More than 150 people braved snowy roads Monday morning to attend the Marblehead Racial Justice Team’s second annual MLK Community Breakfast at Old North Church. Families, faith leaders and community members gathered for live music, a dramatic reading and reflection in honor of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
A chorus from St. Mary’s in Lynn, led by the school’s music director, Brandon Mayes, opened the program with a stirring rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” as the audience joined in. Mayes then spoke — and sang — about the power of Negro spirituals and how they evolved into protest songs during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and ’70s.
Members of Marblehead Little Theatre followed with readings from King’s “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” including his searing words on justice and the urgency of action: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Marblehead Museum Director Lauren McCormack received the Drum Justice Award in recognition of her work highlighting the history of Black and Indigenous people in town.
Kristin DuBay Horton later led a call to action, inviting audience members to stand and publicly commit to one step they would take this year to help make the world a better place.
One man shared a personal reflection, recalling his first encounter with segregation while traveling in the South in the 1960s as a member of the Air Force. He described hearing a restaurant worker use a racial slur and said he regretted not speaking up at the time. He vowed to always call out racism when he sees it now.
At the end of the program, MRJT member Donna Cotterrel led the crowd singing the social justice anthem, “We Are a New and Unsettling Force.”
Afterwards, attendees traveled to SPUR, where they assembled jars of soup for local food pantries.
The MLK Community Breakfast was organized by MRJT and co-sponsors Marblehead Ministerial Association, Marblehead League of Women Voters, Marblehead Task Force Against Discrimination, Marblehead Alliance for Democracy, NAACP North Shore Branch and the United Methodist Foundation.
Editor Leigh Blander is an experienced TV, radio and print journalist.
