When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was marching in the name of civil rights in 1965, Mansfield resident David Dennis was right there with him.
Superintendent David Dennis of New Jerusalem Progressive COGIC was a young man walking alongside 700 other people on a dirt road in Mississippi with the man history would come to know as the leader of the African-American Civil Rights Movement.
“When I think about it it’s like a flashback: 50 years ago as a 17-year-old high school senior, it was once in a lifetime,” said Dennis. “The day after I walked with Dr. King, I felt like Superman.”
Dennis shared his story Sunday evening in front of a packed house at Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Mansfield. Sponsored by the Mansfield Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, the evening centered on honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“We owe this man. We owe Dr. King for standing up,” said Dennis.
Living in Mississippi in 1965, Dennis remembered experiencing a time of “intense racial segregation.” He attended a segregated high school, swam in a segregated pool, and went to a segregated park. After marching with Dr. King, Dennis was inspired to desegregate a restaurant in his hometown – leading to an exchange that would affect the rest of his life.
“I walked into the restaurant, and I see the sign that says, ‘White Only’ and that wasn’t an unusual sign in Mississippi in 1965,” Dennis remembered. “The proprietor comes; I said I want to be served. And he says, can you read? He said we’re not going to feed you here.
“But being turned down in a restaurant actually motivated me,” Dennis continued, noting he eventually went on to college to become a schoolteacher and later to Ohio University to obtain his masters degree. “He didn’t know he actually motivated me to move forward. It helped me understand I am a man, and nobody can stop me.”
Dennis was one of many speakers on Sunday evening sharing the word of God and praising the actions of Dr. King through song and scripture. Many Mansfield dignitaries were also present, including Judge Brent Robinson, Representative Mark Romanchuk, Mansfield Superintendent Brian Garverick, and Mansfield Chief of Police Ken Coontz.
Mansfield Mayor Tim Theaker presented a proclamation officially declaring Jan. 19 as Martin Luther King Day in Mansfield – a place Dr. King himself often traveled to when visiting his uncle, Joel King.
“Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a nation’s renowned prophet for nonviolence,” said Theaker. “He was a man who could have lived a quiet, comfortable life, but instead chose to fight for equality.”
Equality was just one of the themes covered in a message by the night’s featured speaker, Rev. Cheryl Carter of Mt. Sinai Baptist Church. Carter also works as Director of North Central State’s Outreach Services and the Urban Higher Education Center in Mansfield.
“We gather at a time when our nation is grappling with the markers of racial paradox, that on one hand can elect and reelect a black man for president, but at the same time snuff out the lives of Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice and so many others,” said Carter. “While some would admonish us about dwelling in the past, these tragic losses of life, one after another, remind us that we are far from a prejudice-free society. And if that be true, then the struggle is not over.”
Carter and those gathered on Sunday evening remembered Dr. King as they reflected on the man, his message of equal rights, and his methods of nonviolent protest. She stated King is regarded as a moral leader of the nation, with a singular message of fulfilling the promise of equal rights for all.
“We honor his life and his legacy by recommitting our souls to keeping his dream alive until all men – not just us, or our children, but every human being that walks the earth and their children, and their children’s children – are indeed equal,” said Carter.
While remembering and embracing the past, Carter also urged the congregation on Sunday evening to begin now to shape their future destinies.
“I submit to you that the first thing we ought to do as a people black and white, we must make it our business to be informed,” she said. “It is not acceptable to sit idly by to permit injustice.
“It is time for us as the church to rise up, to once again be the voice of moral revolution, challenge our communities and our cities and our nation to do what is right, what is decent, what is honorable, for the sake of all.”
