Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached for unity to make the United States a better place—and his message holds up today, said the Rev. Douglas Brown.

Brown, associate minister of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Yorktown, was the featured speaker at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day Service late Monday afternoon at the First United Baptist Church, White Marsh. The program was coordinated by the Gloucester Union Relief Association of Missionary Baptist, which is headed by the Rev. Dr. Elton Pryor, pastor of Zion Poplars Baptist Church in Gloucester.

King was a leader, Brown said, who put himself in harm’s way by standing up for social justice. There were many instances when King received late-night telephone calls threatening to kill him or to blow up his house, Brown said, but despite these threats, the civil rights leader stood strong.

Brown said that King was proud to be an African American and that he encouraged others of his race to learn about their history and to take acti...