By Lance Liverman
The following remarks were delivered by Princeton Councilman Lance Liverman at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. community breakfast held at Princeton University Jan. 16., This is truly an honor to be standing in front of you today at the very first Princeton University MLK Community Breakfast., Let me take this time to thank once again the First Baptist Church Unity Choir. Under the direction of Elder Donald Locklear and the choir’s president, Andrea White-Harris. Thanks so much for coming. This is my church., I want to thank Councilwoman Jo Butler, Councilwoman Heather Howard and Councilman Tim Quinn. I want to thank Kristin Appleget and Bob Durkee for all their work for making this happen., When I was asked to say a few remarks I was surprised. I was kind of shocked. I had earlier suggested other members of the community who could give remarks. These were people who had achieved great accomplishments. These were people that had climbed and gone over many mountains. But then I asked myself maybe there is something I could say that could benefit someone. There may be something that I have experienced that could steer someone in the right direction., I want to focus my remarks today around “community.”, The word community means different things to different people. Mrs. Merriam and Mr. Webster (I am sure all of you know them) defines community as: a unified body of individuals, people with common interest, a group of people with a common interest living together within a larger society, a group linked by a common policy., I stand here today and tell everyone that we are today one “community.” That we have more in common than we realize when I wake up in the morning in this great town of Princeton, New Jersey. My wants are simple. I want for my family and friends to be healthy. I want for my children to go to school and do well. I want for my country to be safe. I want for taxes to be lower. I want for the homeless to find a home. I want for the hungry people to find food. I want the bickering and mean spirit that is brewing up in Washington, D.C., to just disappear., You see my wants as a middle-aged African American male is the same as most of you in this room. This is why I say we are a community. We have more in common than we do apart., On Jan. 15, 1929, Michael King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia. He went on to change his name to Martin Luther King Jr. Martin was a civil rights activist, as well as a minister. Martin attended Boston University, Morehouse College and Crozer Theological Seminary., Many of us know a lot about Martin Luther King Jr. Did you know that Martin Luther King’s father instilled in his son at an early age to not have any sense of class superiority. This notion stuck with Martin all his life. Martin believed that we all are part of one “community.”, This brings me back to my life story. I was born in Princeton, New Jersey, on July 14, 1962, at Princeton Hospital. We lived in the old Princeton University barracks. My father was the first African American lighting technician at McCarter Theatre. When I was 3 years old my father died. My mother, myself and my four siblings lived in Trenton until August 1968 when my mother married my stepfather, Playton Rhodes, and we moved back to Princeton., I was a bused student. Even though Community Park Elementary School was across the street I was picked up and taken 3 miles every day to Littlebrook School. This was to keep the schools integrated. The love of the teachers and staff at Littlebrook School was how and why I knew what a great “community can look like.” Everyone tried so hard to makes sure all students where treated the same. I witnessed a true community of educators and staff coming together for the good of educating all different children., I believe to truly build a great community it starts in very early years. We must now instill in our children what it means to work with and respect everyone. We must teach our children that in order to succeed we must sometimes feel a little uncomfortable. When you see a bully picking on another student you may have to intervene or go and get some adult help., The notion that we can just stand still and be silent must end. To build a community someone has to raise the question of why? To build a community someone has to offer support. To build a better community transparency on all issues must dominate the behind-closed-door mentality., Let’s go back in history again to look at a strong community. This happened on Dec. 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama. Forty-two-year-old Rosa Parks boarded a bus on Cleveland Avenue to go home from an exhausting day at work. She sat in the first row of the “colored only section.”, Please understand this is where she was supposed to sit. As the bus traveled the route it filled up with more white passengers. The bus driver noted that there where several white men standing and asked Rosa Parks and three other African Americans to give up their seats for the white men. Rosa Parks refused and was arrested. Rosa Parks was fined $10 and assessed a $4 court fee., Martin Luther King and the community organized a 382-day boycott of the Montgomey bus system to show how unfair African American people had been treated. This boycott worked and the busing community became more inclusive to African Americans. This was a great example of how by working together the community benefits., In Princeton around seven or eight years ago we where seeing a pattern of at-risk youth looking at joining gangs. I was asked as a Princeton Township Committeeman to work with many community partners to find a way to prevent our teens from wanting to join these gangs. We put together a task force with Corner House, Princeton Public Library, Princeton School System, Princeton Police, Princeton Recreation Department and Princeton Human Services. We even asked Princeton University for some assistance. We found out that if we can redirect these young people we have the best chance of saving them., We started the Princeton Youth Project under Corner House, where we have two mentors that meet with these kids in the evenings and on weekends. They do interesting things like homework, movies, shows, college tours, discussions, etc.. This program has saved many of these kids from going down a slippery path. This was the community coming together for a great cause. Whenever we put community first we always come out ahead., Recently the Witherspoon Jackson Neighborhood in Princeton wanted to be designated as a historic district. This was in the past the area in town that many of the African Americans had to live. I had a tenant one time that lived on Quarry Street and referred to the Witherspoon Jackson area as a “golden ghetto.” This tenant once told me that I should be glad that he lived in my house in this neighborhood. I looked at him and calmly said he is welcome to move. I then went on to tell him the importance of the neighborhood and the glue-like bonding the members in this neighborhood had. No matter if you where black or white the bonding and caring for your neighborhood existed., This is why the community got behind the idea and persuaded Princeton elected officials to place this lovable neighborhood under the historical designation. It took the community to make the decision and it will take the community to preserve this great neighborhood., Not all neighborhoods come together so well. I remember reading that in February 1960 African American students in Greensboro, North Carolina, would sit in racially segregated lunch counters in the city stores. When asked to leave or sit in the colored section, they just remained seated, subjecting themselves to verbal and sometimes physical abuse., The movement quickly gained traction in several other cities. In April of 1960 the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (known as the SCLC) with Martin Luther King Jr . and Ralph Abernathy met with these sit-in students at a special conference held at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. Martin Luther King, Jr encouraged these students to continue and continue using non-violent methods during their protest. By August 1960 the sit-ins where successful and ended segregation at lunch counters in 27 southern cities. This is a clear example that by working as a community many positive things can happen. This is why I believe that injustice for one is injustice for all., I want to say that this last presidential election left many of us feeling fearful. I told the story of a young 8-year-old Muslim girl who stayed home the day after President-elect Donald Trump won. She had told her parents and friends that she was scared to go to school because she thought President-elect Trump would pick her up and return her to her family’s native country., The fear that existed after the election was horrifying. Canada’s web page had to be shut down because so many Americans wanted to know how to get Canadian citizenship. Some of the weakest people among us, our sick population that have affordable healthcare now, are still worried about having health insurance. This rush to repeal the affordable healthcare act with nothing to put in its place is just nuts., We are faced with many hard decisions. Do we stand and say we are going to fight and protect our community? Do we let our elected leaders know that this community will not bend? Do we reach out to others that are terrified and say we have your back? And tell them we know what it means to be a community member? Do we instill in our children that there is no room in this community for bigotry, racism, sexism and any other hatred? That your mission in this community is to try to help someone? Try to love someone. Try to understand others. Try to forgive in order to be forgiven. Try not to judge everyone else’s faults. Try not to cast doubt and never offer a kind word., My mother would often remind me that it doesn’t cost anything to be nice!!! My mother would say it takes more muscles to have a mean face than to have a happy one., This brings me to my closing words: Martin Luther King Jr. was an example of how to love when you are not loved. How to have faith and respect for everyone., On Aug. 28, 1963, Martin Luther King. Jr and others organized the largest march on Washington. This march drew more than 200,000 people. The overall intent of the march was to ask for peaceful change. The killing and beating had to stop., This is when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered the famous “I Have A Dream” speech., I think on this day that we remember one of the most famous caring and mesmerizing civil rights leaders. I would like to leave you some of the words spoken by Dr. King. He said:, “In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capitol to cash a check. When the architects of our Republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise to that all men, yes black men as well as white men would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the black people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’ ”, Dr. King also said in this great speech:, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream … I have a dream that one day in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the word of interposition and nullification, one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.”, When I spoke about community this is the community I am talking about. That we all work together and get along. It is not impossible and it is not difficult. Try to treat everyone the way you want to be treated. I believe every single person in this room has some good in them. I truly believe this., Dr. King ended his great speech with these words:, “When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every city and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last, Free at last, Great God a-mighty, We are free at last.’ ”, Please leave here the understanding we are all one community!, Thank you for allowing me to share these words., Lance Liverman is a member of the Princeton Council.
