A group of about 20 stood in the city parking lot at the corner of Main and Seminary streets in uptown Collinsville Sunday evening watching Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech projected onto the American Flag on the wall of the adjoining building.
A crowd gathers to watch Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘”I Have a Dream” speech projected onto a wall at the city parking lot at Seminary and Main streets / Photo by Roger Starkey
Most of the crowd left the parking lot and followed a route that wound from Clay Street, in front of the Police Station, up to Church Street and down past City Hall, before stopping at Bert’s Chuckwagon. No one spoke as the procession wound through the six-block route.
Inside Bert’s Chuckwagon, a group, now about 25 in number, gathered to hear speakers. Some recited poems from Robert Frost or Maya Angelou, one read from Ecclesiastes, one spoke of a personal connection his family had with King and the day he was assassinated in Memphis.
Co-organzier Catherine Lamberg spoke of the need for introspection. “Sometimes it’s necessary to ask the uncomfortable questions of ourselves and our community,” Lamberg said.
Guest speaker Duane Bailey, an associate judge in Madison County, provided a history lesson to those in attendance. One lesson was the Selma to Montgomery march, which started with two aborted marches along the same route, before the third march reached the capital of Alabama, Bailey said.
“It just so happens that when truth is marching forward, nothing stands in its way,” Bailey said.
The silent walk was billed by the organizing committee as an event that “will allow attendees to consider how we treat each other as humans and motivate us to find ways to care more for others in our daily lives.”
It was the consideration of how people treat each other that brought City Councilwoman Nancy Moss to the event. Moss remembers the civil rights movement. She remembers going to the dime store in Granite City with her mother and wondering why some people were not allowed at the lunch counter. She remembers the marches and the forced integration of schools.
“I have a whole of memories of that time, and none of them are good,” Moss said. Speaking of the way African-Americans were treated at the time, Moss said, “as a Christian, it goes against everything I believe.”
Moss spent a chilly Sunday night walking through the town she serves to honor King the night before the federal holiday in his honor. She came to pay respect to the man who united so many for a common cause.
“I love that he spoke not about division, but about working together,” Moss said.
But the night was not just about honoring King, it was also an opportunity for the organizers to voice their displeasure with the City of Collinsville because City Hall employees work on Martin Luther King Jr Day, although City Hall is closed.
Lamberg said the silent march was another way to call attention to demands for the City of Collinsville to fully honor Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Vocal request have not been granted, she said.
Brandon Drake, a co-organizer and a member of the city’s Planning Commission, has lobbied the City of Collinsville for several years to honor the holiday. In January of 2013, the first year that current City Manager Scott Williams was in his position, City Hall closed for the first time on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Although City Hall was closed, the holiday was considered a workday for city employees. The city followed the same protocol this year.
Considering the holiday a workday in which employees were allowed to report in jeans made Drake, an African American, feel marginalized, he said in a speech Sunday. The City has previously stated that the decision to work on the federal holiday is a monetary decision.
“Don’t tell me it’s about the money, I’ve worked with budgets, I’ve passed budgets. Don’t tell me it’s about the money,” Drake said. “It’s a choice of leadership.”
Williams could not be reached for comment for this story. In the past, Williams has indicated that union contracts would have to be changed and that the city would stand to lose a substantial amount of money if employees were awarded an additional holiday.”
