By Sarah Richardson
The annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration was held in downtown Lewisburg this last Monday on Jan. 15 despite a winter snowstorm. Participants bundled up and gathered in front of the Greenbrier County Courthouse before marching up Washington Street to the Lewisburg United Methodist Church for a program and luncheon.
Pastor Greg Scott of First Baptist Church spoke before the march, leading the crowd in prayer before a brief speech.
“Fifty-six years ago today, Martin Luther King Jr., the most prominent civil rights leader in America, was on the campus of Kansas State University to address students and faculty and believe it or not, the weather was just like this,” said Scott. “Ultimately calling for stronger and more courageous political leadership, he ended the speech with this, ‘A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus. Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks if it’s political, vanity asks if it’s popular, but conscience asks, ‘Is it right?’ Which leads to this year’s Lewisburg Martin Luther King Jr. Day quote that serves as the theme of this program: ‘There comes a time when one must take position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him that it is right.’ So today, we are here calling for stronger and more courageous leadership, not only in Lewisburg, West Virginia, but in the entirely of the United States of America.”
Marchers sang “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around” as they made their way across town, and keynote speaker Mark Hickman led the following program at LUMC. Watch the full program online at www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5s2KH8x40M, or search “Lewisburg WV MLK Day Celebration 2024” on YouTube.
