How will today’s generation—young men and women who grew up long after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lived and died—come to appreciate the struggles and sacrifices made by the great civil rights leader?
That was the question posed by the guest speaker at Monday afternoon’s King Day service at Gloucester’s the First United Baptist Church, an event sponsored by the Gloucester Union Relief Association.
The Rev. Dr. Debra Haggins, the program’s guest speaker and the first woman to hold the position of chaplain in the 144-year history of Hampton University, spoke on “The Choice of a New Generation.”
“How will the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. be passed on?” she asked. “How will they know unless we tell them?”
She went on to describe a long list of “What ifs” in King’s life, from his birth through being called to the pastorate of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, the Montgomery bus boycott, the march from Selma to Montgomery, to the March on Washington and his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech. If any one of these events had not taken place, Dr. King’s legacy may not exist as we know it today.
“History became His Story. His Story became Our Story,” she said.
But what of the next generation, the ones not yet born when King was assassinated that fateful day on a hotel balcony in Memphis?
She likened it to the children of Israel, who served God faithfully under Moses and “as long as the elders were around who didn’t mind telling the stories,” reminding them of their delivery by God from the bonds of slavery.
With the passing of the older generation, she said, “there arose a spirit of sin and disobedience,” a “generation who knew not the Lord.”
We need to raise up a generation of Joshuas to keep King’s legacy alive, and to bring us all closer to the Lord, she said. “We cannot forget where the Lord has brought us from,” she said. “The Word of God has a sobering effect … I would not want to go about the business of living without the Word of God, the Rev. Dr. Haggins said.
“It’s time to reprioritize God in our lives,” she said. The new generation, she said, has nothing to do with age, race, political affiliation or anything else that divides us as a people. All are equal in the eyes of God. “All ground is level at the foot of the cross,” she said.
“The spirit (of King Day) needs to follow us through the year,” she said, a spirit of loving one another and serving the Lord.
The next generation was front and center during Monday’s service, with youngsters from the member churches of Gloucester Union Relief taking an active role in the program—from nine-year-old Serenity Cooke of Zion Poplars, who performed the scripture reading, fifth grader Zaya Harvey from First Morning Star, who introduced the guest speaker, John Pryor Jr., who presented a reading from Dr. King, and Gloucester High School honors student C.J. McKeller, who played a selection on the saxophone. A group of praise dancers from First Baptist Church, Ordinary, appropriately enough called “God’s Chosen Generation,” also performed.
Minister Catherine Reid of Norfolk’s First Calvary Baptist Church served as worship leader, and the Men’s Chorus from First Morning Star Baptist Church, Bena, provided special music.