On Monday, Jan. 19, the Hyde Park community joined together virtually for the sixth annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation and Community Builder Awards Program.

With the hopes of both honoring Dr. King’s legacy and celebrating the several community leaders whose works reflect his mission, the program consisted of several speakers. The line-up included Dr. Michael Curry, Esq., Marcia Kimm-Jackson, Ruthzee Louijeune, Cecily Graham, and artist Apollo Articulated.

Opening the program, founder of West Fairmount Hill Community Group and racial equity advocate Marcia Kimm-Jackson reflected on Dr. King’s work and emphasized applying his philosophy to the current social climate.

“Dr. King’s response to hate is really love and non-violent resistance. He spoke of a community bound together by love, a love that transcends race, religion, and background,” she said.

“It is this love that charges us to seek justice for all of our members in our communities, especially though, for those who are marginalized. It is this love that compels us to write letters, to march, to boycott, to speak out, to protest injustice really, to come up against the pure hatred we see coming from the White House.”

At-Large City Councilor and Hyde Park resident Ruthzee Louijeune followed by addressing the value of recognizing diversity in current times and working towards an equitable democracy through individual action.

“We are in wicked times for so many in this country who believe in democracy, who believe in building a multiracial democracy and a multi-class democracy––the democracy Dr. King himself was trying to build,” said Louijeune.

“It is incredibly important that we ask ourselves individually what we’re doing in this moment to respond and what we want the generations that are to come to see where we stood and what we did in these moments.”

She added, “I think that Dr. King would be very ashamed of where we are in our country and in this moment, and if we really are to honor his legacy, we’ve got to move our feet. I hope that everyone, regardless of where you are, what you’re doing, what you have, what you don’t have, figures out how to move their feet.”

With that, the program transitioned to the keynote address by Dr. Michael Curry, Esq., who examined the lesser-known struggles Dr. King faced during his lifetime.

“There is a false narrative of Dr. King. In this moment we sit here tonight, today and we think that he was always popular,” Curry noted.

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“The problem with that narrative is even Black folks had problems with Dr. K. They thought his non-violent approaches and campaigns were not the right approach for the movement. They thought that he took too much attention, legitimately so, from the many activists across the country who just didn’t have the microphone and weren’t recognized.”

“We celebrate Dr. King’s work,” Curry explained, “but we rarely talk about his struggle.”

“Especially today, when speaking out comes at the potential cost of political backlash and threats to funding,” Curry said as he highlighted Dr. King’s courage to commit to justice in the face of criticism and at the cost of comfort.

Referencing his own personal experiences as a civil rights activist, Curry described the various challenges he, too, faced. Still, he stood firm on his outlook that “if you ever want to lead on anything that changes circumstances and conditions for people, expect to be disrespected.”

He asked, “are you girded enough to still show up at the next meeting? Are you girded enough to still work with that person who disrespected you? That is the real challenge because so many people walk away because they want to protect their peace, they want to not deal with conflict”

“Dr. King’s story is about conflict,” Curry said as he wrapped up his speech. “It’s about sacrifice and service, and I ask you, what is your sacrifice?”

The WFHCG also awarded its Community Builders Awards to Pat Alvaraz, Randy Brinson, Lisa Consalvo, Cathy Horn, Jay Paget, Dana and Marinell Rousmaniere, Mystie Thevenin, Carolyn Tomlinson, and Malika Whitley.

For more information on the group, go to https://westfhcommunity.org