Part of Springfield's celebration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and legacy on Monday included Missouri State University music professor Richard Todd Payne, delivering part of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Junior’s “I have a dream” speech from 1963’s Great March on Washington. On that day, some 200,000 people of all races demonstrated at the height of the civil rights movement.
"And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow," Payne quoted King, "I still have a dream. It is a dream that’s deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
Payne was just one of several hundred Ozarks people who turned out in 6-degree weather Monday morning, almost 57 years since King was assassinated by a lone gunman.
Marching through downtown Springfield over the Martin Luther King Jr. Bridge, joining a tradition that reaches back into the mid-1980s, community members sang songs of hope: “Aint gonna let nobody turn me around, I’m gonna keep on a-walkin', keep on a-talkin', marchin’ up to freedom land....”
They also celebrated King’s vision — American values of freedom and justice, alongside the message of Christianity.
"Absolutely," said Springfield teacher Natasha Brown, when Ozarks Public Radio asked her about Christian values linked to Martin Luther King Day. "Absolutely. I mean, that’s who I am and that’s part of why I think Dr. King resonates so well with me.”
Brown's colleague Aughty Bailey stressed carrying on the example of Dr. King: "Our example and our passion, we want to transfer that to the next generation so we can keep this going. We are celebrating a national holiday, a leader, an honest man, the King!”
As it turned out, newly sworn-in President Donald Trump invoked Dr. King’s name from the lectern inside the U.S. Capitol.
But like others interviewed by Ozarks Public Radio at Springfield’s Dr. King event, Brown and Bailey both said they weren’t too focused on other world events Monday.
Isabelle Jimenez Walker, a member of NAACP Springfield's executive committee, said the group has a lot of events and programming coming up in 2025, including a town hall set for next month.
