Presentation Remembers Martin Luther King Jr

John L. Benford speaks Thursday during NorthWest Arkansas Community College’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. program at the school’s student center in Bentonville.
John L. Benford speaks Thursday during NorthWest Arkansas Community College’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. program at the school’s student center in Bentonville.

— The song “Take My Hand, Precious Lord” always will remind Jerry Moore of the day in 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

Moore, director of NorthWest Arkansas Community College’s Upward Bound program, sang the song for an audience at a King presentation Thursday.

Moore’s singing and reflection led into a presentation by John L. Benford about what King would think about America and the world today.

Moore was 18 when he joined his family in a full church building in Huntington. It was a church, his great-great-grandfather helped build in the 1890s, Moore told the audience. He said his church community gathered because members heard the news of King’s assassination in Memphis.

“I saw men 75 years or older cry because they thought hope was gone,” Moore said.

He said a young man in the church stood up and started to sing “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.” Moore sang the first versus of that song for the crowd. He then stopped and continued his story.

Moore said the church choir boys, including himself, moved from the stage and joined their families. Again, Moore sang a verse from the song for the audience. He followed by saying his church congregation knew a funeral was coming. In the next few days, church members called the schools and told administrators their children would miss classes.

“They need to see what we have fought so hard for,” Moore said his parents told school officials. “Our parents charged us to keep the dream. They made a way for us.”

Benford, founder and pastor of Valley Harvest Ministries in Rogers, told the crowd of more than 100 students and faculty King didn’t stand for civil rights, but human rights. He said King would look at the world today and want more.

“I believe he would say to us ‘What is the cause?” Benford said. “If we really want to do something great, it is more than coming and singing ‘Kumbaya.’ Every young person must seek out our cause. Listen to that small, still voice inside and ask yourself, ‘What was I created for?’’’

Benford asked crowd members what causes they back.

Student Ashley Arnold said she is passionate about stopping human trafficking.

“Slavery is not over,” Arnold said. “We need to recognize that as a community.”

Arnold said she plans to major in public relations and later go to law school. She wants to use the skills she learns in those fields to help the cause.

Other audience members brought up money for education, health care and equal rights for women in Arkansas.

At A Glance

About King

Martin Luther King Jr. was born Jan. 15, 1929. He was assassinated April 4, 1968. He was the youngest man to receive a Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

Source: Staff Report

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