It has been 40 years since Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was first recognized as a national holiday. Across the country, the day is used as a remembrance of the man and his message of equality. That legacy was on full display at the Boulder Jewish Community Center on Sunday.
The NAACP of Boulder County collaborated with Longmont’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Planning Committee to host a celebration of King and to commemorate his life and advocacy. The program called “Fanning the Flames of the Dream” sought to bring the community together in remembrance of King and to continue his work for racial justice.
The group had planned two different events with the same program, with the first event happening in Boulder and a second event falling on the MLK holiday in Longmont. The second event, scheduled to take place Monday at Silver Creek High School, was canceled due to freezing temperatures and St. Vrain Valley School District building closures.
The celebration in Boulder went forward as planned, and featured music, food and speakers from around Colorado.
Colorado State Representative Junie Joseph provided the welcome address and announced that on Friday, legislation was passed renaming two segments of US Highway 36 running through Boulder as the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Highway. Signs will be placed later in the spring at Mile Marker 38 northbound and Mile Marker 32 before Dakota Ridge.
Longmont resident and longtime civil rights activist Minister Glenda Strong-Robinson emceed much of the evening. In 1968, Robinson skipped class to attend the march with King in Memphis, just days before his assassination.
“I was just 19 years old then, and it was a scary time,” Robinson said. “We’ve come so far since, but there is more work to do.”
Robinson has lived in Longmont for more than 42 years and serves as the historian and executive committee member of the NAACP, Boulder County Branch.
“I will continue to uphold the dignity, integrity and legacy of Dr. King’s dream for as long as I can,” Robinson siad.
Brenda Ingram-Lyle, founder of the Family Learning Center in Boulder, received the Living Legend and Lifetime Achievement Award at Sunday’s celebration.
“I am happiest when I am in the service of someone else,” Ingram-Lyle said. “I have a responsibility to make things better for the next generation.”
Ingram-Lyle sits on the board of several charitable organizations and has used her work at the Learning Center to “empower children and families to change the world,” according to Robinson.
The featured keynote speaker for the evening was Dr. Reiland Rabaka, founder and director of the Center for African Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Rabaka has published more than 100 scholarly articles and essays, as well as 18 books on African studies.
“MLK developed one of the most awesome and inspiring versions of the American dream since the Declaration of Independence,” Rabaka said. “There is no way to realize King’s dream without giving some serious consideration and commitment to justice. There is a longstanding tendency to start and stop with King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. I disagree. It is only when we refuse the framing and cherry-picking of his words that we understand how he increasingly came to emphasize the need for justice and how that is woven into the fabric of that dream.”
Sunday's event drew families from all over Boulder County, with several hundred people in attendance. The two-hour event concluded with a performance by Purnell Steen and the Five Points Ambassadors singing “This Little Light of Mine” as members of the audience joined along.
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