Caption:Michael Bailor poses beside a civil rights display in the Washington Center. On Martin Luther King Day the crowd gathered at Washington Center to sing songs and view the documentary collection of Sue Sojourner. (Photo by Naomi Yaeger Bischoff)
The celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s, 78th birthday kept Duluth’s Hillside neighborhood buzzing on Monday, Jan. 15. The day started with breakfast served by the African American Men’s Association at First United Methodist Church (“The Copper Top.”)
Over 230 people ate at the meal. The event was linked by Public Television to the Martin Luther King (MLK) breakfast in Minneapolis. The keynote speaker at the Minneapolis event was Roslyn Brock, Vice Chairperson of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) National Board of Directors.
With politicians like Sen. Amy Klobachur, Sen. Norm Coleman and Gov. Tim Pawlenty in the Minneapolis audience, Brock was not afraid to admonish her listeners. She said, “The true testament of power is how we treat the man who has no position to hold.”
She cited figures showing that the United States and Minnesota in particular still have huge gaps in education, health and economics between racial groups. She said the state of Minnesota under funds public education by $1 billion. And five times more money is spent on the prison system than on tuition at the University of Minnesota.
“I agree that no child should be left behind,” she said. To her it should mean that a child should not look to the prison system to attain on-the-job-training.
She quoted South African president Desmond Tutu who said, “It is difficult to wake up a man who pretends he is sleeping.”
She told an African proverb in which some elephants had made it across the river, but the smaller elephants were stuck on the other side. The older, bigger elephants went back across the river to walk and swam with the smaller elephants and brought them to safety on the other side.
Brock then said, “We have some folks still standing on the banks.” She said there is no time to write a grant, do more research or pass legislation. “Just turn around and help!” She listed Minnetonka, Eden Prairie and Edina as communities that need to remember that they are their brother’s keepers. She said while you are following the Minnesota North Star, “Once you make it, don’t forget to turn around and help somebody else.”
After the breakfast the pastor of the First United Methodist Church, Rev. David Bard, said that Roslyn Brock was inspiring and challenging at the same time. He said one point that stuck out was that Brock said Minnesota spends five times more money on incarcerating a person than on educating a person.
The Rev. Denita R. Williams, the new pastor of St. Mark African Methodist Episcopal Church said, “Ms. Roslyn M. Brock was a dynamic speaker, I enjoyed her greatly. I believe her words that said we have sat on the sidelines long enough were very accurate in conjunction with her analogy of the elephants. The analogy of the elephants left us with a visual image and not just an audible one. It provoked us to ask the question, ‘Who are we willing to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with to assist along life’s path.’”
