Rhonda Anderson, Community YMCA president and CEO, and the Rev. Terrence Porter, keynote speaker and pastor of the Pilgrim Baptist Church in Red Bank, were two of the many attendees of the 26th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial Breakfast on Jan. 19 at Branches in West Long Branch. The civil rights movement led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. included a vision of unity among all peoples, the Rev. Terrence K. Porter told attendees at the 26th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Breakfast this week.
“In spite of a nightmarish America [in the 1960s], Dr. King led this nation to a movement of civil rights. It was a dream of civil rights for everyone,” Porter said at the Jan. 19 breakfast sponsored by the Community YMCA, Red Bank, and the YMCA of Western Monmouth County, Freehold Township.
“He believed that people of different faiths and different cultures, people of different genders and different ethnicities, people of different socioeconomic backgrounds and different educational levels — people who were different — could still get along if they promoted the ethic of love with one another. “Love is the only solution to the problems facing our world and facing our communities,” said Porter, pastor of Pilgrim Baptist Church in Red Bank.
Porter said King not only believed in unity, but also in the decency of people, despite the personal biases of some.
“He believed that in the heart of a bigot, somewhere in the bosom of those who are scorned, way down in the soul of malice, somewhere in the fiber of hatred, there exists in the heart of men and women a thread of decency and a drop of good and the peace of righteousness in everybody,” he said.
Looking to the future, Porter said he believes America has come a long way since the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, and he hopes the nation and communities will become “citadels of peace.”
“Today, we gather here … to remember the influence of a 20th-century prophet. In a moment in time in American history, the prophet inspired us to see in ourselves the possibility of greatness, unity and equality for everybody,” Porter said.
“He caused many to realize that they must be a part of the solution and not a part of the problem of racial injustice in America.”
Anekha Goyal of Biotechnology High School, Freehold, and Tia Hicks-Hunter of Academy Charter High School, Belmar, offered welcoming remarks. Musical selections were performed by Genise Hughes and her daughter, Amani, as well as Porter’s daughter, Naomi.
At the breakfast, held at Branches in West Long Branch, scholarships were presented to essay contest winners Shinelle Gilbert of Neptune High School and Iyanna Fairfax of Freehold Borough High School. The student’s read their essays regarding King’s words.
Rhonda Anderson, Community YMCA president and CEO, echoed Porter’s sentiments:
“The importance of the breakfast is to commemorate the legacy and the sacrifice of Martin Luther King — what he did, not only for African-Americans, but for all of humanity,” she said.
“He was for civil rights for all. We think that it is important, particularly for our young people, to understand what he did for this nation through his sacrifice and his service. That is why we take this morning to commemorate and have this breakfast.”