THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 21, 1997 TAG: 9701210209
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: 53 lines
A tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. Sunday evening drew about 350 people, black and white, to a chilly Sheep-Harney auditorium and focused on King's spiritual attributes.
``We didn't want it to be a political forum,'' the Rev. Whitty Bass, organizer of the event, said Monday morning. ``It was a worship service.''
Bass is pastor of Cann Memorial Presbyterian Church.
A parade Monday also honored the slain civil rights leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
The hourlong program Sunday night included a mixture of gospel music sung a cappella and traditional hymns interspersed with readings by community leaders and a sermon by Elizabeth City State University Chancellor Mickey Burnim.
``His life made a difference in America and it made a difference in the world,'' Burnim said. He called King the ``marvelous drum major for God'' and gave examples from King's words and deeds that exemplified the Bible reference of ``. . . faith, hope, and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.''
Burnim quoted King in a speech made just before the civil rights leader was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968. King was there advocating better conditions for sanitation workers despite warnings that he might be killed.
`` `The question is not what will happen to me if I help the sanitation workers,' '' Burnim quoted King. `` `If I don't stop to help the sanitation workers what will happen to them? That is the question.'
``King lived like the Good Samaritan,'' said Burnim.
Also participating in the program were state Rep. W.C. ``Bill'' Owens Jr.; Lenora Jarvis-Mackey, CEO of the River City Community Development Corporation; Yvonne Walton, principal of Sheep-Harney Elementary School; Steven Harrell, Elizabeth City manager; Randy Cartwright, Pasquotank County sheriff; the Rev. Judah Person, pastor of First Tabernacle Church; Debra Fox, executive director of Albemarle Manna; Charles McKenzie, pastor of City Road United Methodist Church; Raymond Rivers Sr., president of the Pasquotank County/Elizabeth City NAACP; and Rev. Eliud N. Nderitu of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa, Kenya.
Nderitu, a student at Roanoke Bible College, gave the closing prayer in Kikuyu, a Kenyan language:
``May the Lord bless this congregation that it will keep the vision and the mission of Martin Luther King Jr. to go on like a friend.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
JEFFREY S. HAMPTON
The Virginian-Pilot
Marching Monday in honor of the late Martin Luther King Jr. were
about 150 people on their way to City Hall in Elizabeth City.