Wheatley School hosted its 36th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration Monday morning, featuring speakers, trivia and a special honor for a 100-year-old with a history of community service.
The theme this year was “Dare to Dream: Radical Imagination of a New Generation.”
Mistresses of ceremonies Jessie Porter and Erin Ceesay directed the event and held a trivia game about Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life. Pastors David Mathis and Ronald McCain led attendees in prayer for the city, state and nation.
The youngest speakers at the celebration were students Morgan Rivers and Brandon McDonald.
Rivers spoke about King’s legacy of peaceful protests and encouraged everyone present to continue fighting for human rights, saying, “His dream lives on through me and you.”
McDonald’s speech highlighted the importance of community service and education.
“We should learn all we can so we don’t lose the progress that we made,” he said.
Wheatley Historical Preservation Association director Rex Rattler then presented a certificate to Tambreiah Hughes on behalf of her great-aunt Estrella Williams. Williams turned 100 this year and has a long legacy of musical talent and community service in Poplar Bluff. She could not attend due to health concerns.
“It was very wonderful and I appreciate this program and the celebration itself to recognize her ... she is a pillar of the community,” Hughes said of the award.
Ronald McCain’s son R. T. McCain, an instructor at Mark Twain Alternative School, was the keynote speaker. He quoted King’s Riverside Church speech, which called for “a radical revolution of values” during the Vietnam War, as well as expanding on King’s words about radical imagination — imagining the world “as it could be” and how that impacts young Americans.
“Let’s do something radical this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day — let’s change the way the youth see history. Let’s change the narrative of Jim Crow laws and oppression, and highlight the successes of Blacks here in America and beyond,” he said.
R. T. McCain said most American textbooks focus on the oppression of African Americans and largely ignore the successes of Black people in the U.S. and abroad. That version of history deprives both Black and white students of truth and understanding, something he himself felt in school.
He gave several examples of Black American contributions to society, including the Parker House Sausage Company, which was founded by a Black family in Chicago in 1919, the prevalence of black cowboys in the Old West. He also mentioned, to much applause, Poplar Bluff’s Garfield Historic District, an African-American neighborhood recently added to the National Historic Registry.
“Positive narratives counter stereotypical stories,” R. T. McCain said.
There was also an announcement by Michelle Webb that a new chapter of the NAACP is opening in Poplar Bluff.
Rev. Greg Kirk, director of United Gospel Rescue Mission, led the closing prayer.
The event was sponsored by the Wheatley Historical Preservation Association and Concerned Citizens Committee. Longtime event organizer and WHPA member Kathern Harris said this year’s crowd was smaller than normal, but she was nevertheless pleased with how the program came together. Uncertain weather and the pandemic both impacted planning, and four program participants backed out at the last minute due to COVID-19 exposure, but Harris said they decided not to let that stop them.
“We kept moving, and there’s always people willing to step up,” she said.
This was Harris’ first year stepping back from most of the event planning, and it seemed fitting to her that this year’s program focused on younger people.
“Now it’s time for us to step aside” and let the next generation carry Wheatley’s MLK Day tradition, she said.