that same courage that Dr. King had, under the threat of death, to walk out of our Room 306 and begin to make a change,” he said. “Are you courageous enough to walk out of 306?”

The league gave an award to Wichita’s new police chief, Gordon Ramsay, who was seated in the front row. In his first year as chief, he reached out to the black community and organized a cookout to foster dialogue among protesters, community members and the police.

This story was originally published January 16, 2017 at 6:07 PM with the headline "‘These are earthquake times,’ MLK Day speaker says."