Understanding How Faith Carried Black Americans Through A Struggle

Martin Luther King, Jr., was honored by the Pettis County chapter of the NAACP on Monday at Burns Chapel Free Will Baptist Church, 207 East Pettis.

The main guest speaker for the event was Minister Duane Dooley of Bethel Church in Sedalia. His theme for MLK Day was “We will not go wrong holding onto God’s unchanging hands.”

Brother Dooley noted that we currently stand at the powerful intersection of faith and history.

“You see, times change, governments change, laws change and even cultures change. But God does not change. And it was that unchanging God who sustained the people through chains, whips, segregation, hatred and injustice. It was that same God who strengthened a young preacher from Atlanta to stand flat footed and declare “I have a dream,” Dooley told the congregation.

Dooley explained that MLK Day “is not just about remembering the past, but understanding how faith carried Black Americans through a struggle. How faith turned the hearts of others to a God that taught them how to love thy neighbor. How God’s hand never let go. And how that same hand is available to us today,” Dooley said.

He went onto say that “you can see God’s hand in the midst of struggle. From the very beginning of African American history in this country, the struggle was real. And it was relentless. Men women and children were stolen from their homeland, packed into slave ships, and treated like property, rather than people,” Dooley noted.

“Families were torn apart, languages were stripped away, names were replaced. Dignity was declined. Yet, somehow, faith survived. Slaves sang spirituals, not just as songs, but as prayers,” Dooley said, adding that “these were not just melodies, but declarations of trust, and a God that they could not see, but knew was real.”

They had a faith that refused to die.

“After slavery ended, freedom did not mean fairness. Black American faced Jim Crow laws, lynching, voter suppression, segregated schools and economic exclusion. ‘Separate, but equal’ was separate, but it wasn’t equal,” Dooley said.

Brother Dooley went on to say that Dr. King was not only a civil rights leader, he was a preacher first.

“His strategies were rooted in scripture, his courage was fueled by prayer. His commitment to non-violence came directly from Jesus’ command to love your enemies, Dooley noted.

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Monday’s event actually had two guest speakers. The second speech one was from a younger perspective. His name is Mahki Jaff.

“Slavery was a tragedy. But Abraham Lincoln came and felt sorry for the Negro people and decided to let us free. What a great lie this was,” Jaff proclaimed.

“It is much easier to integrate a lunch counter than it is to guarantee a livable income and good, solid job. It is much easier to integrate a public park than it is to make genuine, quality integrated education a reality,” Jaff said.

“Those are not my words,” Jaff pointed out. These are Dr. King’s in his ‘The Other America’ speech (1967).”

He went on to ask that “if we are the richest country on earth, why are there those who walk through the extensive role of poverty?”

“Why are we trying to create a white ethno-state with a secret police force you may know as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)?” Jaff asked.

“Martin understood that integration itself is not going to solve the problems that his people face … You have to see us as humans, as racism is a psychological phenomenon in which we see another race as inherently inferior – the exact phenomenon we are experiencing now,” Jaff said.

“I’m done waiting for another American hero. Martin was a human just like the rest of us. And he did not lead the civil rights movement all by himself. It is everyday people like you and me that have the power to make his dreams a reality. It is up to us to be the change people want to see in the world, and we have not future without collective action,” Jaff concluded.

Other remarks were presented by Steve Bogg, Sedalia NAACP treasurer; Pastor Joyce Foster, Doris Thurston, Second Ward Councilwoman Tina Boggess, Sedalia NAACP President Alona Boggess-Reid and Bishop Paul Jones.

All joined in for a complete performance of “Lift Every Voice & Sing.”