Jan 21, 2008 By Rebekah Sungala 3 min read

Community members took time Sunday to pay tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and honor those who exemplify qualities that keep King’s memory alive.

Mount Rose Baptist Church in Uniontown held its first Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Service, almost 40 years after the civil rights leader was killed while delivering a speech in Memphis, Tenn. As part of the service, Lawrence Curry recited King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed,” Curry said, in a booming voice that echoed off the church walls and gathered the crowds’ attention.

“And when this happens, when we allows freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'”

Joan Tracey, mistress of ceremonies, said King wanted blacks to succeed and commended Uniontown’s Marlin Sprouts and the Rev. Vincent L. Winfrey Sr. for being the first black men elected to city council and the Uniontown School Board, respectively.

“He wanted us to be a great people, and we have some great people here,” she said. “When we stand together, great things happen.”

Sprouts and Winfrey received awards for their contributions to society at Sunday’s celebration service. Also receiving awards were Chancellor Emmanuel Osagi of Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus; Gwendolyn O. Ridgley, district governor of Rotary International District 7330; the Rev. Louis Ridgley Jr., president of the Uniontown Rotary Club.

Tracey said all of the people who received awards were honored because they were the first black person to reach their respective position.

While accepting his award, Osagi, the first black chancellor at Penn State Fayette, emphasized the importance of education.

“I stand before you, not because I’m a black man. I stand before you because of my education,” he said.

Osagi said King believed education was important, noting that an educated person is able to make decisions and distinguish between good and bad, truth and falsehoods.

“The key to continuing the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., from my perspective, is education,” he said.

The keynote speaker of the celebration service was Dr. Ronald G. Brown, CEO of Fifth Quarter Enterprises of Pittsburgh, a consulting consortium.

Like Osagi, Brown said education is key.

“Education to me is the great equalizer,” he said. “If you don’t do anything else, you got to get serious about education.”

Brown said the black community, and America in general, needs to think about where they stand in regards to their morality, ethics and standards.

People have become numb to the vulgarity and overlook the problems, he said, noting that something must be done.

Brown said the black community must be taught to be strong and resilient.

“We don’t want to be a crutch, we want to make sure people can stand on their own,” he said, noting that King and other civil rights activist fought too hard not to take advantage of today’s opportunities.

Brown commended those who received awards, and also commended Mount Rose Baptist Church for choosing to celebrate King’s life with a community event.

“Dr King’s spirit is what we celebrate,” he said.