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thursday, January 17, 2013 Page B1
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Community pays homage to Martin Luther King’s legacy By Sarina Trangle strangle@riverdalepress.com
J
ames White, leader of RiverdaleYonkers Ethical Culture Society, and Jorge Piña held up a framed black and white photograph of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a thank you note the civil rights leader sent the humanist organization on Aug. 4, 1960. “Many congregations have very beautiful icons, books that are sacred and carried in procession. We have this letter, of which we are justly very proud,” Mr. White told the 30 people attending Ethical Culture’s tribute to Dr. King this Sunday. “This congregation has deep and abiding ties with
Dr. King and his movement.” Dr. King’s ties with the community include summering with his family in Riverdale before delivering his stirring “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963. In the 1950s, the society’s founder Matthew Ies Spetter organized the Riverdale Committee in Defense of Human Rights in the South, which later raised $500 to assist students holding sit-in protests under Dr. King’s guidance. Dr. Spetter received a letter explaining how the money would benefit thousands of students who faced brutality, arrests and jailings “with quiet heroism.” “Our fight continues and we here in the south are strengthened by the knowledge that your determination, like ours, will continue until democratic rights become a realty for every person in our land,” Mr. White read aloud from Dr. King’s note. He then placed the memento on a wooden stand in the corner of the society’s Fieldston headquarters. The meeting room returned to singing protest songs, such as “We Shall Overcome,” listening to members read poetry by Langston Hughes and Jamie McKenzie and discussing how they could continue Dr. King’s legacy while dealing with modern civil rights issues.
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Photos by Marisol Díaz
CAMYLL RODRÍGUEZ, a third grader at P.S. 81 works on a unity wreath in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Riverdale Neighborhood House’s afterschool program Monday.
thical Culture’s celebration kicked off several ceremonies honoring Dr. King. On Monday, third graders in the Riverdale Neighborhood House’s after-school program crafted a unity wreath. The children colored paper hands, covering them in depictions of activities and characteristics that make them unique. They then helped counselor Kenya Payne and her aide Jasmen Hussain glue the palms into a circle to symbolize the synthesis of their backgrounds. “I’m doing a cupcake because I like to cook,” Taliyah Warner said while drawing on a blue hand. “We talked about don’t judge by your color, but by your characteristics.” The Hebrew Institute of Riverdale will continue its approximately 10-year tradition of hosting a free interfaith concert with singer-songwriter Neshama Carle-
KAMILA PIÑA, 10, speaks about the Martin Luther King holiday during a presentation at the Riverdale-Yonkers Society for Ethical Culture Sunday. bach, the choir from Green Pastures Baptist Church in Soundview and the Salanter Akiba Riverdale choir on the Martin Luther King Day, Monday, Jan. 21, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. The evening will focus on the bravery of Ruby Bridges, who became the first black girl to attend an all white school in New Orleans in 1960. Congregants from St. Stephen’s United Methodist Church will venture to Crawford Memorial United Methodist Church on White Plains Road to hear Martin McLee, the new bishop of the sect’s New York Chapter, address Dr. King’s history. Christ Church Riverdale will join Episcopal congregations across the borough in a Dr. King Day celebration at Trinity Church of Morrisania from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 21.
ISALENA FRIEDA SILENSKY GOLDMAN holds a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as she prepares to read it at a celebration of the Civil Rights leader’s life at the Society for Ethical Culture.
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