Stan Smith
“I think of his dream and in so many ways how it was fulfilled, and how far we still have yet to come. With the recent police actions, with the joy of President Barack Obama being put in office as the first black president, with so many young people in college more so than ever before, I see the good things, but I also see the down side that we are still struggling with racial discrimination in this country, and we still have so much to overcome.”
Sylvia Weeden
“I think about the struggle and how hard he fought for our freedom and equal rights. I also think about where we are today and where our children are and how hard he fought for the legacy, and our children don’t know how the struggle was.”
Pat Cannon
“My mind takes me back to when I was a teenager, and I was fortunate enough to go to Washington to see Dr. King on Ralph Metcalf’s bus from the 3rd Ward. My parents worked for Ralph Metcalf, and I remember going, thinking, and feeling so blessed. When I look back now and think about Dr. King’s legacy, I think we need to get back to those things and to teach these kids how to fight for what’s right and to stand up and be a man or a woman.”
Aaron Cannon
“I am a Vietnam veteran. I was in Vietnam two weeks when Martin Luther King was assassinated. I didn’t know too much about civilian life because I was in the infantry and there was not too much we could do. When he got killed, the military police thought we were going to have a race riot, so they ushered all the white soldiers into the mess hall, but we didn’t have a race riot because we were too busy fighting the Vietnamese.”
Messiah Equiano
“It makes me think of determination, leadership, and teamwork. We all have to be determined to bring about the things that we want to bring about, whether it’s the right to vote or being able to sit wherever we want on buses, or being the best father or mother to our children. Also working with the team to keep it going. We all have teams, whether it’s our family, friends, colleagues, or collaborators.
Isaiah Robinson
“I think of it a lot because I play Dr. Martin Luther King in a show every year, so of course I think of everything that he sacrificed and how he struggled. But specifically when his birthday rolls around on Jan. 15, I think about how he graduated from Morehouse College at the age of 15. It’s a loose connection, but he stressed education in his family.”
