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Local leaders to mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day with various programs, a reading
Bremen Keasey, Fond du Lac ReporterThu, January 12, 2023 at 5:02 AM CST2 min readAdd Yahoo on Google
FOND DU LAC ‒ As part of celebration for Martin Luther King Jr. Day Monday, some local leaders are holding events to honor Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy as well as a long-time, former county executive.
Bishop Herb Haywood Sr., who leads the Bread of Life Church, said he and government officials, law enforcement and community leaders are planning an event at the Fond du Lac City/County Building to celebrate the day and also celebrate the honorary street-naming for former county executive Allen Buechel, who passed away unexpectedly in March.
Haywood said the event will start at 1 p.m. in the City/County Building, 160 S. Macy St., with a program that will include speakers, gospel music and poetry reading. It will culminate with attendees heading outside to the corner of Macy and Second streets, where city staff will unveil an honorary street naming for Buechel.
Haywood said the event is symbolic because East Second Street ― which the city in 2016 honorarily named Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. ― will intersect with the street that will be honorarily named for Buechel. Before Buechel passed away in March, he was the longest-serving county executive in the state, leading Fond du Lac County for 29 years. Haywood said Buechel "championed" the push to honorarily name East Second Street after King — one of just five streets in the state of Wisconsin named after King.
Prior to the Monday holiday, the Fond du Lac Ministerial Association (FAMA) will host a community worship service celebrating the "vision, spirit and legacy" of King at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul at 51 W. Division St.
The service will include contributions of music, readings and prayers by representatives from various Christian congregations across Fond du Lac. There will be a collection taken to support the Broken Bread Food Pantry.
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The event will also be livestreamed from FDLTV.COM an online station.
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The following is a guest commentary by Bishop Dr. H.D. Haywood, Sr., senior pastor at Bread of Life Church in Fond du Lac.
It's Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Great, but one might ask "why does it matter here, in Fond du Lac?"
What does Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream even look like?
I'm glad you asked.
Hey Fond du Lac, have we checked our reflection lately? Look in the mirror, this is what it looked like.
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King said: "I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood."
Fondy may not be the red hills of Georgia, but groups like Ebony Vision, United For Diversity, Life Enforcement, Marian University and Bread Of Life Church provide ample opportunities at the epicenter of King’s dream.
"Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable," he said. "Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”
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Fond du Lac stands as a template for like communities where majority-Caucasian communities are experiencing a multiracial demographic growth pattern.
Wisconsin has 190 cites, 409 villages and even more towns, yet, Fond du Lac is listed as one of only five Wisconsin cities with a street named or designated in honor of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Yes, Fond du Lac.
As a proud resident of this community for nearly 18 years with my wife, our 11 children with their spouses and our 25 grandchildren, we (and many others) are what King preached about, dreamed about, fought about and was murdered about.
Fond du Lac, in our diversity adolescence, we still struggle in some areas when it comes to open prejudice and hidden racism.
"The soft-minded man always fears change," King said. "He feels security in the status quo, and he has an almost morbid fear of the new. For him, the greatest pain is the pain of a new idea."
MLK Day — in some camps — was fiercely fought against to keep the status quo. In other camps, some yelled that an economic burden would befall the taxpayers. In yet others, religion and logic were wrapped around racism to knowingly or unknowingly justify standing against “anything” MLK.
A few facts:
- MLK Day was not accepted in all 50 states until 2000.
- The FBI, under J. Edgar Hoover, considered Rev. King a threat to national security. In an anonymous letter, published in the New York Times, the author refers to the Nobel Peace Prize recipient as “evil,” a “fraud,” and a “dissolute, abnormal moral imbecile.” The author threatened to expose King as an adulterer and in the end, flat-out suggests that the leader commit suicide. It was discovered that the letter actually came from J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI because Hoover failed to prove King was a Communist. Yale professor of American History Beverly Gage wrote in the New York Times, the letter is “the most notorious and embarrassing example of Hoover’s FBI run amok.”
- In 1991, the NFL voted to remove the 1993 Super Bowl from Arizona over its refusal to recognize MLK Day.
In closin, today is a day to come together.