“There is nothing like coming to the Black church,” Pastor Marc Tibbs told the crowded chapel at the First Congregational Church of Akron.
Sunday afternoon, members of the Black community in Akron gathered for the 46th annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Day Coalition. The event focused on a theme of protecting, educating and nurturing youth. It featured choir performances, speeches from pastors and local leaders and the presentation of MLK scholarship awards for local students.
At 3:59 p.m. people continued to file into the chapel in their best attire. Some stopped to embrace their friends, including the white-gloved and black-suited ushers, while others sought out a spot to sit in the crowded room.
As the clock hit 4 p.m., the band began to pick up its jazzy tune until it swelled over the chatter of the incoming attendees. After a short introduction, Pastor Mark Jackson of the Light Church welcomed the crowd to the celebration before leading a rendition of “Down at the Cross” along with the Deliverance Mass Choir.
Throughout the service, the choir and attendees burst into song and dance in a seemingly spontaneous manner. Their voices filled the church — from the balcony, where the choir’s full-bodied voices echoed, to the pew where two young boys stood and clapped energetically, to the podium where Rev. Dr. Eugene Norris shimmied, a smile beaming across his face.
Helping educate youth is the hallmark
The event was about more than just music.
Three local students each received a $1,500 scholarship to use for college expenses. Norris, the executive pastor at New Hope Baptist Church and Mountain of the Lord Fellowship, reminded the guests of its importance.
“That’s the hallmark of this whole event,” Norris said, “raising funds to help to educate our young people, to send them forward in their careers and to come back and make an impact on our community.”
Scholarship recipient Zora Brown, who grew up on the west side of Akron, is studying pre-medicine at Kent State University. Brown’s goal is to graduate from college debt-free, so every scholarship counts.
But she said it is an honor to represent this scholarship specifically.
“It really shows me how much we’ve progressed as a society, how much Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words and actions have taken hold of our society, taken root,” Brown said.
Prior to receiving her scholarship award, Brown read an excerpt from Dr. King’s 1957 “facing the challenge of the new age” address. The speech emphasized the importance of community and a need for current generations to avoid “the temptation of using violence in our struggle for justice” so that future generations are not recipients of the outcome.
For Norris, the key is to always include the younger generations.
“We know, in order to keep this celebration, and, of course, Dr. King’s vision alive, it can’t just stay with those of us that may have a few more years behind us than we do in front of us,” he said. “So we need to pass that baton to our young people.”
