Belen Library hosts event celebrating MLK’s legacy

BELEN — “The ideals and ideas that Dr. King had are so timely. They are good for yesterday, today and tomorrow so it never goes out, and I think that’s one of the reasons why we continue to look to him,” said Geneva Nixon.

Nixon is a member of the Belen Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Multi-Cultural Commission. She served as the first chairwoman of the commission from 1992 to 2013.

Belen Public Library staff invited her to speak at their event in July focusing on how everyone can make a positive impact in their community, and how it relates to the “I Have A Dream” speech.

“So I looked at some quotes, and that’s what I want to talk with you about,” said Nixon, a retired Belen High School English teacher. “When I thought about what inspired him, I found (a quote) where he said, ‘There comes a time when one must take a position, a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right.’ I think that that is very, very important.”

Since there were several parents and children in attendance, Nixon noted the importance of teaching kids from an early age, “there are times when we have to speak up and say a word that is right, and a word that is helpful.”

“He also said, ‘In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends,’” said Nixon.

She also shared some interesting and surprising facts about MLK. For example, King was revered as an exceptional public speaker who moved many with his words, but while in college he received a C in his public speaking class.

Also, King and his father, who he was named after, were both originally named Michael.

According to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, King’s father, a respected Atlanta pastor, embarked on a religious journey around the world in 1934. As he toured, King Sr. gained a great respect for German theologian Martin Luther.

“Upon his return state-side, Martin Luther King Sr. changed his and his 5-year-old son’s names in honor of the Protestant reformation leader,” NMAAHC stated.

Nixon brought her talk to a close with a story she heard through MLK’s memoir regarding an incident at a book signing in Chicago that almost ended his life in 1958.

“Some lady rushed on the stage and stabbed him,” Nixon said. “The knife penetrated his chest and he was in a very serious condition and was in intensive care for a long time.”

During this time, he received many letters from people all around the world wishing him well and out of all those one that particularly struck him was a letter sent to him by a 9-year old girl.

The young girl wrote that she heard her parents say doctors kept him in a calm area because they didn’t want him to sneeze or to cough, because if he had he would have died on the spot due to where he was injured.

“She ended her letter by saying, ‘Dr. King, I am only 9 years old, and I don’t know about all these things, but I have to tell you, I am so glad that you didn’t sneeze,’” Nixon said, which drew out chuckles from folks in attendance. “We can think sometimes that we might be saying things to our young people and our children and they may not necessarily be paying us any attention, but they are.”

Nixon emphasized the way we speak to our youth and the things we say around them have a lasting effect, so it’s important to be mindful of that.

“So we know the kind of things that that family was talking about — do what’s right, stand up (for what’s right) when it’s important to do that and treat all people the same,” she said. “We hold one day that we will live in a world where all of these bad kinds of words are not there and we’re just living for the right thing.”