MLK event in Lisle looks back, forward
Both the history and the future of black Americans were honored Sunday in Lisle at the Agape Connection's 19th annual Martin Luther King Day celebration at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.
Agape Connection is a nonprofit that serves children and youth in the Western suburbs with educational and cultural initiatives, including the Dreamers Wax Museum of African American History.
On Sunday, the celebration featured the Jubilate Singers led by Lana Manson, formerly of the Fisk Jubilee Singers and currently assistant director of Music for St. James AME Church of Chicago. The group performed a selection from her piece “Ain't Got Long,” which touched on both joys and sorrows throughout black history.
The audience was moved at times to clap along with the singers, who alternated poetic narration with choral singing.
While the past was highlighted, the present and the future were the focus of the top three finishers in the oratorical contest. The trio — Peter Eta of Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora, Matthew Dean of Aurora Central Catholic High School and Teja Davis of Oswego East High School — took on the rhetorical task of comparing the state of race relations in the last decade of King's life with the situation today.
The winner was Davis, who delivered a rousing speech that concluded with singing the words of “We Shall Overcome.”
After paying tribute to such giant historical figures as Rosa Parks, Malcolm X and King, Davis said the United States has overcome the days of segregation. But “beatings still occur,” she said, and prisons unfortunately have become “a home away from home for far too many, innocent or guilty.”
“Today, black Americans are stereotyped by the clothes that we wear, our hairstyles and the music we listen to. As a young African American girl, I, too, share a similar dream that one day the color of my skin, the style of my hair, or the simple fact that I love to eat greens, chicken and watermelon will not determine who I am or what I can accomplish,” she said, referring to King's “I Have a Dream” speech
The winners of the MLK Character Awards, which honored outstanding area students, were Jonathan Pernell of Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, Brian Griffin of Metea Valley High School in Aurora, Anthony Eddy of West Aurora High School and Bryce Logan of Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora.
Other award recipients included Mae Smith, Karen Sullivan, Alvenia Rhea Albright and Cynthia Latimer, who received the Chairman's Award, and Elaine Johnson and Marlene Rickmond, who received the Distinguished Service Award.
The Sankofa Award went to Elaine Mosley, the first director of Agape's Sankofa Program.