Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / Jan. 12, 2012, edition 1 / Page 21
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Photo by Jacson Pitt Members of Willie Mason and Friends perform. Photo by Jaeson Pitt U.S. Rep. Mel Watt sits with aide Keith Kelly. Photo by Jaeson Pitt WFU's Dr. Barbee Oakes speaks. Photo by Jacson Pitt Rev. Ellen Yarbrough shares a table with two young sters. Photo by Jacson Pitt Local Red Hat Society members enjoy the event. Breakfast from page 1 today's generation would benefit from the kind of resilience and positive thinking that helped Dr. King and others break down the walls of discrimination. As is tradition at the breakfast, three prominent local pastors were invited to preach on the timeless themes of the event - hope, love and faith. Rev. Donald Jenkins believes that faith can sustain one just as food and water can. The St. P^ul United Methodist Church pastor preached that it was faith that kept Dr. King and oth ers pushing forward as they faced water hoses, jeers and hostilities. "Faith was the absolute belief that something good would happen even in the face of overwhelming evidence that it would not," he said. In his message of love, Rev. Darryl Aaron downplayed the kind of love that is sung about in ballads and acted out on the silver screen. Real love, the kind that Dr. King stood for, is not "sappy" or "syrupy," but the kind that makes man embrace their fellow man, regard Jess of their creed, color or religion, and the kind that makes a person view oth ers for the content of their character, he said. "Love can make you do right," said the First Baptist Church pastor. "Love can pick you up when you fall down." Dr. Nathan Scovens, pastor of' Galilee Missionary Baptist Church, took umbrage at a famous Benjamin Franklin quote that belittles the power of hope. Franklin said, "He that lives upon hope will die fasting;" Scovens said the Founding- Father was wrong in that t regard. "Hope keeps us alive," he said. It was also hope that kept the Civil Rights Movement afloat when it faced ugly realities, added the pastor. "Hope ... bypasses difficulties, despair and doubts," said Scovens. District Court Judge Denise Hartsfield, who once again served as mistress of ceremonies, and Sharee Fowler, a well-known community ser vant who now heads the United Way's Empowering Effective Teachers Initiative, shared personal stories with breakfast attendees. Hartsfield described how moved she was in September when she saw the newly-dedicated MLK Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. "He stood there in the middle of God's universe," Hartsfield said, describing the 30-foot-tall granite memorial. Fowler, who is white, described the hurt she felt more than 20 years ago when her grandmother slapped her across the face after Folwer accepted an innocent peck on the cheek from a young black man. "I have chosen to give (my grand mother) the benefit of the doubt that she did not know better," said Fowler. Sadder, still, she added is those who do know better but don't act or sit silently in the face of injustice. "What we do with that knowing is what matters," she said. Monday's breakfast also included rousing performances by Willie Mason and Friends, a popular local gospel group known for soul-stirring numbers. Photo by Jacson Pitt Evon Smith sings "Lift Every Voice" with her daughter.
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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Jan. 12, 2012, edition 1
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