Wichita celebration honors legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. (+videos)
Monday afternoon was a beautiful day for singing, clapping, dancing and shouting.
Several hundred people gathered for nearly three hours at Wichita State University’s Hughes Metropolitan Complex to celebrate the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
The event is one of Kansas’ largest Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations, drawing hundreds of people to remember King’s message of service, inspiration and leadership through dance and choir performances and speeches.
The Greater Wichita Ministerial League and Spirit AeroSystems sponsored the event. This year’s theme was “Beyond Tolerance.”
Hope and inspiration set the tone.
At the height of the civil rights movement, the church was the center of activity. It was the church where strategies were forged, voter rights registration was going up, prayer was going up to almighty God.
Bishop Wade Moore Jr.
“You can probably sense and feel we have turned this Metroplex into a church today,” Bishop Wade Moore Jr. told the audience as he welcomed them. “At the height of the civil rights movement, the church was the center of activity. It was the church where strategies were forged, voter rights registration was going up, prayer was going up to almighty God.
“Those who were courageous enough to march in the streets were cared for at the church. The ones that were strong were strengthened to go out and to continue the work. At this crucial time in the history of our nation, it is time for us to turn back to the church.”
The audience was filled with various political dignitaries, including Kansas State Treasurer Ron Estes, Wichita Mayor Jeff Longwell, former Mayor Carl Brewer, City Council member Lavonta Williams, state Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, state Rep. Gail Finney, state Rep. Roderick Houston, Sedgwick County Commissioners Richard Ranzau and Karl Peterjohn, interim Wichita Police Chief Nelson Mosley and former state Rep. Melody McCray-Miller, now Urban League board chairwoman and vice chairwoman of the Kansas Democratic Party.
The celebration was a time to honor Bonita Gooch as editor of The Community Voice. She received the Martin Luther King Jr. Vision and Dreams Award. The Council of Elders received The Spirit of Unity Award, and Teresa Lovelady, president and CEO of HealthCore Clinic, received the President’s Award.
Williams received a standing ovation for her longtime political service. She called on the audience to remember Wichita’s own legacy of civil rights in the 1958 Dockum Drug Store sit-in.
In 1958, a group of young NAACP students said, ‘We want to go downtown and eat a hamburger at the same counter that our friends do.’ ... They formed the very first civil rights movement in Wichita in the country. Because they practiced ... they knew what to do if someone spat on them, if someone hit them. So, for that group of people, I am very grateful.
City Council member Lavonta Williams
“In 1958, a group of young NAACP students said, ‘We want to go downtown and eat a hamburger at the same counter that our friends do,’ ” she said. “ ‘Because right now, they make us order at the end of the counter and then take the food away.’
“In 1958, that group of NAACP students said, ‘Oh, no. We have enough.’ They formed the very first civil rights movement in Wichita in the country. … So, for that group of people, I am very grateful.”
Featured speaker Lance Watson, senior pastor of the St. Paul Baptist Church of Richmond, Va., spoke in a driving, almost raplike cadence for more than 45 minutes using a message from the Old Testament about Daniel’s faith in facing the lions’ den.
“There was not a scratch on Daniel. It didn’t say there was a bite wound on Daniel. God shut their (the lions’) mouths, he didn’t handcuff their paws. But when you are faithful to him (God), he can so work on your enemies,” Watson said to thunderous cheers from the audience.
God wants to do something in Wichita. He wants it to be an example for the rest of the nation.
Lance Watson
senior pastor, St. Paul Baptist Church of Richmond, Va.“They can’t taste you. They can’t touch you. You can tell all your neighbors, ‘You can’t touch this.’ … God not only sustains you, God secures. And this is my final word: God does it because he wants to show you off.
“God wants to do something in Wichita. He wants it to be an example for the rest of the nation.”
Beccy Tanner: 316-268-6336, @beccytanner
This story was originally published January 18, 2016 at 7:44 PM with the headline "Wichita celebration honors legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. (+videos)."