The enduring legacy of America’s foremost civil rights leader was hailed by speakers and applauded by about 700 local residents and notables at the 17th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast held at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center to benefit the Catharine Street Center on Friday, Jan. 25.
Themes of perseverance, opportunity, tolerance of diversity and educational accomplishment as well as the great social achievements which flow from them were held up as a continuing challenge in a world that has yet to fully live up to Dr. King’s ideals.
Yet the emphasis at the fundraiser for the center, which has promoted and co-coordinated educational, health and cultural programming that has enriched the life of Poughkeepsie since 1922, was on the much better country we live in because of Dr. King’s life.
“I received my first job because of the laws that were passed due to his efforts,” said guest speaker Joe Louis Barrows Jr., the son of African-American heavyweight boxing titan Joe Louis. “I was always deeply impressed by his nonviolent approach.”
Barrows, who is the CEO of First Tee, a program that promotes character development and the learning of life-enhancing values among youth of all backgrounds through golf-related activities, admitted that the great breadth of Dr. King’s message could sometimes be a confusing thing to those unable to see the interrelatedness of different social problems. To fully comprehend the civil rights leader’s vision, he said, one must be able to make those connections.
Talking of the first time he heard Dr. King speak, Barrows said, “I was struck by the fact that the subject was not civil rights but the Vietnam War. Indeed, I was disappointed. Only later did I realize that the impact of that conflict on African-Americans made it a civil rights issue.”
The complexity of the civil rights struggle was exemplified by the fact that there were many means of carrying it on, he said, and cited his own father’s quiet way of fighting for his people decades before the earth-shaking oratory of Dr. King.
“Joe Louis was a quiet man, he went about his business. But when he saw them, he righted wrongs. When he was touring with the Army to boost troop morale during World War II, if he saw abuses directed against African-Americans, he would put in a discreet communication to the relevant authorities, and say ‘It’s not right down here for our folks,’ and something would be done about it. He was a man who understood the racial problems of his time, and worked to right them in his own way.”
Yet Barrows also emphasized that though Louis’ personal style of fighting for civil rights was low key, as an international symbol of freedom he could have as resounding an impact as Dr. King.
Relating an anecdote about a Jewish Holocaust survivor he once met at a tolerance seminar, he related how the man vividly recalled Louis’ great victory in the title match against the German boxer Max Schmeling, a contest which Hitler had proclaimed would prove the superiority of “Aryan” over “inferior” races. Barrows said the man had carried the inspiration of that victory with him through his ordeals in the war.
“I survived the concentration camps because I knew the Germans wouldn’t win, “ the man told Barrows. “And how did I know that? Because Joe Louis beat Max Schmeling, that’s how. That’s what kept me going.”
Sharing the message
Themes of empowerment and a continuing legacy similarly dominated the remarks of the other speakers.
“Who would have thought in Martin Luther King’s time that we would have an African-American, a woman, or a Hispanic running for president of these United States?” said Barbara Jeter-Jackson, a Dutchess County Legislator. “It shows that the life of one person can make a difference.”
“Although he lived just a short time, his ideas and his ideals are eternal,” said Poughkeepsie Mayor John Tkazyik. “Let us go out and live them.”
The three youth honorees of the breakfast, who each received an award and a scholarship of $ 1,000 granted by the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, emphasized different aspects of the King legacy that had particularly shaped their values.
“We as young people must educate ourselves,” said Vincent Lee Baggett, a Poughkeepsie High School senior. “That is the only way we can live the philosophy of Dr. King. We are the only ones who can make a difference in our lives. We must live out Dr. King’s greatest philosophy, and that is perseverance.”
“A community is like a puzzle – there are different pieces that come together to make something beautiful,” said Nicole Victoria Dama, of Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School in Hyde Park. “Dr. King taught us that we can all find our place in this puzzle, and contribute to its wholeness.”
“I believe, as did Dr. King, in the possibility of a world that is united by difference rather than separated by it, “ said Olivia Grace Garrity, a Poughkeepsie High School senior. Citing her own passion for photography, she closed her remarks with a simile that those who aspire to Dr. King’s thoughtful, searching approach to life would agree with.
“Life, just like photography, is about interpretation.”