WPCNR EAST SIDER. By John F. Bailey. January 19, 2004: A gathering of about 200 filled the New Rochelle Ballroom at The Crowne Plaza Hotel in White Plains on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to keep the faith, baby, at the annual Thomas H. Slater Center 12th Annual Unity Breakfast.
UPDATING THE DREAM: They heard a spell-binding, emotional, entertaining direct challenge to update the Martin Luther King, Jr. “I have a dream” message for the world of today, delivered by the dynamic crusading judge from Raleigh, North Carolina, Judge Michael Morgan. Photo by WPCNR News.
Morgan, (who has created a tracking system in Raleigh to follow the case progress of abused children as just one of his accomplishments), ended challenging the audience to remember King’s little quoted words from that humid day in August 42 years ago, “1963 is not an end but a beginning,” calling on White Plainsians to continue “the evolution of a dream, a faith, and a hope, facing the rising sun of a new day begun. Let’s march on until we’re free!”
A Speech for All America to Hear: The crowd, in tears, rose to its feet with a standing ovation. Mayor Joseph Delfino, overcome with emotion himself, told the Judge his speech should be heard all over this country. Here the Mayor, a excellent orator himself, congratulates Judge Morgan, whom The Slater Center will be bringing back to Bethel Baptist Church in the not to distant future. Photo by WPCNR News.
Judge Morgan was engaged to deliver the keynote address by Executive Director Charlie Booth of the Slater Center, based on the recommendation of his daughter Cynthia Booth who heard the Judge speak in Raleigh, and found he was the brother of a friend of hers, Robert Morgan. Ms. Booth who handles public relations for the Mayor of Durham, North Carolina, had told her father, “Daddy you have to get him.”
The View from The Working Bench.
Tuesday morning, Judge Morgan delivered an in-touch, realistic view of what he sees from his bench in Raleigh when court is in session where he was “Lead Judge” for Wake County’s juvenile abuse, neglect and dependency court for the last four years.
Judge Morgan from his first words, after being introduced by Mistress of Ceremonies, Arlene Gordon-Oliver, the first black woman to become President of the Westchester County Bar Association, and Judge Barbara Leak of the White Plains City Court, won his audience over and worked their emotions, their reason, their memories, their sensibilities, to resurrect a Martin Luther King Jr. dream for today.
“THEN MY LIFE SHOULD NOT BE IN VAIN:” Reverend Lestor Cousin set the emotional keynote with this rousing gospel number as Judge Morgan looks on. At left, Wiley Harrison, Board of Directors, Slater Center, and Arlene Gordon-Oliver, Mistress of Ceremonies. He had them from “Hello” when he complimented Reverend Lestor Cousin’s emotional delivery of a lyric that keynoted Dr. King’s motivation, singing “If I can show somebody they are traveling wrong, then my living should not be in vain,” thanking Cavalry Baptist Church leader for his “Seasoning of Life.” Photo by WPCNR News
“We come to celebrate the 76th anniversary of the birth of a preacher, a teacher, a seer, a risk taker and history maker, one of the greatest leaders to ever walk this earth,” were his first words. Photo by WPCNR News.
That lifted the audience of close to 200 right up out of their chairs.
He noted the number of children in the audience, approximately 18, and praised them for getting out of bed and coming today, taking up the theme that Martin Luther King Day, is “a Day on. Not a Day off,” noting that “there’s too much we need to do to lay in bed, watch TV, or go shopping. There’s too much we need to finish. It’s not a day for shopping, but a day to do what needs to be done to further justice for all people in this great country.” He contrasted how how easy it is “to lay around, sit around, and never get around,” while in 1963, others “sat in, stood out, got hosed down, got beat up.”
The Scene: Monday Morning 9 A.M. at The Crowne Plaza. Photo by WPCNR News.
Promising to speed up his southern drawl, Judge Morgan proceeded to spin a major address that got more interesting, powerful and relevant with every sentence, every unexpected change of direction that worked the keys of the human emotional keyboard.
The Dream Speech is NOT a sound bite.
He criticized the tendency to “pigeon-hole” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 address, saying it was time “to update the dream” to address the issues of today as he imagined Dr. King would be doing, had he not been assassinated in 1968. Calling the King speech, “one of the greatest pieces of oratory of all time,” he said “it shaped the consciousness of society, its shortfalls and shortcomings,” but now it was typically relegated to “sound bites.”
Doing so, Morgan said freezes the speech in time, and “gives a false notion of Dr. King (by simply referring to his analogy) of 4 little children.”
The truth, Morgan said is “We ain’t where we have been, then again we ain’t where we need to be.” He said “we” have not “sustained” the will to “destroy the vestiges of racial inequality.”
Humorously he noted how as we age, we change in time, citing several humorous references to celebrities, and said similarly Dr. King’s dream speech needed to be updated: “To freeze the speech in time would be an injustice. We need to update the dream to facilitate the agenda of it in 2005…we cannot afford to delude ourselves that the literal portion of the substance of the dream (has been accomplished). That does not mean that racial inequality doesn’t exist…methods to perpetuate inequality continue to evolve. We must update to reality our society’s shortcomings and what is happening now.”
Still Music today.
Noting that music media has gone from 78’s to 45rpm records to LPs to CDs and now MP3’s, “it’s still music,” Morgan said. “The message of Dr. King is still freedom, justice, fairness, equality, and we still want it in the best way. We should not lock up Dr. King (to a place in time).”
He challenged to think of how Dr. King would react and speak out today had he lived, having been murdered at age 39 in 1968:
“A Dr. King in his 40s would speak on Viet Nam. A Dr. King in his 50s, would speak on affirmative action and conservation, a Dr. King in his 60s would speak to us all on AIDS and the NAFTA agreement, and a Dr. King in his 70s would speak out on Iraq, aid to Tsunami victims . We need to be mindful not to freeze it (Dr. King’s speech) in time. It is a speech made for all times.”
Addresses pop culture and youth.
Judge Morgan connected with young and old by addressing the experiences he has had with young persons brought before him on the bench. He said the young persons of today are asking the same questions youth has always asked, “Who am I? Why was I put here? Where should I go? And what choices should I make?”
He said “Negative peer pressure is the leading destroyer of the development of our youth. They are being plucked off by under-achieving, unsavory, unconcerned individuals.”
Shames Pop Performers
He scathingly ridiculed pop lyrics put out by black and white groups alike that promote a lifestyle of indulgence, sex and disrespect. Rewriting the one performer’s message, he said, “It’s not all about business and all the money you can get. It’s about self-respect. Fairness. Decency…to be at your best – the best you can be all of the time.”
He brought laughs and drove home a message by rewriting popular pop lyrics: saying instead of singing “pass the Courvoisier,” he said he would rather hear “you passed your test with an A,” and rather than “don’t drop it like it’s hot,” “I want you to drop it like they’re not (hot).”
Giving examples of youths that come before him, Judge Morgan pointed out how drug pushers who cut mix and grade their “stock” represent “chemistry gone crazy,” and another young man who could leap and turn on a sprinkler system in prison, “physics gone wrong,” and offenders in line who can compute their bail, examples of “mathematics gone mad.” The points caused uneasy but very knowing, hollow laughter.
Concluding this segment on youth, Morgan pleaded with his audience that the minority youth of today “can’t afford to have a backward way of life,” and their education neglected.
He challenged all to the task of “updating the dream to do justice to Martin Luther King, Jr., and do justice to Martin Luther King’s legacy, and to do justice for our childen and future generations, we must update the dream.”
Mayor Joseph Delfino took the podium next, obviously as emotionally overcome as everyone else by Judge Morgan’s speech and said everyone across America should hear his speech. He mentioned how much further the City of White Plains had to go himself and invited persons to attend the Gospel Concert Friday evening at the White Plains Performing Arts Center to fund the Juneteenth Celebration in White Plains. Tickets are still available, the Mayor said, and could be purchased by calling the WPPAC or the Slater Center at 948-6211.
Paul Wood, City Executive Officer, who is handling the Juneteenth Committee liaison for the Mayor’s office, said a little over than 200 tickets had been sold at $100 each as of Monday afternoon. To support Juneteenth, the celebration parade saluting the freeing of the slaves June 19, 1865, you may purchase tickets at the WPPAC for Friday’s Gospel concert to fund the parade, dial the box office at 1-888-977-2250.
Man, this speech just blew the audience away. Everyone had heard something extraordinary that everyone should hear and read. Folks lined up to shake his hand.
CHARLIE BOOTH WRAPS IT UP: The Dais, Left to Right, Pastor John F. Davis, Robert Ruger, Bruce Golden, Chiar of the Unity Breakfast Committee,Wiley Harrison, Arlene Gordon-Oliver, Mr. Booth, Executive Director of the Slater Center, Judge Morgan, Judge Barbara Leek, Mayor Delfino, and Rabbi Lester Bronstein. Photo by WPCNR News.
The program concluded with a moving performance by Reverend Lester Cousin’s daughter-in-law, Dawn Cousin, and the morning of renewal ended with the ballroom joining hands and singing “We Shall Overcome.”
It was one of the great speeches this reporter has ever heard. Judge Morgan’s wife, Patsy, said he writes his speeches out longhand, but she would try and get WPCNR a copy.
DAWN COUSIN rendering a Selection. Photo by WPCNR News
