Before holiday, Tinker celebrates MLK legacy

Published Jan. 19, 2012
By Mike W. Ray
Staff Writer

TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- The impact of Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and service "continues to be an immutable influence on our society and culture," the Rev. Dr. Major Jemison asserted recently.

Rev. Jemison was the guest speaker at the annual Tinker AFB observance of Dr. King's birthday; the event was held Jan. 13 in the Tinker Chapel. This year marked the 26th anniversary of the national observance of the birthday of Mr. King, who was born 83 years ago, on Jan. 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Ga.

Joanne Davis, director of the Small Business Office in the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, pointed to several similarities in the lives of Dr. King and Dr. Jemison.

For example, early in his career Dr. King interviewed for a job at Calvary Baptist Church (now Covenant Church) in Oklahoma City, while Dr. Jemison is the senior pastor at St. John Missionary Baptist Church in Oklahoma City.

In addition, Ms. Davis related, Dr. Jemison was born in Alabama and reared in Birmingham, while Dr. King's non-violent protest crusade in Alabama "was monumental in the history" of this nation's "civil rights journey."

Col. Steven Bleymaier, 72nd Air Base Wing commander, said of Dr. King that, "All Americans can be grateful for his legacy and inspired by his leadership." Dr. King's leadership in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference helped bring about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Colonel Bleymaier noted.

The colonel quoted Reverend King's 1963 "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," which Dr King wrote one year prior to passage of the landmark civil rights legislation, "Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not-too-distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty."

"Dr. King's dream is an emerging reality today," said Dr. Jemison, pointing to the 2008 election of Barack Obama as president of the United States. "The ambitious dream of an America coming together is closer today than ever before." However, Mr. Jemison continued, "Man's inhumanity to man demonstrates that we have not arrived yet... The struggle continues."

Nevertheless, he said, "There is hope for a better tomorrow... Though the hills are high and seem insurmountable at times, don't give in, don't give up, and don't give out," he exhorted his audience.