King Day speaker preaches unity
By Joey Berlin
Originally published 01:08 p.m., January 22, 2008
Updated 01:08 p.m., January 22, 2008
Martin Luther King Jr. died in his fight to promote unity, and Monday night, the Rev. Gregory Gray wanted to know: What are you doing for the same cause?
In a fiery address at Heath Recital Hall reminiscent of King himself, Gray preached, emoted and occasionally exploded as he delivered the keynote speech of Emporia State University’s recognition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Gray, now a pastor of Christ Church of Second Chances in Lawrence, was introduced as an ex-Black Panther by Nadine Terry of TFI Family Services. He also is a counselor for the Victims Service Unit of the Kansas City, Kan. Police Department, a certified substance-abuse therapist and a crisis-intervention specialist.
Gray called on attendees to step up their personal efforts to continue King’s vision.
“The time has come for us to start striving for unity, to start putting a little more than an average effort into our work,” he said. “Everybody out there who’s just a C student, you oughta be an A student. If you hadn’t went out and got high Thursday night, you would have been studying Thursday and got an A on the test ...
“No, if you’re not striving for unity, you’re just gonna be one of the bunch.”
Gray grew up in the tense racial climate of Chicago, and as a Black Panther during the 1960s he said he questioned King’s nonviolent approach to working for unity.
Then he watched King on his march near Chicago’s Marquette Park in 1966 and watched him get hit with bottles, kicked, spit on and slapped.
“And something happened within my soul, and I watched that man take a licking and keep on ticking,” Gray said. “And I asked myself, ‘What kind of man is this?’”
He said it was important to reflect on King’s memory and realize how far society has come — while also realizing how far it has to go.
“The question is, what are you doing to strive for unity?” Gray said. “He did what he had to do, but what are you doing? Are you the one who is hiding your true feelings for unity in the closet, or (putting up) a masquerade that you really care, when you don’t really give a damn?”
Gray kept the audience involved. At one point, he invited them to collectively say the word “unity,” but chided the first two attempts as “weak” before the third one was satisfactory enough for him to move on. Later in the speech, he invited each audience member to turn to someone adjacent to them, give that person a hug and say, “I love you.” As the amused audience members finished the exercise, Gray shouted, “Was that so hard?”
Gray received a standing ovation at the conclusion of his address. Following it, attendees began a candlelight walk to the First Christian Church, located just across Market Street, to a program featuring Emporia State’s Harmonious Voices of Praise. The walk was divided into three sections of people, each one representing one of King’s landmark civil rights marches: the March on Washington of 1963, the march to Montgomery, Ala., in 1965, and the Chicago march in 1966.
playbook (anonymous) says...
Where were the pictures from this event ?
Earl Williams
January 25, 2008 at 11:04 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )