Published: January 09, 2009 03:42 pm      

Annual MLK celebration to reflect on the past, look to the future

Chelsea L. McGowan

cmcgowan@weatherforddemocrat.com

Following an eventful election season, many historians are now saying 2008 will be reflected upon as a banner year in the fight against racism.

Local NAACP President Jeff Brazzell said he believes Parker County residents need to remember the icon to whom we owe these milestones.

“I can’t imagine an America without the strides Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made,” Brazzell said. “We wouldn’t be talking about a Barack Obama had Dr. King not come before. The election — that was fruit of Dr. King’s labor.”

This year, as for the last 17 years, the Weatherford chapter of the NAACP will host a program honoring Dr. King and the federal holiday that bears his name.

Brazzell said the organization is proud to do so.

“We got on board as quickly as we could to celebrate that day,” he said. “To this particular time, Dr. King is one of the greatest African Americans that’s ever lived. He really blazed the trail for all the things African Americans have been able to accomplish. What better way to honor him?”

This year, the event will be held Jan. 19, which is particularly significant because it is the day before President-Elect Obama’s inauguration.

“It’s actually hard to get my speakers this time around because a lot of people are going to Washington, D.C., for the inauguration,” he said. “If I could, I’d be at the inauguration, too. But we still want to have a good solid program to honor Dr. King here, just as we always have.”

Although local support of the MLK Day event has dwindled in recent years, Brazzell said the organization hopes outreach activities like essay and coloring contests will help promote awareness.

“We’re already underway with the essay and coloring contests we’re doing through the Weatherford, Millsap and Poolville ISDs,” he said. “In the beginning, 17 years ago, the MLK event in Parker County was like anything new. But once the newness wore off, attendance began to dwindle. But we’ve kept pushing ahead because really, it’s about consistency. All we can do is get the word out and encourage people to show up and let the chips fall where they may.”

In addition to the contests, a panel of speakers will also be presented in the afternoon. This aspect of the celebration, Brazzell said, allows the community to hear from individuals from all walks of life.

“We try to have a pretty eclectic panel of speakers. ... we don’t want all black or all white,” he said. “We try to incorporate people of different races and backgrounds to tell us their stories. We ask, ‘how has Dr. King’s message affected your life?’ People don’t have to do much research to realize that they’re standing on what this man and others helped to build.”

Just as the events of 2008 will be taught in America’s future history books, Brazzell said he believes the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. should be of the utmost importance in today’s schools.

“I think Dr. King’s legacy is just as important as teaching about George Washington or any other person who did great things for the United States of America,” he said. “People assume Dr. King was just for African Americans, but Dr. King was for people who were oppressed. There are still people in this country who are oppressed, and they aren’t all of any particular race. Young people today are riding the crest of what has been done before them. They don’t really know what the struggle was all about, but they need to.”

And to those who say the ascension of an African-American to the White House means racism is over, Brazzell begs to disagree.

“This country was built on equal rights and we’re getting closer, but racism is not over and it never will be,” he said. “I think a lot of people feel a sense of relief at Obama’s election taking place because it levels the playing field to a certain degree. You can obtain any status that you want in America, and Obama is proof of that now. Before, it was really thought that there’d never be an African-American president in our lifetime. Now that’s happened. But the struggle continues because there are still a lot of naysayers out there.”

Brazzell said he believes some of those naysayers will be silenced if Obama completes a successful term in office.

“We have to remember we can’t give this man a report card for four more years,” he said. “I think Obama will succeed, but he’ll have to do it by surrounding himself with good people from both parties. There are more things in common between our two political parties than people believe. We can’t be that far apart in our way of thinking. This is America. How can you not be concerned about people who need a hand to get up? How can you not be concerned about schools that don’t have the proper books? We’re all in this fishbowl together.”

As a matter of speculation, Brazzell said he thinks MLK himself would be excited by the changes in America today, but would encourage the warriors who have come after him to continue their fight.

“Dr. King would be overjoyed for what just happened, but he’d know that the struggle continues,” Brazzell said. “You have to keep pushing forward to make other things happen. When you look at it, one black president out of 44 isn’t good considering all the struggle we’ve been through. But if that’s what we got, it’s not bad. There will be a whole lot of firsts over the next four years, and those are what we need to focus on.”

Although frequently described as “deep red” and “ultra conservative,” Parker County has been increasingly progressive in its racial issues, according to Brazzell.

“Three years in a row, here in Weatherford, a predominately white school district had African Americans as homecoming kings and queens,” he said. “You can’t tell me those young people see color the same way their parents did. In fact, I think personally there might be more African American youths that think in that racist tone than whites, when it comes to young people. Young Caucasians see that thought process as outdated, whereas the African Americans still struggle with it to some degree. In any case, it’s not rocket science to look at what’s happening on a national and local level and see that race isn’t as big a factor to this new generation.”