MLK Citywide Celebration events come to a close

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Citywide Celebration came to a close Monday in Cape Girardeau with the 36th annual Memorial Breakfast and the 20th annual Humanitarian Benefit.

The final two events for this year’s Citywide Celebration featured keynote speeches from pastor George Smith from True Faith Missionary Ministries in Cape Girardeau and the Rev. Dr. Spencer Lamar Booker of The Cathedral at St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church in St. Louis, along with the presentation of the annual Dr. King Community Service awards.

Smith’s speech questioned why African Americans still celebrate the MLK holiday when things haven’t really changed much for the Black community since the 1960s.

“Even so today with what happened just this past week, when these rioters came and they stormed the Capitol,” Smith said. “We see how they were, and we look at Black Lives Matter and how when Black people got together and they marched, the resistance that we had from the police and the killings and beatings. We still suffer just like they did in the ’60s.

“But we find ourselves today and we watched our white counterparts do something that we’ve never even tried to do,” he said. “They stormed the Capitol building, the heart of America, and still yet nothing was done.”

Smith discussed the mistreatment and misrepresentation of African Americans, and the persecution of the Black community for doing the right thing by marching for justice. Smith’s recommendation was to be like John the Baptist and King.

“When we find ourselves in that situation, what do we do? We have to do just like John the Baptist did,” Smith said. “John the Baptist continued on preaching what was right, even if it cost him his death. Dr. King continued to preach and move for the sake of the, of the black nation even though it cost him his life. It got to the point where he knew that it was going to cost him his life, but he was not afraid. I can remember we talked about how when he made his final sermon, he made his final speech there in Memphis, and when he talked about he wasn’t worried about anything. He wasn’t worried about no man, he wasn’t fearing anything. God had showed him the promised land.

“And so when you look at that speech, he said, ‘All I want to do is God’s will.’ But it seems like to me, today, that when we say we want to do God’s will, we have strayed away from what God’s will really is. We’re supposed to love each other. Whether it be Black, white, blue, brown, green, whatever it is, we’re supposed to be loving one another. We’re supposed to be looking out for one another.”

Booker’s speech focused on the MLK holiday being not just a day of remembrance, but a day of activism.

“Indeed, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a great civil rights leader,” Booker said, “through non-violence and civil disobedience inspired by his Christian beliefs and the non-violent activism of Mahatma Gandhi. The strategy was both revolutionary and effective. Even to this day.”

Booker focused heavily on how the Black community has been “dehumanized, ostracized and brutalized.”

“Let’s say I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired,” Booker said. “Yes, disproportionately we suffer the lack of health care. We suffer with underlying conditions — high blood pressure, asthma, diabetes and STDs. We suffer unconsequentially. Yes, my brothers and sisters, and even as we as we go through the coronavirus over the last 10 months. We have found that this systematic racial inequalities have festered in our society, and now has been magnified through this novel COVID-19 where we’re only 13% of the population, but yet 72% of us have been affected by the coronavirus and have even died. Yes, The Black pain predicament grows more.”

In addition to the keynote speeches from Smith and Booker, Citywide Celebration Committee chairwoman Debra Mitchell-Braxton presented two MLK Community Service awards. The first being bestowed onto the family of the late Frank Ellis.

“We want to honor principal Ellis, for all the work he did in Cape Girardeau in the educational arena,” Mitchell-Braxton said. “He was chosen as the best choice to become a teacher at SEMO. He was also very instrumental in the growth of Grow Your Own Program, which encourages local graduates to stay in the Cape Girardeau area and teach. He traveled to various states to assist in the recruiting of minority teachers for the Cape Girardeau community. His desire was that every student have access to a quality education in order to become a more productive citizen.”

The second MLK Community Service award recipient was former Jefferson and Franklin elementary schools principal Leigh Ragsdale.

“Mrs. Ragsdale believes in inclusion and encourages diversity in all walks of life through her principalship,” Mitchell-Braxton said. “As a famous song writer once said, ‘Reach out and touch someone’s hand and make this world a better place if you can.’ Principal Ragsdale has worked diligently to build a beloved community for our youth at both the Franklin and Jefferson elementary schools here in Cape. She provides a heartfelt welcome to all the students every morning. She promotes cultural diversity program within the school, and she integrated non-traditional curriculum that exposes you to potential career options.”

The Citywide Celebration Committee also collected various donated goods from Jan. 7 to 18. On Monday, the committee had boxes set up at the Osage Centre from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for donations of non-perishable food items, winter clothing and blankets.