![]() I was elated because King was like an uncle or a daddy that was right. Go in there and sit down like you got some sense. I thought I was going to be on the dais! The ushers, the “church police,” said your grandmama is sitting over there boy. I was walking in, almost towards the stage. ![]() But so, what happened, we walked out and the audience was in the Booker T. There was a buzz in the African American community that King is coming. But I knew something was going on because folks started talking. I knew world history but I didn’t know current history, obviously. Well, little did I know, when we walked out I did not know what was going on. I had a whole Coke and hers had a straw in it and napkin. Boys did not drink out of straws in North Carolina in 1962. Omokunde: I was so elated! Brenda had a Coca-Cola with a straw in it and a napkin. Omotolokun Omokunde outside the WUNC studios in Durham, N.C., August 28, 2023. And why would you choose this person with a little cloth on to be a symbol for what you wanted to do?" I said, "Wait a minute Miss Hawkins, I’m talking to King now." King, let’s revisit the Mahatma Gandhi era in your life. And somehow, I became a great philosopher at that time. And for an hour, Brenda and I interviewed Dr. Armstrong opened the door and walked in and there sat Dr. Brenda Armstrong at the door of the library at Booker T. She put olive oil in my full head of hair and made waves go to the side rather than the front and the back.Īnd I met Miss Hawkins and my buddy, Dr. I had this blue suit and my uncle taught me how to tie a Windsor knot with a white shirt and a dark tie. My other uncle, Thomas Stith, got me a new suit from Rosenbloom Levy, the most prestigious store in Rocky Mount. My Uncle Lindbergh, Charles Lindbergh Stith, came and told me to come with him. Omokunde: Right! And so, then my grandmother washed, starched and ironed my underwear. Inge: So, you already knew you wanted to be a minister. Because I had preached my first sermon at 12 years old at Mt. 27, 1962, Miss Hawkins said, "When you shall have finished this experience, you will be the better for it." She taught me how to put the endings on words so that I could speak better. Hawkins loved this little chocolate boy that she had taught world history and said education will take you places that won’t tease you, but you’ll be teaching them. Brenda was the valedictorian of our class. The winner was already set for the contest. And what she did for me was made me the top student in World History. And she taught me world history, she tutored me in world history. Miss Esmaeralda Hawkins, world history teacher. Omokunde: Well, that night, we’d have to go back about a month before that night. Washington High School in Rocky Mount on Nov. “I have a dream, one day, right here in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, sons of former slaves and sons of former slave owners will meet at the table of brotherhood.”Ĭourtesy of Andre Knight Martin Luther King Jr. “One day right down there, little Black boys and little Black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and little white girls and walk the streets as brothers and sisters,” King said in the 1962 speech. Washington High School in Rocky Mount when he got the chance to meet King and hear him speak. The Reverend Omotolokun Omokunde was a 15-year-old student at Booker T. ![]() Several months before that famous 1963 speech, King gave a similar speech on November 27, 1962, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. “One day, right there in Alabama, little Black boys and Black girls will be able to join hands as sisters and brothers. But with encouragement from famed gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, he began to preach, off script, about his “dream.” It was a message years in the making. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves." “Five score years ago, a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. gave what would become his famous “I Have a Dream” speech on the National Mall. In 1963, Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. This week marks the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |