Call and response: MLK 2020

Annual celebration at St. Paul's United Methodist Church

Action and response were the main themes of Cedar Rapids's annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations Monday at Coe College and St. Paul's United Methodist Church--appropriately, because a number of the participants I talked to expressed understandable impatience at the slow pace of change. Overtly legal discrimination is thankfully behind us, but we live in the world it created, and it leaves people of color separate from and less prosperous than their white siblings. In day-to-day life they are perceived and treated differently, which perpetuates the disadvantage. Even Dr. King--who, after all, wrote a book called Why We Can't Wait--expressed impatience and frustration. Angelina Ramirez, a Coe College student who spoke at the morning event, noted he criticized his own famous "I Have a Dream" speech in later years as naive.

The evening event eschewed the usual featured speaker in favor of more brief presentations from community groups and individuals, memorably including dancing from the Washington High School Step Team....

 ...interspersed with commentary from Keesha Burke-Henderson, recently of Morehouse College in Atlanta, and now director of diversity and international student success at Mount Mercy University. The presentations were organized to alternate calls and responses. (The format could use some polishing--a lot of the actual response came in the form of applause, with so many standing ovations it began to feel like a State of the Union address--but I hope they try it again next year.)

One compelling call came from local story teller Zette St. Charles, who spoke briefly on the theme "Will You Answer When Called."

Source: African American Museum of Iowa

St. Charles recounted all the role modeling she's gotten over the years, particularly from older family members, which she found both inspiring and intimidating. [The corresponding response came from the Amen Choir, children from local churches, whose song and dance got the audience up and going, even me.] Anne Carter, daughter of local icons Percy and Lileah Harris, cited evidence from conversations with her own children that skin color continues to define life experience. [The corresponding response was "We Shall Overcome," sung by the combined choirs of Coe College and St. Paul's, to which members of the audience gradually rose and some joined in.]


Molly Lamb, a teacher at McKinley Middle School in Cedar Rapids, was awarded this year's Percy & Lileah Harris "Who is My Neighbor" Award. Haley Cummings, a senior at Xavier High School, was the first winner of what will become an annual youth award.

The morning session at Coe featured a number of breakout sessions. Two speakers highlighted less familiar works of Dr. King's, which are not included in my prized copy of A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. (Harper & Row, 1986). Karl Cassell, managing partner at Cedar Rapids-based Top Rank, reflected on King's 1967 speech "The Three Evils of Society," referring to (1) racism, (2) extreme materialism, and (3) militarism. Cassell said not only are they still with us, but they've taken new forms, such as the militarization of local police departments. He concluded with a warning: "What we allow to happen to the least of us will eventually happen to all of us."

Keesha Burke-Henderson talked about King's 1955 speech at Holt Street Baptist Church in which he accepted the leadership of the Montgomery bus boycott, and his 1956 sermon "The Death of Evil Upon the Seashore." Both are facially less optimistic than "I Have a Dream," but contain calls to action with, as Burke-Henderson stressed, attention to methods, outcomes, and spiritual ideals that admitted no equivocation or gray areas. He concluded the latter with a challenge to act, hopefully: "Let us not despair. Let us not lose faith in man and certainly not in God." Individuals as well as societies can change, even an individual with "a prejudiced mind."

Dean of Students Marc' Bady celebrates his first MLK Day at Coe

Unlike, say Christopher Columbus, whose day we used to celebrate, the life of Martin Luther King Jr. remains pointedly relevant today. This is a source of frustration as well as inspiration. Why aren't things getting better, faster? Progress has come slowly, as we heard from a number of people Monday, and backsliding is so easy. President Trump, predictably, came up a lot; he is, of course, a symptom of something more fundamental, something having to do with fear, which is a primal emotion and one that is easy to trigger. (Cue Martha Nussbaum, The Monarchy of Fear: A Philosopher Looks at Our Political Crisis (Simon & Schuster, 2018).) Race, as has often been remarked, is inextricably intertwined with all of American history. That sad fact won't be eliminated without strenuous effort. Easy for me to say, of course, since as a white male I get to check in and out as seems convenient.

Blake Shaw, Iowa City musician, gets things started at Coe

Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday comes with music, very good music, rivaling Christmas as the foremost musical holiday of the year. For one thing, we get to sing James Weldon Johnson's "Lift Every Voice and Sing," a.k.a. the Negro National Anthem, which is one of my favorite hymns. It has a superb message, and the music is singable with just enough quirks to keep it interesting. Johnson wrote--in 1921!:

Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod,

Felt in the days when hope unborn had died,

Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet

Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?

King's message, and Johnson's song, mixing lament and hope, remain relevant, not only because of the persistence of racial problems. The 21st century requires a thoughtful, concerted response to the economic, environmental and financial fixes we're in. That means we have to figure out democracy, real democracy, including everyone's voice. That means we have to figure out how to work across differences, how to overcome fear, how to listen, how to negotiate. King continues to point the way.

SEE ALSO:

"Music, Dancing, and Poetry Celebrate MLK Day at Cedar Rapids Church," KCRG-TV, 20 January 2020
LAST YEAR'S POST: "Color Blindness vs. Opportunity," 21 January 2019