NEWS

 

On the morning of January 15, the Town of Davidson welcomed residents and community members to the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration held in the auditorium of the renovated Town Hall & Community Center. The historic auditorium overflowed with Davidson residents, a full slate of speakers and performers, area elected officials, and many neighbors from Cornelius and Huntersville.

The theme for this year’s celebration was, “It Starts with Me – Diversity, Equity and Inclusion—Actualizing the Dream.” In addition to attending the celebration, Davidson residents, including many K-12 students, also commemorate the holiday by engaging in a day of service through individual and group service projects.

The energetic Master of Ceremonies was Michael D. Connor. Connor, a resident of Cornelius, served as Professor of Theatre Arts and Speech at Livingston College in Salisbury from 2005-2021. Connor is a professional actor, playwright, and director who has done work on Broadway and in Hollywood. Connor has written plays about domestic violence, homelessness, teenage pregnancy, and diabetes, as well as a play about screen actress Bette Davis, after working as her personal assistant.

Connor shook the house with a rousing rendition of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Connor performed the speech with the high-pitched emotion, rolling cadence, and a booming tenor appropriate to the speech’s urgent and inspiring message. The performance was a potent reminder of the continuing strength and resonance of King’s words. Connor added new phrases to the familiar closing refrains of the speech, bringing the focus to our own place and time: “Let freedom ring from the Tarheels of North Carolina, but not only that, not only that. Let freedom ring from Davidson, North Carolina.” Connor’s performance concluded with an extended standing ovation from the crowd.

The auditorium’s velvet curtains then drew open to reveal a tableau of dancers, dressed in white flowing dresses, holding flags with red, black, and green stripes. The dancers performed a stirring interpretive dance to a hauntingly beautiful, recorded arrangement of “We Shall Overcome,” sung by The Morehouse College Glee Club. As the music gained in intensity, a solo dancer, dressed all in red, emerged and flowed through the space, contrasting the stillness and reserve of the white-clad dancers with expansive movements evoking vibrancy and renewed energy.

The dance troupe is a ministry of Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church in Huntersville. Director Kimberly McClure said that the liturgical dance troupe has been performing in the area for over 20 years. The flags used in their performance were red, black, and green because those were Dr. King’s favorite colors. Dancer Trudy Pratt shared that, once they knew that they would be performing the song “We Shall Overcome,” they started choreographing “from scratch, for the performance today.” Kimberly McClure added that the “holy spirit inspires us to create, and all the dancers create together as a team.” The dancers were happy to have brought along a large group of supportive members from Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church to enjoy the event.

Mayor Knox then introduced guest speaker, Rabbi Becca Diamond. Rabbi Diamond and Rabbi David Jaffe are co-rabbis of Temple Kol Tikvah in Davidson. Rabbi Diamond was ordained in 2022 on the Cincinnati campus of Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion – and then she moved to Cornelius, North Carolina.

Rabbi Diamond discussed America’s history having been marked by a stark contradiction between our ideals and our reality. America’s highest ideals “declare freedom and equality, yet these ideas were vocalized in a society which held human beings captive.” Rabbi Diamond said that, while the ideals in our founding documents are worthy of striving for, it is our reality that needs to change. “Ever since the United States was established, there has been a gap between our ideals written on paper and the reality of our unequal society, and each generation has a mission of closing that gap, even just a little.”

She continued, pointing out that Dr. Martin Luther King embodied the mission of closing that gap. Every generation must continue the work, said Diamond. “In our generation, part of that work is DEI – Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Our generation’s task is to actively seek out diversity and vigorously do the work needed to ensure the inclusion of all, especially those of us whose identities have been historically marginalized.” Rabbi Diamond closed with the idea that instead of waiting for redemption or for a new prophet, “we are all responsible for repairing our world, by each doing our part to enact justice and heal our broken world.”

Following a prayer of unification and the singing of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” Mav Smith, a student in the Davidson College Class of 2026, shared an original spoken word poem entitled “Visionaries: Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord…” Smith told the audience that the spoken word poem was inspired by the last line of the last speech that King gave on the night before his death.

Smith’s hometown is Memphis, Tennessee. On the evening of April 3, 1968, the night before he was assassinated, Martin Luther King addressed a group of striking sanitation workers in Memphis. The strike represented a struggle for economic equality and a demand for the dignity and safety of workers, issues that were a primary focus of King’s Poor People’s Campaign. Smith’s great grandfather was one of those Memphis sanitation workers.

Smith’s spoken word performance made pointed reference to the suffering of a people who have witnessed and experienced trauma, yet who have been made to silence their experiences and “forget” their collective history. The poem alludes to a series of recognizable victims of racial violence; their names and faces still come easily to mind. In the poem, today’s visionaries, who know there is still much work to do, find their attempts at outcry and their efforts to retain their identity stifled and mischaracterized. Smith’s poem concludes

King said, America dealt a bad hand to me.

His dream, still unfulfilled, rests today, in the arms of visionaries.

Leave my history with me, so that, I can respect his legacy.

When I am in your classrooms, boardrooms, courtrooms, and offices; don’t ask me to forget who

I am or where I come from.

Remember the visionaries who died fighting for equality and equity.

It ain’t over yet, victory has yet to be won, and the finish line is lying, waiting for us

Visionaries, who are willing to put plans into practice.

Smith, who is pursuing a double major in English and Africana studies, shared a written version of “Visionaries: Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord…” with News of Davidson. The poem can be read in full here.

The keynote speaker for the day’s event was Dr. Hilary Green, James B. Duke Professor of Africana Studies at Davidson College. Dr. Green’s address began by focusing on Martin Luther King’s speech honoring W.E.B. Du Bois at Carnegie Hall on February 23, 1968, the one hundredth anniversary of Du Bois’s birth. Green told the audience that King sought to honor and draw inspiration from Du Bois’s legacy of focusing on the rich history of black creativity, ingenuity, and resilience to move forward.

Both men, said Green, “understood the power of truthful and inclusive histories. They understood it because they were raised in their communities on the porches of African Americans who refused to forget.” Having been taught in their communities and in their churches the historical truths that had been left out of textbooks, both men fought for the ideals of their country, and both “embodied a radical hope in action for a better future. They defied expectations by drawing on an inclusive understanding of the past. They found resilience.” Green continued by noting that both men also worked for global peace and the ending of all warfare, unpopular causes in their time.

In wrapping up, Green had homework for the audience. “First, read King’s entire canon. His speeches, his writings, and his interviews. Green noted that there has been cherry-picking and selective understanding of King’s message. By reading all of King’s work, we are reminded that King was committed to the spirit of “truth telling, healing, and reconciliation.”

“Finally, don’t let others tell you what and how to think about King. Read King himself,” advised Green. “Embrace King and his long tradition of a radical form of hope, love, and faith because we, too, need to imagine and transform the nation into a better place. Because it starts with us.”

The music for the celebration consisted of both live and recorded music. Area students Connor Williams and Kennedy Orr led the singing of the Star-Spangled Banner. Attendees joined together to sing two iconic Civil Rights Movement Anthems, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and “We Shall Overcome.” In the final verse of “We Shall Overcome,” which references walking hand in hand, everyone reached out to clasp the hand of a neighbor and the whole auditorium sang and swayed in unison.

Cathy Brandon presented red carnations to the speakers, dancers, musicians, and event volunteers, with thanks for their gifts of time and talent to the event.

After thanking everyone who attended, Mayor Knox urged the crowd to “remember how small this community is, and before you leave here, introduce yourself to someone you don’t know and go away with a new friend today.” Town Commissioner Tracy Mattison Brandon closed the ceremony with a Prayer for Peace.

See our full album of photos and video clips from the ceremony.