LAKEWOOD- Aug. 28, 1963 was the day that changed Michael Rush’s life forever.
Rush was 17 years old and a dish washer in Newark who was traveling by bus to North Carolina to take a college entrance exam.While en route to North Carolina the bus stopped in Washington, D.C., because of a large demonstration of 250,000 people.
Rush, who was intrigued by the commotion, stepped off the bus to see what was happening. Unbeknownst to him, he stepped off that North Carolinabound bus and into the historic March on Washington.
While he was in the nation’s capital he heard Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s landmark “I have a dream” speech. In that moment, Rush said, he was inspired to become something more and to help those who would come after him achieve their dreams.
Rush eventually got back on the bus, went to North Carolina and earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in education. He became a teacher and in 1980 he began his own legacy by starting Omega 13, a Lakewood-based mentoring program for boys.
According to Rush, hearing King’s speech, “Allowed me to know what my place was in terms of giving back to the community.”
As he explained it, “each one, teach one.”
It is with that spirit that the Lakewood chapter of the NationalAssociation for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) holds its annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast Celebration.
This year’s event was held on Jan. 12 at the BestWestern, Route 70. The theme was “Never Forget Our Giants.” The celebration focused on the youth of Lakewood and featured youngsters giving testimony to someone in the past who they believe has made a difference.
The national Martin Luther King Jr. holiday was marked on Jan. 21.
Warren Sherard, president of the Lakewood NAACP, said, “This event helps the community because it gives us an opportunity to bring young people into the room to see folks in the community that they probably don’t see all the time like judges, lawyers and doctors. People they can aspire to, people they can look up to. It also gives us a chance to come together and see how much it is that we have really accomplished and also to take stock of how much we still have to do.
“Dr. King’s legacy to me is the power of the individual. That any one person at any time can do something that can change their family, their community, or the world. That is really why we focus this event on young people, because we want our young people to realize that the power of one person should never be underestimated. We try to encourage them that they can make a difference. And we want to support them and foster that idea,” Sherard said.
James Waters, a former president of the Lakewood NAACP, said, “It’s very important that our young people understand how we got to where we are and understand the contributions that were made in the civil rights struggle.” Lakewood Township Committeeman
Robert Singer, who is also a state
senator, has attended the
breakfast for 28 years. He
said, “This is an opportunity
for the young people
to understand our respect
for someone who
meant a lot to us in this
country. Too many times
holidays have little meaning because it is just a shopping day. The Martin Luther King holiday is not a shopping day. It’s a day that says we are taking time out to say thank you to someone who helped change our country and that’s important.
“The more understanding we instill in our young people, the better off we all are. They are our legacy. They are the future leaders of our country and it is important that our young people understand the type of people we felt were important such asMartin Luther King and therefore they pass that on to their children and their children’s children,” Singer said.
Keynote speaker Kabili Teayari, the deputy mayor of Jersey City and president of the Jersey City NAACP chapter, said, “We must understand our history, remember the movement and have a commitment and faith to the struggle. It is time to wake up.
“We have to remember that Dr. King was a person who represented the movement like Malcolm X and (civil rights activist) Fannie Lou Hamer. Dr. King was the person who was chosen to articulate the suffering of the people and the desires of the people. He was our spokesperson, the person who shined for us. He went into those fires and then brought us with him,” Teayari said. “Dr. King said let’s talk about the struggle. Let’s not talk about my accomplishments. The fact is that we still need to have that spirit of the struggle.
“Events like this are important as long as the focus is on continuing the movement; the movement against racism, the movement against injustice, the movement against disenfranchisement,” Teayari said.
Waters reiterated Teayari’s sentiments and spoke about the current campaign for the presidency.
“We still have not realized the dream thatMartin Luther King had.We’ve made some progress, but we still have a long way to go. What’s happening in the country right now for Barack Obama is an example of white America, with little digs not really accepting this man as a serious potential leader, and that tells us we still have a lot of work to do. We have got to make those changes,” Waters said.