Local and National Leaders Remember King, Continue Fighting

Hamil R. Harris

WI Contributing Writer

Virginia Ali

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had just met with President John F. Kennedy to discuss his plans to convene the 1963 March on Washington, and JFK was concerned.

“Dr. King and organizers of the March often came into Ben’s because their office was on 14th and U,” said Virginia Ali, who co-founded Ben’s Chili Bowl with her husband Ben Ali in August 1958. “That was a real privilege meeting with Kennedy, but he was concerned that a large protest would provoke injustice.”

Despite the President’s concerns, more than 250,000 people converged on the grounds between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963, and Ali, 89, said, “Ben and I were there.”

Had King lived, he would have been 94 on Jan. 15, and in observance of the occasion, Ben’s Chili Bowl served free meals to school teachers who visited the restaurant.

Fred Gray

In the days leading up to the activist’s holiday, Fred Gray, the lawyer for King and Rosa Parks, said he spends his time these days continuing to keep King’s legacy alive.

“I am speaking in Lansing, Michigan, Sunday, and Monday, I will be at Emory University on Wednesday, and next week, I have to go down to Miami to speak to a group of lawyers,” said Gray, who, at 92, said.

“I’m delighted to talk about Dr. King for several reasons.”

“I was one of two persons who recommended Dr. King at the Montgomery bus boycott, and the other person was Joanne Robinson,” he said. “We made that recommendation after Mrs. Park’s arrest,” added Gray, who while in the Alabama state legislature between 1971-1972, recommended King’s become a holiday.

REV. JESSE JACKSON

Rev. Jesse Jackson, 82, had plenty to say about what his focus has been leading up to the 2023 King holiday and beyond.

“When we register to vote, we change the composition of America,” Jackson said.

REV. GRAINGER BROWNING

Rev. Grainger Browning, the pastor of Ebenezer A.M.E. in Fort Washington, said, “Dr. King would have been 94, and everything that we fought for 60 years ago we are fighting for today: jobs, police brutality, issues of race discrimination, but Dr. King would also be concerned with the role of technology and how it is dehumanizing personal relationships.

”It is no longer what’s important but what gets the most views,” Browning added. “What gets the most views can be the most outlandish, the craziest. It’s no longer world poverty, world hunger because these issues are no longer popular.”

The King Center Honors Melanie Campbell

King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, and a few years later, the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change opened in

Atlanta adjacent to his tomb.

On Jan. 14, the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change presented “The Beloved Community Awards.” Onee of the awardees was Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participa- tion (NCBCP).

“The King Center is where I cut my teeth, and to get this award is humbling,” said Campbell in an interview before she accepted her award during a program hosted by Malcolm Jamal Warner and Keisha Knight Pulliam. WI