Celebration Honors Dr. King and Civil Rights Foot Soldiers | Events

A young Memphis pastor delivered a super-charged sermon on Martin Luther King Day that had an enlivened congregation as well as elder men of the cloth cheering with approval. MLK Day guest speaker Dr. Stacy Spencer of New Direction Christian Church in Memphis blasted Tennessee's new voter identification law as an "underhanded attempt to revive Jim Crow laws." Blacks and other minorities often were denied the right to vote in the days prior to the Voting Rights Act of 1964, one of the landmark achievements of Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement. "Jim Crow is dead," Spencer shouted from the pulpit of St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church in Drummonds, TN, "and I don't want to see Jim Crow resurrected." The 2012 primaries and general election will be the first test of Tennessee's new voter ID law that requires all those attempting to vote to have a valid photo identification. One of those shouting "amens" to Spencer's stirring sermon stood alongside Dr. King during the Civil Rights Movement. Rev. Dr. Harold A. Middlebrook grew up in Memphis and has lead the Canaan Baptist Church of Christ in Knoxville, TN  for more than three decades. Middlebrook offered reflections on King's life and spoke of the icon's vision of "the beloved community." Middlebrook encouraged the congregants of the country church northwest of Millington, TN to make the civil rights leader's vision come true. Describing himself as a "foot soldier in the movement," Middlebrook was jailed in Atlanta with Dr. King and worked to fight segregation as a member of SNCC, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in places such as Danville, VA, Selma, AL and St. Augustine, FL. Middlebrook was present at Mason Temple and heard King's prophetic last sermon on April 3, 1968 and stood in the parking lot of the Lorraine Motel the next day when King was assassinated in Memphis. A cheerful, smiling Middlebrook told the crowd that he sees elements of Dr. King's dream of racial harmony falling into place, yet Middlebrook nodded in agreement when Spencer declared,  "when black unemployment is four times higher than white unemployment, something is wrong." 
     

St. Mark's pastor, Keith McGee, the former city of Memphis Chief Administrative Officer under ex-Mayor Willie W. Herenton, organized the 6th annual King Community Celebration along with members of his congregation. McGee called Spencer a "tech-savvy visionary" who uses the Internet to lead three New Direction church campuses in the Memphis area and one in Dutwya, South Africa. The St. Mark United Voices Choir performed with passion throughout the service, ending with Stevie Wonder's "Happy Birthday to You" tribute to Dr. King who would have tured 83 years of age on January 15, 2012. The church used the MLK event to honor former General Sessions Criminal Court Judge Mischelle Alexander-Best, retired teacher John Everett Strong, Jr. and devoted church member Katherine Flemings and this reporter for service to the greater community.