Photo by Bill Bittar
State Sen. George Logan.
ANSONIA — City residents prayed and sang together while celebrating the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King inside Macedonia Baptist Church Monday before taking part in a silent march over Bridge Street, on a route ending before the new bust of the civil rights leader in front of City Hall on Main Street.
The Rev. Bruce Goldson, the master of ceremonies, spoke of how King brought people together when he was alive and still unites us.
“Father God, we thank you for his life,” Goldson said. “We thank you for his legacy. We thank you for his light.”
Among the dignitaries at the annual ceremony were Mayor David S. Cassetti, state Rep. Kara Rochelle (D‑104th), state Sen. George Logan (R‑17th), House Minority Leader Rep. Themis Klarides (R‑114th) and Ansonia Superintendent of Schools Joseph DiBacco.
During the event, The Rev. Alfred L. Smith Jr. gave the invocation and three members of the Ansonia Youth Council recited King’s famous “Free at Last” speech.
Cassetti recalled King’s words while receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, in 1964, when he said he refused to accept the idea that man cannot influence events.
He also shared the King quote, “I am not interested in power for power’s sake, but I’m interested in power that is moral, that is right, and that is good.”
Cassetti said politicians have the power to bring people together and to divide, adding political parties are less tolerant of each other. He said preachers have the power to influence their congregation to be better people.
“We must lead by example,” he said. “Whatever your role in this world, use your power to be a positive influence. That’s what Martin Luther King would want.”
Rochelle spoke of how King’s lesson of choosing love, decency and righteousness still resonates today.
Photo by Bill Bittar
No matter how passionately or strongly we feel about something, Klarides said we should always treat those who disagree with respect. She cited King’s quote, “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
Logan recalled a trip be made to Alabama with a diverse group.. The group visited landmarks from the civil rights movement.
Logan walked on Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, the site of Bloody Sunday, where armed police officers attacked and brutally beat civil rights demonstrators with horses, billy clubs and tear gas as they attempted to march to the state capital on March 7, 1965.
“You kind of felt the energy and the spirits of the folks who suffered,” Logan said, recalling how the marchers encountered police who wanted to do them harm on one side of a bridge, in which a ravine flows 200 feet below.
Logan went to 16th St. Baptist Church in Birmingham, an African-American church where members of the Ku Klux Klan set off a bomb that killed four girls and injured 22 people. He also visited a memorial where he read the names of thousands of black people who had been lynched.
Logan said the pursuit of civil rights requires sacrifice in a struggle that continues today.
King said anyone can serve so long as they have a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love. “Service requires breaking down barriers and having difficult conversations,” Logan said. “We resolve to serve as he did and we vow to never let his dream die.”
The keynote speaker, The Rev. Brian Martin, pastor of Greater Refuge Church of Christ in Hartford, noted times are still tough for many African-Americans, 50 years after King’s assassination.
Among the statistics Martin shared, black households only have 10 cents in wealth for every dollar white families make, black people are incarcerated at a rate five times higher than their white counterparts (10 percent in some states), predominantly black schools have fewer resources and black people have higher death rates from diseases.
Even when things appear hopeless, Martin said people should never lose faith. He cited the King quote, “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”
In closing remarks, Gregory Johnson Sr., president of Ansonia branch 2000 of the NAACP, spoke of the tragic state police shooting of African-American, Mubarak Soulemane, 19, of New Haven, who had allegedly had an argument inside an AT&T store, while holding a knife at his side, allegedly tried to steal a cell phone then stole a car.
“This young man was under my mentorship,” Johnson said. “He had schizophrenia and was off his medication. Police gave him 9 or 10 bullets for his mental health.”
“We must pray and stand with each other for justice and hold folks accountable,” he said.
