At the end of the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Beloved Community Commemorative Service, the Rev. A.R. Bernard Sr. invoked Charles Dickens as he pondered the significance of the holiday program coupled with the concurring inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States.
“It is always the best of times and the worst of times,” Bernard said, referencing Dickens' “A Tale of Two Cities.” “But it is what you do with the time that will make all of the difference in the world.”
The Dickensian allusions of a country struggling with poverty and inequality reigned throughout the program at Ebenezer Baptist Church.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
“To some, today represents the best of times, ‘Make America Great Again,’” said Bernice King, CEO of the King Center and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.‘s youngest daughter. “To others, it is the worst of times, ‘Set America Back Again.”
King told the audience: “We will not go back.”
Called “The Woman King,” by the presiding official — the Rev. Natosha Reid Rice — Bernice King began her “Call to Commemoration” by asking for a moment of silence for the unhoused man who was recently killed by a City of Atlanta bulldozer during a sweep of a homeless camp. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens later addressed the issue and promised to unveil sweeping changes soon in how the city deals with the unhoused.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
King soon got to the heart of the day, urging the crowd, and America, to “stay woke” during Trump’s second term.
“We are living in a time where antiwoke rhetoric has become a weapon to divide us and distract us from the real issues of injustice. But let me be clear: To be woke is to be aware of oppression and committed to justice,” King said. “We will not close our eyes. We will remain woke because too much is on the line.”
As the crowd rose and followed her every word, King rattled off that health care, education, housing security, civil rights protections, economic stability, the reliability of taught history, voting rights, freedom, justice and democracy were “all on the line.”
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
“The survival of humanity is on the line,” King said. “I urge everyone to heed my father’s call to remain awake through a great revolution.”
As usual, Ebenezer was packed for the annual ceremony, now in its 56th year.
But for the first time in more than a decade, the program was brisk and to the point. The service, which usually labors into the early afternoon, saw fewer speakers and performances. King had planned for the event to run from 9 a.m. until about 11 a.m., because she wanted people to witness for themselves Trump’s inauguration speech at noon.
They would have heard Trump praise Martin Luther King Jr. and promise to “strive together to make his dream a reality.”
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
“To the Black and Hispanic communities, I want to thank you for the tremendous outpouring of love and trust that you have shown me with your vote. We set records and I will not forget it. I’ve heard your voices in the campaign, and I look forward to working with you in the years to come,” Trump said during his inauguration speech. “Today is MLK Day and … in his honor we will strive together to make his dream a reality. We will make his dream come true.”
Alveda King, a niece of King and one of Trump’s biggest African American boosters, was in Washington and read Scripture at St. John’s Church, with Trump watching from a pew before he was sworn in.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, Ebenezer’s pastor, did not attend the Atlanta ceremony, remaining in Washington for the inauguration. He told NPR that his attendance is “an endorsement of our democratic principles.”
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
“Donald Trump won the election. And one of the bedrock principles of our democratic system is the nonviolent transfer of power, and it is something to which I’m deeply committed,” he said, adding: “He won the election, and sometimes you got to be present in order to engage in the fight.”
In a video message to Ebenezer, Warnock said the time has come to continue the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.‘s “lifework and his mission.”
King “understood that it was up to all of us to keep up the work of pushing our country toward its highest ideals,” Warnock said. “Together, we will continue Dr. King’s work and we will ensure that the arc of the moral universe continues to bend toward justice.”
Before closing his speech by bellowing the lyrics to John Legend and Common’s “Glory” from the King-inspired movie “Selma,” keynote speaker William J. Barber cautioned Trump against overlooking America’s poor and hungry.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
“I don’t care who you are … you never win a mandate to violate justice,” said Barber, wearing a black robe tinted with African prints. “You never win a mandate to hurt people.”
Quipping on the recent ban of a popular social media platform, Barber said: “Here we are talking about saving TikTok and we haven’t saved 140 million poor folk in this country yet.”
He urged the crowd to “tell the truth” about poverty, hunger and social injustice.
“The right time to tell the truth is always right now, and telling the truth is the most radical and prophetic moral action you can take in a season of lies,” said Barber, the co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign. “We don’t come with a dark message, but a hopeful message. Telling the truth is the most radical moral action you can make in a season of lies.”
Despite organizers’ best efforts, the Ebenezer service ran a bit long, ending at about 11:30 a.m. But perhaps avoiding the freezing temperatures outside, most people just hung around the massive sanctuary, hugging each other and trying to get selfies with Barber, King and Rice.
Finally, at about 11:59 a.m., a minute before the transition of power, everyone left.
“On the one hand, Lady Liberty’s statue stands in the harbor welcoming people who are longing to be free,” Barber said before leaving. “At the same time, people who say they love freedom are talking about mass deportation. But the truth of the matter is the rules that they have talked about using, if they were used 100 years ago, their own grandmothers couldn’t have gotten in.”
Become a member of UATL for more stories like this in our free newsletter and other membership benefits.
Follow UATL on Facebook, on X, TikTok and Instagram.
About the Author
