People packed Providence Missionary
Baptist Church
Monday for the annual Martin Luther King
Jr. breakfast
and program.
By Jon
Mayhew (Lincolnton) – More
than 50 people packed Providence
Missionary Baptist Church in Lincolnton
for the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day
breakfast and program, sponsored by the
Coalition of Churches and the Lincoln
County branch of the NAACP.
Keynote speaker Rev. Robert Coleman of
Hoppers Chapel Baptist Church in Shelby
told the gathering Dr. King's dream of
racial equality and harmony is
“deeply rooted in the American
dream.”
“(Dr. King) used the tools and the
system to win friends not by violence but
by peace,” said Coleman. “He
knew this was part of the American
ideology.”
Video shot by Jon Mayhew
Rev. Robert Coleman of Shelby talks about
Dr. Martin Luther King
Coleman said the
Civil Rights Movement of the mid-1960s
was a grassroots movement which
“started from the bottom up, not the
top down.”
“King's dream wasn't just for blacks
but it was a dream for everybody,”
said Coleman. “Many times, we assume
government owes us something, that
someone is going to owe us something. If
you want something out of life, you have
to put something in. You have to work for
what you get.”
Part rallying call and part sermon,
Coleman said not everyone was on the
bandwagon in the fight for social
justice.
“Dreams bring people up,” said
Coleman. “What Dr. King said was
said during a time of segregation.”
Lincoln County native and historian
Rudolph Young said he remembers
segregation in Lincolnton and Lincoln
County.
Young said there was a time when blacks
couldn't go into restaurants in town.
Instead, they had to be served through
the back door or in an alley.
“Blacks couldn't try on clothes or
shoes at local department stores,”
said Young. “You had to buy your
clothes off the rack and have your foot
traced beforehand for shoes.”
According to Coleman, the message and
dream of Dr. King is timeless; however,
the audience has changed over the last
40-plus years.
“We may have to use different
mediums...to win this generation,”
said Coleman. “Dr. King's dream is
to live in a nation not to be judged by
the color of one's skin but by a person's
character.”
Coleman said the holiday commemorating
the life and legacy of Dr. King
“isn't a day off, it's a day
on.”
Coleman also challenged the crowd to
continue dreaming for a better life.
“I dare you to dream that Lincoln
County can be better. I dare you to dream
that every child can graduate high school
and get a college education,” said
Coleman. “It starts with a dream.
When I heard Dr. King's speech, I dreamed
I could be somebody.”
According to Coleman, part of making the
dream a reality is to have the desire to
change. And Coleman said part of Dr.
King's dream was realized with the
presidential election of 2008.
“People who put color on the back
burner voted for a man known as Barack
Obama,” said Coleman. “Not just
black folks but white folks and other
folks of goodwill put Obama in office.
The dream is on.”
Ola Mae Foster with the Coalition of
Churches agreed with Coleman.
“Dr. King not only left a dream but
a blueprint of race relations, human
kindness and social development,”
said Foster. “He said not to judge a
man by his color but his character.”
