NORTHAMPTON — More than 50 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. preached the word of nonviolent resistance to the World Assembly of Youth in Amherst.
“Only nonviolence can result in eventual brotherhood,” he said at the Amherst event on Aug. 10, 1964, adding that those who remain silent in the face of tyranny are not using their time wisely.
The words are as true today as they were then, said organizers behind the 33rd Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration in Northampton on Monday. The events coordinated by the American Friends Service Committee were perhaps the most well-attended to date, said Director Jeff Napolitano. More than 400 people came downtown for 11 social justice workshops, he said. New this year, the workshops were led by local activists, whose ranks have grown in the two months since the historic election that saw the rise of Donald J. Trump.
“It’s the policies and rhetoric that have made people universally afraid for basic social norms,” he said of the incoming administration and its impact.
“It’s entirely likely (Martin Luther King) would say the crises he faced are still something we face today,” he said, referring to issues of racial and economic injustice and imperialism. “And then you can throw on top of that climate change.”
Children’s participation in the celebrations also spiked this year as about 400 people attended an event at Jackson Street School. Just as King sought to energize young people around important ideals, Ousmane Power-Greene and his wife, Melissa, think it’s important to encourage children to honor King’s memory each year. The couple — whose son, Coltrane, goes to JFK Middle School and daughter, Imanni, goes to Jackson Street — has organized the children’s portion of the celebrations for about five years, and each year it grows. This year, Melissa Power-Greene said, they added break-out workshops to the event.
“The idea was to create this space where we could celebrate Martin Luther King in an appropriate manner for children,” said Melissa Power-Greene, a teacher at Northampton High School. A mother to African-American children growing up in a predominantly white community, she said it’s especially important for children of color to have the opportunity to commemorate King.
As adults went to the school’s library to discuss the rise of Trump and how to talk to children about racism and bigotry, children wrote poetry, music and worked on paintings focused on King.
“Let it shine for peace and justice,” they sang as Ousmane Power-Greene helped direct people to the various activities. “Let it shine; let it shine; let it shine.”
In a group of about a dozen students, middle school teacher Michael Lawrence-Riddell asked participants to use King’s words for poetic inspiration.
“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend,” read one of the quotes from King.
“You don’t have to use those words, exactly, but the idea of it,” Lawrence-Riddell told students.
In a classroom next door, a younger group of children spun a song out of King’s teachings in a workshop led by Chandler Klose. “We can’t let their notions drive us away,” they sang, as others whistled along. “Because we’re all in the same boat today.”
Rio Santos, 9, played a key role in creating the song, which the group later performed in the school’s gymnasium. Santos, a budding songwriter, said she’d written a song a few days ago and so went with the same theme — protest.
“I decided to go with the same feeling,” she said.
This week she has resistance on her mind as she prepares to join her mother, Tricia Loomis, in the Women’s March on Washington on Saturday. Loomis said she hopes her daughter finds her first brush with activism as “eye-opening” as her own — the anniversary of King’s march on Washington, which she attended in 1988.
At an event at the Edwards Church, Mayor David Narkewicz said King would likely take a stand on health care, living wage and immigration — issues he said were likely to be hot topics in the years ahead.
“As we pause to remember him,” he said, “it definitely gives us a model for how a community — city, state and nation — can uphold those ideals.”
King’s legacy stands as a reminder that complacency has no part in the days ahead, Narkewicz said.
“If people feel strongly about these things, they need to be able to act on their convictions,” he said, adding that that extends to elected officials. “It’ll be incumbent on local leaders to be activists, as well.”
As global temperatures continue to climb, climate was a recurring theme throughout Monday events. “It’s a national, global race against time,” said Susan Theberge of Climate Action Now during a workshop she helped lead. “The stakes are high, right now.”
Throughout the day’s proceedings, the message was clear: However despondent people become about national and global politics, there are things to be done locally that can make a difference.
A workshop led by William Diamond focused on making Northampton the first “blue” community in the U.S. Inspired by the Canadian movement, he explained that blue communities are those that have made a commitment not to sell bottled water inside municipal buildings and at city-sponsored events.
The amount of petroleum it takes to make one such bottle, he said, would fill the container one-quarter of the way. If more communities made the commitment, he said, it would inspire more across the nation to reduce their reliance on bottled water and reinvest in public water infrastructure.
“That is an economic hardship,” he said of communities like Flint, Mich., in which people have to purchase water out of justifiable mistrust for public sources. “It’s totally related to the social justice goals of Dr. King.”
In another workshop, Lois Ahrens told attendees about inequalities in the criminal justice system and what people can do about the issue. Because racism is embedded within the law enforcement system, she said, black people serve longer sentences and are awarded less favorable plea deals.
“All of these things contribute to the disproportionate number of black people in jail in the U.S.,” she said. “If we’re talking about justice, this is an important subject for Martin Luther King Day.”
Ahrens, founding director of The Real Cost of Prisons Project, said Valley residents shouldn’t be fooled — the commonwealth’s criminal legal system is not progressive.
“Don’t be complacent,” she said. “In order for it to change, the whole citizenry has to be involved.”
Amanda Drane can be contacted at adrane@gazettenet.com.