Speakers at the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration in Springfield said there has been much progress in civil rights, and there is much more work to be done.
SPRINGFIELD — Speakers praised the accomplishments of the late Martin Luther King Jr. on Wednesday during a City Hall celebration, saying he and others accomplished much in civil rights and equality while there remains today much work to be done.
The ceremony, conducted by the Springfield Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, marked the anniversary of the birth of King, a civil rights leader born on Jan. 15, 1929. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, but his efforts and the efforts of others in the civil rights movement led to landmark legislation designed for equal rights, speakers said.
The guest speaker, Connecticut state Rep. Charlie L. Stallworth, D-Bridgeport, likened it to a story where a father encouraged his daughter to keep driving through a storm rather that take the easier route of pulling over and wait for the storm to pass. After getting through the storm, the father told the girl she could pull over, causing her to ask why then and not before, Stallworth said. The father told her to look back at the cars still stuck in the storm.
The father, as relayed in the story by Stallworth, told his daughter “That’s the point I’m trying to prove to you. Everybody who stopped in the storm is still in the storm. But everybody who kept driving forward made it through the storm.”
It is so easy to dislike others, and to point fingers, and blame others, while remaining in the storm, Stallworth said.
“But there is far more strength, far more determination, far more benefit if we keep driving and driving through the storm that we can get to that place where there will be a beloved community,” Stallworth said.
Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno and the Rev. Talbert W. Swan II, president of the local chapter of the NAACP, were among the speakers.
Students from Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School also attended and participated in the ceremony that included the raising of a flag in honor of King outside City Hall.
Stallworth also serves as pastor of the East End Baptist Tabernacle Church in Bridgeport. According to his online biography, he is a native of Alabama, and as a child he accompanied his father to meetings concerning civil rights, voter registration and veterans services.
The Martin Luther King Jr. Day federal holiday is annually observed on the third Monday of January, Jan. 20 this year.
The City Hall ceremony Wednesday included a speech on Martin Luther King Jr., read by Bladimil Colon, a fifth grader, at the charter school. There was also a poem from Sheldon Alexander, and Darryl Moss of the mayor’s office served as emcee.
Swan said he has been blessed to reap the benefits from the sacrifices of leaders and “soldiers” during the Civil Rights movement. The efforts must continue, he said, adding that he is hopeful by working together there will be greater economic opportunities, jobs and justice in the future.
Anthony Wilson, a city lawyer, spoke of listening to tapes of King speeches as a child while scrubbing the baseboards of his home, as directed by his mother, during a school holiday for King.