Joyful songs, thankful prayers, dances of praise, and encouraging speeches filled the air of the Kings Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church as church-goers celebrated at the 24th annual Martin Luther King march and ceremony last Monday morning in Many.
Master of Ceremonies William Ruffin set the tone with this year’s theme: “The waters have been dried up, and it’s time for us to cross over.”
The Rev. Gwendolyn Snearl, presiding elder of the Alexandria-Thibodeaux District who also works at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, delivered a passionate and fiery speech reminding the audience of how far they had come in the years since the civil rights movement began and how it is now time for young African Americans to become responsible for even more progress.
Local and area ministers who spoke passionately about how Dr. King was a man of peace and stood for peaceful advancement of the rights of African Americans included the Rev. Louis Smith, the Rev. Woodrow Williams, the Rev. Curtis Fields, the Rev. Recie Medlock Jr., the Rev. Curtis Fields and the Rev. Jerome Newsome. The theme of their speeches was the same: “We’ve come a long way in gaining our rights as citizens of the United States, but we will have a way to go, and young people must now pick up the mantle and lead us forward --not through violence but peacefully.”
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