Selfless love and patience toward one another can help change an often angry and selfish America battling division and hate.
That was a theme of Indianapolis CBS 4 TV morning anchor Frank Mickens’ keynote speech at Monday’s 22nd Annual Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Breakfast at The Commons in downtown Columbus before nearly 300 people.
Mickens, also an ordained Christian minister, wove that message amid Scripture and King’s own words in his address at an event that carried the focus, “One Blood, All Nations.” The crowd included city and educational leaders, human rights officials, ministers, nonprofit agency leaders, business owners, and law enforcement, firefighters, health care and other area disciplines.
The local African American Pastors Alliance and the city of Columbus organized the gathering, paid for by a range of corporate and business sponsors. And the Rev. Fred King, the emcee with the pastors alliance, agreed with Mickens’ focus on love to stop racial, political and other elements of division.
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“Love covers a multitude of sins,” the emcee said while quoting Scripture at the close of Mickens’ remarks.
The broadcaster mentioned that people must be willing to emulate the patience and sacrifice of King, the leader of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s before he was assassinated in 1968.
Mickens pointed out that King had been crusading for equality and justice for minorities and the impoverished for nearly a decade by the time the Civil Rights of 1964 was passed.
“Love takes time,” Mickens said.
And then Mickens shared a thought about King’s commitment to nonviolent protest.
“What if he had wanted to arm black people to fight back (against racism)?” Mickens asked. “He was willing to (seemingly) lose. “
By that, Mickens meant that King didn’t feel the need to dominate others or to triumph in a prideful way to achieve racial and other equality.
“That’s the secret sauce right there,” he said, pointing out that King often sacrificed his even his personal safety and his comfort — he was arrested several times at protests — for the sake of the cause.
Much of Mickens’ address was echoed by others. They included elementary school student and singer Miyanna Haywood, who opened the event by accompanying a unity-oriented video done by her grandfather Ralph Haywood. The clip was set to the song “Let There Be Peace On Earth” that the student performed to the video.
It also included Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop, who praised King’s success using peaceful means in a volatile age of skirmishes and killings over race.
“Non-violence set the tone,” Lienhoop said. “It allows us to focus on the wrong we wish to right.”
Lienhoop quoted King that racism exists because of some people’s “need that some people have to feel superior” to others.
Jim Roberts, Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. superintendent, said he read through a number of King’s speeches and sermons to prepare his own remarks. And he mentioned that King especially possessed a drive for excellence.
Roberts quoted a famous passage from a King speech from 1967: “If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, go out and sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures. Sweep streets like Beethoven composed music.”
Columbus mime Jerome Wood, a frequent guest at these special breakfasts over the past decade, performed to Christian singer Mandissa’s song “We All Bleed the Same.” His presentation was made more dramatic by the fact that he moved both fluidly and emphatically in front of a backdrop of King.
But Wood’s message, closely linked to the event theme, was loud and clear without a single syllable from him. The song included this part of the chorus: We all bleed the same/So tell me why, tell me why/We’re divided.
Columbus resident Pauline Jordan attended the gathering. Her late husband, Columbus United Methodist pastor Melvin “Bucky” Jordan, marched with Martin Luther King in 1965 in Selma, Alabama.
“I loved it,” Jordan said of Mickens’ message. “And he’s right. Even though we’re all different, we can learn to understand one another. And we can care for each other.”
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Columbus resident Pastor James Wood Sr. was chosen for the African American Pastors Alliance’s annual Beloved Community Award, for his service for everything from coaching church league basketball to his worship and praise music to leading a local jail ministry.
Wood, pastor of North Vernon’s Golden Harvest Community Church, thanked God for his goodness, and his wife Lisa and family for their support of his work. He also singled out Columbus residents Tom and Mary Harmon for their longtime friendship and help.
"I am so grateful," Wood said.
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The local African American Pastors Alliance presented $1,000 scholarships to six area high school seniors in conjunction with Monday’s annual breakfast. Money comes from the alliance and corporate sponsors.
The winners are:
- Hunter Spalding of Columbus North High School.
- Tateana Cutter of Columbus North High School.
- Lealah Carmer of CSA New Tech High School.
- Kassidy Humes of Columbus East High School.
- Alivia Jordan of Columbus East High School.
- Maleke McNeil of Columbus East High School.
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