Speaker: Division is major obstacle

“Our Youth … His Dream” was the theme Monday afternoon for St. Mary NAACP’s program commemorating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. held at Siracusaville Recreation Center in Morgan City.

Young people were heavily involved throughout the program, Morgan City High School JROTC members, the Mt. Era Baptist Church Youth Choir, the New Revelation Dance Ministry, Clifton Escort and Taylor Weary.

Rev. Jaylon Grogan, 21, of Good Hope Baptist Church in Patterson, was the guest speaker. His speech challenged audience members to “be on one accord.”

“How far have we really come since the era of Dr. Martin Luther King?” Grogan asked. “What … rights have we obtained and goals have we achieved?

“Some may think we’ve made great progress, overcome many obstacles, jumped over many hurdles, made it to many mountain tops but I, I beg to differ. In the year of 2016, in today’s society we have one major problem.

“And that problem is division.”

Grogan cited dysfunction in today’s society appears as more of a norm than abnormal. The division he references is counter to the dream of King.

“To us it’s natural to see dysfunction and separation,” Grogan said. “It is something we’re used to seeing.

“Dysfunction of homes, broken marriages, separation of husbands, wives and kids. Brothers against brothers, sisters against sisters.

“And to us this is normal. To us this is the everyday thing.”

He even takes the matter further by highlighting the ways of division in church.

“And to make matters worse, division has entered into the church,” Grogan said.

Grogan cited a statistic indicating that 75 percent of people who leave churches do so because of division and strife.

“… The world is supposed to look like the church, but it seems like more and more the church is beginning to look like the world,” Grogan said.

“We’ve come a long way since the ‘I Have a Dream Speech’ that Dr. King gave but we have backtracked when we cannot stand in agreement with each other.”

Grogan suggested that in order to resolve division, love and following Jesus are the answers.

“It is time that we put love into our hearts and God back on the throne,” Grogan said. “The only way we can do that is to follow Jesus.”

Councilman Ron Bias, pastor of Visions of Life Ministries in Morgan City, expressed to the audience how King used the church as a platform to usher in a movement for civil rights, giving imagery of the world becoming more like the church.

“We’ve not only become comfortable. We’ve become complacent,” Bias said.

Bias said it’s important to continue to share the history of Morgan City with the children.

“We need to keep telling the story because these little people need to know that at one time, you went to Lawrence Park, you had to drink out of one fountain,” he said. “And you couldn’t drink out of the other.

“They need to know that when you went to the movie theatre, we had to go upstairs. We couldn’t go downstairs.

“They need to know that you could go to Sumpter Williams and you couldn’t go to Morgan City High.

“They need to know that there are people in this room like Dr. C.F. Smith, dean of pastors in Morgan City, marched with Dr. Martin Luther King. They need to know these things.”

In reflecting on the program and historical strides of King, St. Mary NAACP President Willie Peters charged the audience with working together as one.

“When you’re working together in unity then we can all work together,” Peters said.

Reginald Weary, former president of St. Mary NAACP, coordinated the program.

A motorcade from Morgan City Auditorium to the recreation center preceded the start of the program.