Bridgeville event celebrates life of Martin Luther King Jr.

For more than half a century, students in most American classrooms have learned at least a little something about Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

They may have memorized it as occurring in 1963 before a quarter of a million people in the nation’s capital, and that his plea for racial equality figured prominently in the passage of the following year’s federal Civil Rights Act.

Beyond the basics, though, is a wealth of historical perspective brought into focus by the Rev. Brian Janssen, pastor of Bethany Presbyterian Church in Bridgeville.

On Jan. 16, his church hosted the fifth annual Celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. organized by One Music Fest Inc., a Bridgeville nonprofit that promotes awareness and appreciation of diversity.

Along with music, prayer and various acknowledgements, Janssen’s narrative helped mark King’s birthday by providing his most celebrated oratory with context.

“We see the video of the speech and we think — and I thought this, too, when I was growing up — that the March on Washington just erupted,” Janssen said about the mass protest of Aug. 28, 1963. “In one sense, that is true. No one could have prepared for the place this day would one day hold in the national conscience. But it was also the culmination of months of planning and working toward unity.”

A key series of events took place that spring in Birmingham, Ala., where Theophilus “Bull” Connor, the city’s commissioner of public safety, had just lost his election bid for mayor. Attempting to thwart a peaceful campaign against local segregation, Connor ordered measures such as spraying protesters with fire hoses and releasing police dogs.

“You need only watch the old newsreels for a moment to see the struggle,” Janssen said. “But without it, there might have been no success.”

Contemporary TV viewers saw the carnage and took action, donating toward civil rights groups that required funding to organize events such as the August march.

President John F. Kennedy also was watching.

“Birmingham was the tipping point for him, and he went on national television to announce his legislative agenda for civil rights,” Janssen said.

As for the role of Birmingham’s top law enforcement official, Janssen quoted Wyatt Walker (1928-2018), executive director of the King-founded Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

“Sheriff ‘Bull’ Connor had something in his mind about not letting us get to City Hall. I prayed that he’d keep trying to stop us. What would be new if he’d let us go? There would be no movement, no publicity,” Walker explained.

“We had calculated for the stupidity of a ‘Bull’ Connor.”

Janssen also spoke about the collective frame of mind for the individuals who took the time and effort to venture to Washington, D.C., nearly six decades ago.

“Would we have been part of the 250,000 gathered that day?” he asked. “Some of you may have been. But our presence here this evening is at least evidence of our hope that we would have been, hope that we would have heard about the dream, and hope that we continue to see the dream come true.”

The people who gathered at his church were treated to dynamic vocal performances by world-traveling baritone Anthony Brown, accompanied by Phillip De Luna on piano, and soprano Kathryn Kearney, who was a member of the Opportunes a cappella group while attending Harvard University.

Reading the “I Have a Dream” speech were Kirk Anderson, Deb Colosimo and Deb Kimbrough, previous recipients of One Music Fest’s Unsung Community Service Award presented in conjunction with Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This year’s winner was Tim Anderson, longtime director of the Bridgeville Community Food Bank.

The celebration also included a theme-based round of community prayer led by three local pastors, each addressing a particular theme: Prabhu Isaac of Solid Rock Revival Church in Bridgeville, hope; Cheryl Jones-Ross of Greater Hope Restoration Ministries in Scott, reconciliation; and Brian Snyder of Bower Hill Community Church in Mt. Lebanon, perseverance.

“We give thanks on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day for all who have walked this road before us and inspired us, those who have laid a good foundation in the struggle for racial justice in this country,” Snyder said in his prayer. “When they felt discouraged, You came to them with hope and joy, and sometimes laughter. When they felt tired, You renewed their strength. In Your unending faithfulness, you gave them all they needed for their task.

“Do as much for those who undertake that same task in our times.”