By MICHAEL NUNES
Staff Writer
RED BANK — Over 60 years since the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream Speech” in Washington D.C, community and religious leaders gathered in Red Bank to remember the man who got them started to the top of the mountain, but was killed before he could see the top.
“We are together because we believe that people coming together can really understand that we can still do much together and make a difference. [Together] we can move the compass of morality towards the good in the nation in which we live and especially in Monmouth County,” Rev. Terrence Porter, of the Pilgrim Baptist Church on Shrewsbury Avenue, said to the congregation that he estimated numbered some 600.
On Jan. 18 religious, community leaders gathered at Pilgrim Baptist Church to cap off what has been a weekend long celebration of King’s legacy.
Mayor Pasquale Menna thanked Porter for serving as the host to the event and called on young people to help continue the legacy of King.
“Dr. King died a long time ago, before many in people in this room were even born. However the work that he started will not be finished for a long time to come. …it is up to the young people in the room today to accept Dr. King’s call and carry it a lot further,” Menna said.
According to Porter, this was the first year the event had inter-faith dynamic. The Islamic Society of Monmouth County as well as the Monmouth Reform Temple in Tinton Falls supported the event.
“In every generation, men and women are chosen to serve as God’s agents in history. Such a servant was Martin Luther King Jr. whose birth we now commemorate. We give thanks for the life of this twentieth century prophet of freedom,” Rabbi Marc Kline said.
Bringing various religions together to celebrate, according to Porter, is what King would have done.
“That’s what King would have done and that is what he did. That’s our moral obligation to include other denominations… if we don’t do it in the houses of worship, then its never going to get done,” he said.
According to Porter, despite King’s message being over six decades old, it is still relevant.
“I think the biggest thing is that his message of non violence is still a legitimate and affirming message of his movement. Not only that, but the key for the message is that the issues he basically trumpeted was racial injustice and poverty that we still see right now,” he said.
“If we still have a system that continues to perpetuate subtle racism that denies people opportunity then the cause and the issues are still there,” Porter said.
According to Porter, society had a long way to go before realizing King’s dream to its fullest.
“Even in the community of Red Bank just this weekend, we had racial incidents. Those with different beliefs placed items promoting the Klu Klux Klan on the lawns of residents on the east side,” Porter said, referencing KKK fliers that insulted King. The fliers were placed in Ziploc bags with stones as to not fly away and were placed on the lawns of residents.
“Our battle is not over and we must not forget that what brought us together. Racial injustice was part of the fiber of America, it was part of the stain on the canvas of America. I dare think in the society which we live many of those elements still yet remain,” he said.
“I believe, like Martin Luther King, there is hope that we can one day reach the dream of humanity, where we are not judged by the color of our skin but by the content of our character,” Porter said.
Martin Luther King Jr Day was signed into law in 1983 by then-president Ronald Reagan. The holiday was first observed three years later on January 20, 1986.
