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Gathering celebrates King's legacy
Hundreds congregate to hear special guests praise local advocates
By Geof Wollerman
gwollerm@mscd.edu

As the highest-ranking African-American elected official in Colorado and a child of the movement engineered by Dr. King, I would be skirting my historical electoral responsibility if I didn’t speak on this occasion directly to my community and to my young people.

To the community I love and work for, I say that when the shot rang out, and the body fell, and the blood flowed, and the spirit raised to the heavens, at that moment a new generational responsibility was created on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. – a responsibility that falls on all of our shoulders equally.

A responsibility to create a culture of hope and hard work that would result in our ultimate entrance into the promise land, a culture of excellence that would require us to expect the best and demand the best from our children and for our children, a culture that would respect our seniors, our women and our history and hold them in the esteem that they should be held.
- State Senator Peter Groff on Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Photo courtesy of @Metro Former Mayor Wellington Webb speaks at the Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Breakfast at the Tivoli Turnhalle about the history of the holiday and his experiences growing up with segregation.

As temperatures stayed in the single digits and light snow flurried around campus, students, faculty and other community members gathered to celebrate the life and philosophy of one of the 20th century’s most vocal civil rights leaders.

More than 300 people gathered on Jan. 12 for the 2007 Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Breakfast at the Tivoli Turnhalle, where Metro student Win Nang and professor Lupe Martinez each received the Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Award in recognition of their dedication to nonviolent cultural and political activism.

Nang – who before coming to Metro had been jailed, tortured and forced into exile from Burma – received the award for his advocacy on behalf of oppressed journalists.

Martinez was recognized for his work over the last eight years in initiating a more diverse and inclusive curriculum and for his general efforts on behalf of Metro students.

Offering some opening remarks was Metro President Stephen Jordan, who began by pointing out that less than half of students of color graduate from Colorado high schools.

“We must improve upon that,” Jordan said.

He talked about Metro’s efforts to increase opportunities for minorities and thanked students and faculty members who were a part of those efforts.

“I’d want to thank each and everyone of you for your role in creating opportunity and striving for equality here at Metro State and in the greater Denver metropolitan area,” Jordan said.

Guest speaker and former Mayor Wellington Webb honored the memories of Coretta Scott King, Rosa Parks and Constance Baker Motley and also spoke about his experiences growing up with segregation in Denver.

Photo courtesy of @Metro The crowd looks on as the Rev. James D. Peters recounts his experiences working with Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement.

“As we celebrate this holiday, we must remember from whence we come, and we do not understand the history of whence we come unless we understand the tragedy of this history,” Webb said.

The morning’s keynote speaker, the Rev. James D. Peters of Denver’s New Hope Baptist Church, was also recognized with a Peace Award for his lifetime of commitment to furthering King’s dream. Peters recounted some of his experiences working with King, particularly on the day in Washington, D.C., when King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, which Peters called the best speech he has ever heard.

“I had the chance to sit on a platform with Martin more than 50 times in different places all around the country and hear him speak – and he was good, he was great, he was excellent. But his other speeches that he gave after the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech never eclipsed the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech,” Peters said.

The first Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast was organized in 1992 by Karen J. Thorpe, a former assistant vice president of student affairs at Metro, and was held in St. Cajetan’s Center.

“Now, it’s evolved into a major event,” said Alton Clark, the chairman of the event’s organizing committee.

“There’s been quite a few people who are wanting to make this even larger,” he said. Clark estimated that around 350 people attended this year.

“I think it’s great that we have these things so that we don’t feel like our school is just a city school,” said Metro student Kalilah Shelton. Shelton said she enjoyed the fact that the event did not focus strictly on the black civil rights experience.

“It concentrates on everybody from everywhere,” she said. “I would have never known about the guy from Burma.”

The breakfast reminds people where they come from and the progress that’s been made, said Shawn Worthy, the interim director of student services.

“I think also it provides a basis for understanding Metro as a very diverse entity, and how special that is,” he said. Students can get together in the classroom and share these diverse perspectives, and the breakfast is meant to celebrate that diversity, he said.

“It reminds us of a lot of great things about Metro and about our future,” he added.