115th Year, 24th Issue Thursday, January 22, 2004 Sparta, North Carolina

speaker (56K)
evangelist (50K) Evangelist Carolyn McCray quotes passages from former civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech during the celebration last Thursday.

Second-annual service is held in honor of Martin Luther King

By PETER SORENSON
Staff

The Rev. Morris Boyd of Sparta's St. Frances Catholic Church of Rome says that in remembering anything or anyone, we must not stop telling stories about it in order for it not to be forgotten.

Boyd was speaking at Macedonia Baptist Church's second Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration, which was held on the evening of Jan. 15 at Macedonia Baptist Church.

First, he likened remembering the civil rights leader to a scene in the movie "Avalon": "The grandfather gathers his grandchildren around and says, ‘Let me tell you about my first day in America. I arrived in Baltimore on the Fourth of July, thinking that all those fireworks I saw were in honor of my first day here.'" When the grandfather was about to tell the same story on a subsequent occasion, his son yelled in from the kitchen for him to "knock it off," but the grandfather maintained that he must tell the story in order for people not to stop remembering.

"Tonight we are here to remember Martin Luther King Jr.," Boyd went on. "(His is) an ongoing story for civil rights in our country and in our world."

Above Left: The Rev. Morris Boyd of Sparta's St. Frances Catholic Church of Rome was one of the speakers at Macedonia Baptist Church's second "Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration," which was held at the church on Jan. 15. Boyd shared some of his own recollections of growing up in Mobile, Ala. during the middle of the 20th century.

Get the rest of this article in this week's issue of the Alleghany News!

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