The speaker at the King Day celebration sponsored by the Oklahoma Progressive Baptist Convention told an audience to praise God “for the dream” and for the dreamer, even as we witness that dream becoming a reality.Rev. Major L. Jemison, pastor of the St. John Missionary Baptist Church, spoke to a crowded audience that gathered just before the inauguration of the first Black president of the United States.
Many of the speakers at the event said this year’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration had two purposes: One, to honor the fallen civil rights leader, and two, to applaud the election of Barack Obama, who took the oath of office as president on Tuesday.
Rev. Jemison said Blacks have stories to tell of “yesteryear,” when they struggled against oppression and paved the way for the realization of so many dreams for today’s generation.
“We ought to reminisce over the fact that we are here because somebody else brought us here,” Rev. Jemison stated.
“Those of us who are 50 and above thought we would never see a Black man become president of the United States,” the keynote speaker said.
Rev. Jemison said King “died with that dream,” urging the crowd of 800 to acknowledge those who “laid the foundation for all of us.”
“One man did not do this,” the Baptist preacher said Sunday afternoon. “This is not a one-man show. This started on a trail of sacrifice.”
Blacks today are beneficiaries of the “King dream,” Rev. Jemison continued, and “Black people in America, when we achieve less than the best, we are settling for less than the dream.”
The pastor of St. John Baptist encouraged the crowd to thank God for the realization of the dream of King and others.
“I don’t know how Black folk can ever stop celebrating the Lord,” he declared. “If it had not been for the Lord, tell me where would I be?”
