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Martin Luther King birthday speaker tells audience not to forget
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By Mary Louise Speer | Friday, January 18, 2008 |

On Monday, people around the United States will pay tribute to slain civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The Rev. Beverly Smith, the keynote speaker at an observance of King’s Jan. 15 birthday Thursday at the Rock Island Arsenal, doesn’t want people to forget that many ordinary citizens worked with King to achieve civil rights.

The luncheon included a performance by the Westbrook Singers gospel ensemble and a special presentation by Maj. Gen. Robert Radin, commanding general of the U.S. Army Sustainment Command.

“We pause for a few minutes in our busy schedules to pay homage to a man who meant so much to so many,” Smith said. “Black America needed a Martin Luther King but more importantly America needed a Martin Luther King.”

Smith is the founder of the Sister to Sister Forum for black female students. She recently retired after serving as assistant director of student services/student activities at Western Illinois University Quad-Cities. She is an assistant to the pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church of East Moline.

Leaders of the civil rights movement fought to end segregation, a way of life where blacks attended separate schools, and were limited to sitting in certain areas in public transportation and restaurants.

“Without a doubt the achievements of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. are extraordinary. His speeches are some of the most eloquent. He was one of the pre-eminent orators of his generation or any other for that matter,” Smith said.

But in remembering King, people should not try to place limits on him as his critics did. “For if we believe he was somehow fundamentally and essentially greater than or different from who we are, then we render ourselves unable to follow his example,” she said. “That would truly be a disservice to his memory.”

She challenged the audience to believe that they can raise the banner against injustice just as King did.

The luncheon was a celebration by the U.S. Army Sustainment Command, U.S. Army Joint Munitions Command and the Rock Island Arsenal-Garrison Equal Employment Opportunity Office.

The city desk can be contacted at (563) 383-2450 or newsroom@qctimes.com.