 Welcome to the CDO Forward's MLK Employee Celebration, my name is Cannon Henry and I'm the chair of the MLK Juneteenth Employee Committee. My role today is to welcome you all to a celebration that we're having in commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s civil rights history. We're going to actually have a celebration which we actually had, a celebration of food, we have some cake outside as well. We have an educational program, and in keeping with the spirit of the holiday, we have a call to action of a service program that we're implementing today as well. The educational portion of our event will consist of a reading of Coretta Scott's King's letter, the meaning of the King's holiday. As well, we will present a story that's entitled One Night with a King, which is the story of Dr. King's visit to Fort Worth and Dr. Vader Felder's role in his visit. And we will have a panel discussion on the local trailblazer Dr. Felder herself. Now, I want to take a few minutes to acknowledge and just acknowledge the people who actually put all this together. But first I want to say thank you to the staff, to the employees of City of Fort Worth for coming out. I believe this is one of our largest events that we've ever had. I appreciate you for coming out. As part of the MLK Juneteenth Employee Committee, it's a small committee but we would love for you to participate. Again, of all the events we have, diversity, inclusion, human relations, this is probably one of the largest events I saw a lot of our employees at. So thank you for coming out. As part of our Employee Committee, MLK Juneteenth Committee, I want to recognize Lynn Downey, Kayla Harrison, Petrina Newton, Rhonda Prestige, and also from the Human Relations Unit of Veronica Villegas and Linda Tuggle. Also, I would like to thank the City Manager's Office for their support, especially Valerie Washington and Susan Alanis, the Human Relations staff, and the Communications Office for their assistance in helping us with this program. I also want to take the time out to thank and acknowledge our local officials that sit in the audience, Council Member Chingleton, Council Member Jordan, I saw Council Member Flores, thank you, and Council Member Zeta. Council Member Burt. Our facilitator for today's event is Galenice Robison, who for many years was the Director of the City's Library Department before retiring. In her second stint with the City, she is now the Director of Educational Strategies, which focus on addressing the reading ability and other important learning parameters of our local youth. With a round of applause, can you help me join and welcome in Galenice Robison? Good afternoon. And thank you all so much for being here today. This is a really glorious occasion that we are going to enjoy today, and we are so glad that you are here. This is all about information, it's about celebration, but it's about legacy, it's about life, and it's about you. It's about the role that you can play in our communities as we model the steps of Dr. Martin Luther King. So again, thank you for being here. Council Members, thank you again so very much for being here and staff as well. We're going to begin with the reading by Ms. Councilwoman Ann Zeta. Elected in June of 2014, District 9 Representative Ann Zeta joined the Fort Worth City Council ranks already a seasoned veteran at navigating the important decisions city leaders must make. She served three years on the zoning commission before being elected as the District 9 Representative. Ann Zeta, a Fort Worth resident of more than 25 years, came to Texas after obtaining a bachelor's degree in environmental studies from the University of California Santa Cruz. She obtained a master's in city and regional planning in 1992 from the University of Texas at Arlington. Community engagement is a passion for Ann throughout her years working with the city. She is front and center when volunteers are needed, and I can attest to that. In addition to being a familiar face at pop-up markets, open streets, Fort Worth festivals, and historic tours, Zeta has coordinated events and communication for her home neighborhood Blue Bonnet Hills. And worked with Steer Fort Worth Urban Development Task Force to hold a successful Better Block event at Blue Bonnet Circle. Ms. Zeta, would you please come forth? Good. I guess it's afternoon. I appreciate the opportunity to be here today and share these words with you with these words that are not my own words. So I'm going to be looking at them on the paper, and I apologize that I won't be able to look up as much as I would like to. But I want to make sure that I impart the words of Coretta Scott King accurately and correctly. I also had Catherine blow this up to a larger font because of my eyesight, but I'm going to put my glasses on just to make sure I get all of the words totally correctly. Because even this large font looks a little blurry to me. Thank you very much for that introduction. That was very kind. I'm honored to share with you the meaning of the King Holiday by Coretta Scott King. The Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday celebrates the life and legacy of a man who brought hope and healing to America. We commemorate as well the timeless values he taught us through his example. The values of courage, truth, justice, compassion, dignity, humility, and service that so radiatedly defined Dr. King's character and empowered his leadership. On this holiday, we commemorate the universal unconditional love, forgiveness, and nonviolence that empowered his revolutionary spirit. We commemorate Dr. King's inspiring words because his voice and his vision filled a great void in our nation and answered our collective longing to become a country that truly lived out its noblest principles. Yet Dr. King knew that it wasn't enough just to talk the talk. He had to walk the walk for his words to be credible. And so we commemorate on this holiday the man of action who put his life on the line for freedom and justice every day. The man who braved threats and jail and beatings and who ultimately paid the highest price to make democracy a reality for all Americans. The King Holiday honors the life and contributions of the America's greatest champion of racial justice inequality and the leader who not only dreamed of a colorblind society but also led a movement that achieved historic reforms to help make it a reality. On this day, we commemorate Dr. King's great dream of a vibrant, multiracial nation united in justice and peace and reconciliation. A nation that had a place at the table for children of every race and room at the inn for every needy child. We are called on this holiday not merely to honor but to celebrate the values of equality, tolerance and interracial sister and brotherhood he so compellingly expressed in his great dream for America. It is a day of interracial and intercultural cooperation and sharing. No other day of the year brings so many people from different cultures backgrounds together in such a vibrant spirit of brother and sisterhood. Whether you are African American, Hispanic or Native American, whether you are Caucasian or Asian American, you are part of the great dream Martin Luther King Jr. had for America. This is not a black holiday, it is a people's holiday and it is the young people of all races and religions who hold the keys to the fulfillment of his dream. We commemorate on this holiday the American leader and visionary who embraced the unity of all faiths in love and truth and though we take patriotic pride that Dr. King was an American, on this holiday we also commemorate the global leaders who have inspired nonviolent liberation movements around the world. Indeed on this day, programs commemorating my husband's birthday are being observed in more than 100 nations. The King holiday celebrates Dr. King's global vision of the world house, the world whose people and nations had triumphed over poverty, racism, war and violence. The holiday celebrates his vision of, sorry, solidarity, his insistence that all faiths had something meaningful to contribute to building the beloved community. The holiday commemorates America's preeminent advocacy of nonviolence, the man who taught by his example that nonviolent action is the most powerful revolutionary force for social change available to oppressed people in their struggle for liberation. This holiday honors the courage of a man who endured harassment, threats and beatings and even bombings. We commemorate the man who went to jail 29 times to achieve freedom for others and who knew he would pay the ultimate price for his leadership but kept on marching and protesting and organizing anyway. Even King holiday, every King holiday has been a national teach-in on the values of nonviolence including unconditional love, tolerance and forgiveness and reconciliation which are so desperately needed to unify America. It is a day of intensive education and training in Martin's philosophy and methods of nonviolent social change and conflict reconciliation. The holiday provides a unique opportunity to teach young people to fight evil, not people. To get in the habit of asking themselves what is the most loving way I can resolve this conflict. On the King holiday, young people learn about the power of unconditional love even for one's adversaries in a way to fight injustice and defuse violent disputes. It is a time to show them the power of forgiveness in the healing process at the interpersonal as well as the international levels. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is not only for celebration and remembrance, education and tribute but above all a day of service. All across America, on this holiday, his followers perform service in hospitals, shelters, prisons and wherever people need help. It is a day of volunteering to feed the hungry, rehabilitate housing, tutor those who cannot read, mentoring at-risk youngsters, consoling the broken-hearted and thousands of other projects for building the beloved community of his dream. Dr. King once said that we all have to decide whether we will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. Life's most persistent and nagging question, he said, is what are you doing for others? He would quote Mark 935, the scripture in which Jesus of Nazareth tells James and John, Whoever will be great among you shall be your servant, and whoever will be the first shall be the servant of all. And when Martin talked about the end of his mortal life in one of the last sermons on February 4th, 1968 on the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church, even then he lifted up the values of service as the hallmark of a full life. I'd like somebody to mention on the day Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his life of serving others. He said, I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to love and serve humanity. We call you to commemorate this holiday by making your personal commitment to serve humanity with the vibrant spirit of unconditional love that was his greatest strength and which empowered all of the great victories of his leadership and with our hearts open to the spirit of unconditional love, we can indeed achieve the beloved community of Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream. May we who follow Martin now pledge to serve humanity to promote his dreams and carry forward his legacy into the 21st century. Thank you. I stand here now still in awe of Dr. King's words. And Councilwoman Zeta, you did such a beautiful job reading them. And I know that most of us are familiar with the King's speech, I have a dream. But there are so many others that are important to us to read. So I implore you to go visit the Fort Worth Public Library and check out those resources and read about them. Now you could Google it, but I wouldn't say you're going to get all the accurate information on Google. So check it out at your library. Thank you so much. Again, I talked about, mentioned that this is not just a celebration. This is about our future. And as we go through this program today, I'd like for you to be thinking about what role you can play. How did his words really inspire you? What is the challenge from his life that you have taken away and that you move upon that in your daily life? This is not, these are not just words. It's supposed to drive us to action. So as we continue our program, I'm going to ask you to internalize what you hear so that you can take it away. We have a panel, and I'm going to introduce them at this point. First on our panel, we have Jabari Jones. Jabari is a library assistant at the Central Library. Jabari works as a library assistant. He's knowledgeable about the history of Fort Worth, including Fort Worth's African American community. Jabari has worked at the Fort Worth Public Library since 2008 and currently works in the genealogy and local history departments and the adult services unit. His duties include setup and overseeing small exhibits and displays related to Fort Worth history as well as presentations and talks on archival management and preservation. Thank you, Jabari, for putting together the PowerPoint presentation that is looping. Second on our panel, we have Revan Kevin Jones, minister- Kenneth. Kenneth? Okay. Sorry. Okay. Revan Kenneth Jones, minister of the Como Missionary Baptist Church. Pastor Jones is a native of Houston, Texas. He received his undergraduate degree from Lamar University, Beaumont, Texas, and his master's degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. Dean of Christian Education Certification. He resides in Fort Worth with his wife of 25 years, Dana, and their three children. He has served as pastor of Como Missionary Baptist Church since August of 1966. I apologize. I apologize. Thank you, Pastor Jones, for your humor. Okay. Pastor Jones is active in many community service projects that include the Fort Worth police department, community advisory group, and policy review board, and adopt the school initiative. So we'll have some conversations about adoptive school. And lastly on our panel, Ms. Polk, Charmene Polk, Federated Women's Club. Ms. Polk is an accomplished musician and minister of music who is well-loved in the community. A graduate of Paul Quinn College, she is a retired health and physical education teacher from Fort Worth ISD. In 1985, she founded the original King Kids of America, who studied the life of Dr. Martin Luther King and toured the country performing choir selections and music of iconic speeches. She is a member of the Ethel Ransom Humanitarian and Cultural Club, and the musician for the Fort Worth Association of Federated Women's Club. Ms. Polk, would you please join us? We will begin this conversation by asking Ms. Polk to talk some about Ms. Felder. I understand she knew her, she has written a piece about her, and we're going to ask her to talk about Ms. Vader Felder first. Thank you, Ms. Polk. Good, good, good. I had prepared... This is my prepared. Okay. I had prepared something to read. I don't do too good with my memory. As many of you are probably in the same boat. Can I get an amen? All right, Ms. Vader Felder. A pioneer in the city of Fort Worth, a proud member of the Ethel Ransom Cultural Club, who just part of the Federated Humanitarian Club. She was founded in 1931. A religious educator who was the first black to graduate from Bright Theological Seminary at TCU. She was also an author, highly respected by the city. She not only cared for her club, Ethel Ransom, but she participated in all clubs while holding offices. That means she was a president, a treasurer, secretary for many years. She was a mentor for other women in that capacity, where one of her mentors remains to this day our treasurer still. While in the Ethel Ransom Club, she held many, many offices, such as the Bethlehem Center, the Urban League, Auto of Eastern Stars, Zeta Phi Beta. Do we have any Zetas in the house? All right. All right. I know Christine Moss is one. Okay. Campfire Girl, Campfire, Harold's of Jericho. She was named the Great Woman of Texas in 2008. Now she also established, she just has so many accolades. Y'all bear with me, okay? I know you fool from the end and out. Don't go to sleep on me. Established the accredited leadership school in Fort Worth. From 1954 to 1974, she's known for her inviting Dr. Martin Luther King to her home here in Fort Worth, and that was during the time and the height of the civil rights years. How many of y'all heard about that? She invited, he actually stayed in her home. Can you tell me why he had to stay in her home at that time? That's right. No hotels would allow him. I think there were about five ministers who actually welcomed him. The rest of the ministers I understand were afraid to come out and be seen. And I had to put that on your head. Five ministers, Paul Sims. I know Francine Morrison reads. Miss Felder, there are a couple of more. So I just tell my age. I'm 77. So anything I do up here, you say, well, she's an old school. Okay. She's known again for inviting Dr. King. But I understand there was a white guy, a professor out there at the Bright Divinity School, who also had him to come to his house. And so thank God for that. Everybody was against him. He stayed at her home, couldn't stay. You already answered the question for me. Now, this was told to me on yesterday. I had an interview or she was telling me about she's 92 years young. And she joined the club the same time Miss Dr. Felder did. She told me that Dr. Felder did not come to the first meeting. And that was in 1933. Her name is Miss Mack Henry. You may know her. She told me that she was a giver. Miss Dr. Felder was a giver of her time and a very, very generous giver. An example, she paid the bills for the club when they couldn't. Light bills, water bills, repair bills, whatever was needed with her own money. That's pretty nice. She emphasized on money. A visionary she was. An example, the park that's across the street from the women's club. It's now a park. She invested her own money and paid $2,000 for that land. Now, we don't know what happened after it. We don't know what happened. Well, anyway, $2,000. I'll leave it like that. She bought that for the women's club. And she gave the money to the women's club. But she paid $2,000 and whoever bought it gave her $29,000. So that's a pretty good profit, I would say. Thank you, Miss Pope. Okay. And I'm going to ask you to join the panel members. I have some more information that I want to ask them. And we're going to have that at the Fort Worth Public Library as well. So you all can go check out the rest of what she has to say. I'm going to hand the mic over here and ask some questions of the panel members. Miss Pope has already talked some about who Miss Veldor was. So I'm going to ask Jabari to answer the question or any of the other panel members who might choose to talk a little bit more about Miss Veldor based on your research at the library. What kind of person was she and what kind of factors gave drive to her commitment to support social justice? I guess a lot of research on Dr. Veldor. If you kind of do a research on her background, she was from Franklin, Texas, a small community outside of Herne, between Herne and Calvert. It was a farming community. So it was a lot of hard work, a lot of drive behind her. She was very knowledgeable. She was always looking for a book as she stated. So off her educational background, she actually attended Wiley College in Marshall, Texas. The idea was looking at some of her research. She actually wanted to attend Bishop College, which was actually across the street at that time. But she found it was more information as far as what she wanted to attend as far as her religious background or religious study. Both arrival schools both had strong religious programs, but one particular college, Wiley, focused more on African-American women at that time on their religious studies. If you realize back in that timeframe, it wasn't a lot of women that were focused on religious, on the religious background or teaching of religion. So after leaving Wiley, she actually read a newspaper article about people wanting to, if you're African-American and you want to attend TCU at the time, they were looking for students. And she was one of two actually at that time. It was actually another male student that was before her, but she was actually the first graduate from TCU's Bright School. So that shows you her drive and her tenacity of going through the educational background. She answered the ad and actually kind of just went to TCU and started her studies with the Division of Religious Studies. So she was just, I think, a strong tenacity, a strong individual as far as focus on what she wanted to do. Okay. Thank you for that. Pastor Jones, you want to add anything to that? Yes, I would. When we think about Dr. Vader Felder, for me, I knew her personally as a first year student when I came here to Fort Worth in 1990. And she was a Christian education director. At that time, she was right at 80 years old. But still had a keen mind. And as a first semester seminary student, I spent a lot of hours at 1331 Stuart Street where she lived. I was not far from the church where she was, the historic Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church on Evans Avenue. LB George was the pastor at that time. She was the director of Christian education. She took a liking to me when I came to the church and said, you've got potential. And I believe that's the keen educator in her. She saw something in me. So I would spend time, in a real sense, my first five months in seminary. I never spent any time in the Library of Southwestern Seminary. She had a library that was so impactful. And you can see the genesis of where that fight for struggle and freedom from African-Americans, she exposed me to some of the greatest minds. And one of them was Harry Emerson Fosdick out of the famed Riverside Church in New York, which lower Manhattan, who was a rebel in the cause of racial injustice. George G. M. James, she exposed me to stolen legacy. So you're talking about a woman that was well-read. You're talking about a woman that had intellect but had an elegance. And she was always teaching, as it already been mentioned. She had her own personal school that she impacted kids from 1954 to 1974, right out of her house. And so the struggle has already been mentioned. I believe her husband, O.P. Felder, which was a pastor of the St. James, Historic St. James Church downtown, who was also preeminent in his theological understanding of the struggle because he was the Dean of Chapel at Langston University, one of our famed HBCUs. So when you're talking about all of this that is coming in and because she was a prolific writer for the BTU, we call it Baptist Training Union back in the day. And at that time she was traveling too because she was very active in the National Baptist Convention, USA Incorporate, which at this time is the largest convention of black churches in America right now. So she was traveling. She met Claretta and King in Nashville, which was corporate headquarters at that time. That ensued the conversation, but she had a relationship with a great minister, Kirby Holmes, right here in Fort Worth, who was the first cousin of Ralph Abernathy, who they walked together. And so it was that conversation that she met with Claretta. At this time her husband had passed. That's the only reason why King would stay in her house upstairs because her husband was not alive in that sense and all that other stuff there because of the fact. And it was a beautiful flag upstairs and all of that. She was a woman of integrity and King respected that. It was, we have the Fain Baker funeral home. The owner at that time was the one who picked King up from Love, Affield, and brought him all the way to Fort Worth and has already been mentioned. Hotels would not take him. And back then in the struggle of, and I'm not born yet, but in that struggle when you come in in the 54, 55, 56, 57, a lot of Baptist ministers were housed in homes. And so that was a great sense of animosity towards Dr. King. That was a great sense of jealousy towards Dr. Vader Felder in a real sense. She took a lot of hits from her own community in that sense there, but she had a security and a tenacity of who she was because she was highly trained, highly educated, earned doctorate. And I guess what I'm saying from all of this and bringing this all together, bringing Dr. King and somebody had mentioned that a Dr. Harold Lunger from TCU because Dr. Felder was the first African-American to graduate from TCU, which Bright Bible College is what it was at the time. It's Bright Divinity now. But she was the first to get her master's degree in 1954 while her husband was still pastoring the historic St. James. It finished up in 54. And then this whole process of bringing King into town was because of the dialogue between Kirby Holmes, herself, Ralph Abernathy that brought him in, and she tried to use the connections that she had at TCU to have King speak earlier that day before he would do one of his fame messages. It's a great time to be alive. And when he gave that message, TCU, which was the incubator that gave her the education, would not receive him. And so that's why he spoke at the home of Dr. Harold Lunger, who was the professor of ethics at Bright Divinity at that time. So King spoke earlier that day and then you had what was the Fort Worth Mine. It was the black newspaper in Fort Worth. It reminds me of my hometown of the Farwood Times. And so the Fort Worth Mine was the paper that was calling African-Americans get out because that was a great sense of jealousy. You had African-Americans scared to come because if their bosses and people who they scrubbed floors for, if you go, you gonna be fired. So it was a great sense of individuals who were scared in that process and the owner of the Fort Worth Mine, which I would say is on par with probably LaVita News of today, spoke, and our brother that runs that paper is in here today. As I said, he was the one that was really calling African-Americans to come out. And it stated, and he's one of the historians, it stated that there were about 400 people that was in attendance. I have not seen a picture of the crowd. She was pleased with the attendance that came that night. We talked in her house. It was always a little cheese, no wine. Little cheese and drinks. And it was always, we're sitting around talking about the rudiments of Christian education and where we were at that time and talking about that night, King speaking. Historians say it was about 400 people that was in attendance that night. It was electrifying. They paid a dollar and 25 cents to be in attendance. This is a brilliant mind that I think if she was around today she would be horrified at the statistics and the social dynamics that is on par for our community, African-American communities today. She was an educator par excellent and when you look at that in that real sense I think she would be real concerned hearing Fort Worth about the dynamics and the statistics of the literacy process of African-American kids who are at the lowest of the lowest ranks when it comes to literacy. I think she would be appalled by that because all of the tools that we have it's a whole lot of us in here we can become and I believe it's the young lady right here she was of that mindset she was a social, spiritual, fire speaker and I think that's what connected her with King you know I think you must have gotten all of my questions oh you got them all okay because you've answered every question that I have so I'm just gonna have to make up some now while I'm standing here but I mean when you hear him talk and pull all of this together the message here is there's something for all of us to do and that a path has been left for us so I'm gonna ask a specific question though with Mary McLeod Bethune she left in her last will and testimony a challenge for all of us what do you think Dr. Vader Dr. Felder would have said to us today as a challenge to keep us moving I would think that she would say relative to Dr. Martin Luther King is that with the dream that we have before us embrace the dream with your eyes wide open in other words there's still stuff that's yet to be done and I think in a real sense she would say don't get caught up in climbing the mountain type of intellectuality surveying the height of academic splendor and you still don't understand and identify with the least the lost the left out the lonely you gotta embrace those that are what disenfranchised don't get caught up in me centeredness but have a servant spirit to embrace others that's what Vader Felder was all about she had a servant spirit and so when you embrace that I think that's what she would say roll your sleeves up don't be so caught up because you gotta job uptown because the same wind that blew you in is the same wind that can blow you out so that's the dynamic that I think that Vader Felder she wouldn't be impressed with a whole lot of us that are just like weasley we didn't move to the east side of town but you still gotta play in a fight that you gotta deal with and I think in a real sense she would say what has integration done I think she would say it was some accomplishments and some advancements but what good is integration it was a cost if we as whites blacks and browns don't move from integration to reconciliation that's got to be the dynamic because what good is it if we go into our little silos over here and everybody's just happy over there and we're not coming together and understand that there's a major racial divide in the most conservative county in all of the United States of America's terror county I'm gonna ask Jabari Jones to also I think I've heard Councilman Michington say from time to time this is good stuff good stuff, good stuff so good stuff I pass it on to what about the millennials and let you comment on that Jabari I guess being the younger person of the group actually I think Dr. Felder's words are instrumental to a lot of young folks we want to continue to be out we want to actually get involved more into the community and I think that's one of the things that she's really stressed is being involved with everyone not just other people in your community but everyone around you so that's one thing I kind of took from a lot of research on her she was not just instrumental and just foreword as she was instrumental going around the country and educating and making sure people were educated enough to know what to do and she was a social justice mover so that's one thing I think we kind of focus on right now is trying to move to the social justice side for everyone Ms. Poe yes ma'am well I didn't go often to that deep of research I need to know the name of his church though because baby he said it all everything I basically wanted to say only thing I got left to say is when I talked with her the one or two times and how she emphasized her love for children she and I had the same thing along that line I went to see her two times she wanted me to be in this club called the Elthoransum Club for six months somebody kept calling me saying this lady in page old dudes I'm like what lady her name is Dr. Felder I don't know I haven't met her yet and believe me I'm sorry I didn't meet her sooner believe that she kept sending for me but at that time I was on doing my own thing with the kids but she had heard about me and she wanted to meet me so she kept sending tell them to come visit me I want you to be in the Elthoransum so finally I went I am so glad that she paid my dues for six months and I remember her telling me I want you to teach somebody you grab a kid and teach somebody something that's what she said and so I'm not traveling along with the kids anymore but in reading I did a lot of research on it Pastor thank you honey you saved me Ms. Polk Ms. Polk why you still have the mic would you comment on the Federated Women's Club what kinds of things is the club doing now that would be modeled after Dr. King I'll just talk about the community of the Federated Women's Club we are community involved we go out and we feed the hungry we have a blanket drive we have giveaways we give away prom dresses that if you can't afford to buy a prom dress you just come there by the club and we have the jewelry and a lot of people are not aware of that we have we just do a lot of things we have 13 different clubs if you're interested in being part of one of them and it's for all nationalities may I say that that's one of the things I believe she would strictly enforce not the color of your skin but the content of your character so we do have a you can go on Facebook the other deal and read about us I'm not I'm not that literary in all that yet but one thing as I said I know she would she would really want me to continue she had a great love for children great love for children that's how she talked to me about and so because of the encouragement that she gave me yes I'm standing up because I got something to show y'all because of the encouragement that she kept instilling in me for that club every time I see this I know I'm just going to glance every time I see her I think about I say Dr. Felder I'm doing what you asked me to do I received the first and only right now stone of hope from the SCLC and I think about her be one I get this and thank you Dr. Tatum we've got about three minutes and I'd like for each of the panel members to have some parting words on what would you say to the group today what inspiration, what challenge what message, what is the take away for today and we're going to close out and have some Q&A from the audience we want to start with I'm going to end with you Pastor John we're going to start with Jabari I'm going to say love each other that's the main thing let there be peace on earth and let it begin where with me I think that would be her message thank you Ms. Poe I think with me it will probably just get involved no matter what you see no matter what you hear be involved in the community it's a lot of things going on that we don't realize so if you don't see it if you don't hear about it or see about it it never happens so we got to be involved in our community to get more involved into the social justice side of helping others amen I think it's the simple truth people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care amen to that so I'm going to pass on a piece of information I'll always be a librarian we have in our community the Lenora Ralla Museum and Culture Center if you haven't visited it make it your first visit and then continue to go and I'm not soliciting but a membership would be encouraged as well also we have the African American Museum over in Dallas it's an affiliate of the Smithsonian and this would be a great time to go visit there and if you haven't had a chance visit the African American Museum in DC this on the mall it is absolutely awesome and down on the second level from the basement where the water runs down there's a statement from Dr. King and you just sit there and people just sit there for hours thinking about and reflecting thank you so very much for your time thank you for your attention and we're ready for questions Petrina if there are questions to the panelists please yes sir because I think it's important I think we should give kudos to pastor Keef Tatum Keef Tatum was instrumental along with the Fort Worth Heritage Society excuse me and the Texas A&M Law Center here in Fort Worth along with Dr. Gary Laceville and Ann Laceville in bringing about the historical marker that is going to be unveiled next Monday at 9 o'clock at General Worth Square across from the John F. Kennedy Museum and I think that we need to give a hand to a young man who recognized that an unsung hero in Fort Worth that was in our midst that many people had forgotten about her legacy needed to be resurrected and that's what I would want to close my comments on to that reading what she had given to me for my son James Artley Pigny in 1992 these are the papers I've been giving to the school district to my friends, to my sororities this is Delta Sigma Theta and I've been sharing this because this woman a great woman intelligent woman a christened woman who might say one that spoke truth and she told me keep the book don't let anyone have it and put on there your son's name February 1992 and you can pass this out when he does this speech February 23rd 1992 my son will be 40 this 23rd of February I've been you do the math got to move on so she has in this book on page 52 the letter head that was written and I am the cousin to Ralph Albinetti she wrote the letter head and you can have one of these we'll get you one okay and this first part of the letter after August 8 1954 dear Mrs. Felder I have written Revan Holmes going to the first excerpt Dr. King the house guest of Mrs. Felder in service in essence said without while looking at course symbolize and class photographers of UCLS you have engaged in a relevant movement of education and learning have become tools for shaping the future Christian education is our greatest hope for changing attitudes and regulating behavior in the mainstream of human life Revan Kirby Holmes Watchman of the Upper Room Temple during a class session expressed a desire to present Dr. King and his philosophy to forward while chatting with Dr. King and Revan Ralph Albinetti during the August 1955 excuse me 1959 meeting of the National Sunday School and Baptist Training Union Congress Mrs. Felder made known to them the express wishes of Revan brother Holmes the letter here is pursuant in the historic majestic theater which died that the convention center might live on the night of October 22nd, 1959 Dr. King electrified his audience as he discussed a great time to be alive after being introduced by Dr. Cece Harper you know he was there he began by saying we stand between the dying old and the emerging new et cetera there can be no hurt and growth without pain et cetera the infant freedom is crying to be born still is he then traced three periods of growth 1916 excuse me get it right 1619 through 1863 he then traced okay I got that slavery 1863 I need these glasses 1863 to 1954 restricted emancipation May 17 come on we girl 1954 borders of the promised land encompassing the struggle to save the soul of America very quickly as we prepare to close I want to thank Fort Worth city employees for this beautiful occasion here today the committee has been working dutifully along with the MLK parade committee and as well as the new MLK on Main Street committee trying to pull all of the people together in a way that makes sense and meet needs so I would be remissed if we did not take a moment to give Mr. Cannon and the committee and the city workers a big round of applause and my brother from another mother but we served the same father he's paying me back for Friday when I took some of his words before he was getting up to give Dr. Lacefield his award but I'm just going to go very quickly over my repair remarks because I was asked to keep it at five minutes so here goes on this day 90 years ago the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Junior was born the son of a Baptist pastor in Atlanta Georgia he too would go on to become a pastor himself and in 1955 thanks to the courageous efforts of Pastor Kirby Baxter Holmes and Dr. Vader Felder this 30 year old Baptist preacher and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference made his way to the beloved city of Fort Worth, Texas his message on October the 22nd, 1959 at the former majestic theater was it's a great time to be alive now 60 years later on Monday January the 21st 2019 at 9 o'clock a.m. our city will make history when we place in perpetuity the legacy of Dr. King and Dr. Felder on the MLK on Main Street Herodist Trail marker on the corner of Main Street based on all of our collective research there are over 900 different honors of Dr. King across the country however the city of Fort Worth will become the first city in the nation to honor the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Junior on Main Street in a real sense it's still a great time to be alive as we come together for this great occasion I would like to encourage us to stay together because the only way for our Fort Worth to get better is for us to work together our mission is to make one Fort Worth the best big city in America and if you type on your phone www.bestbigcity.com the city of Fort Worth will come up we'll become the best big city in the nation when we work together collectively, cooperatively and collaboratively so today we want to publicly announce the MLK on Main Street Collaboratory to help us face our challenges proactively positively and progressively we do have challenges when African Americans make up 18% of the population but yet make .33 cents on the dollar we have challenges when our Latino brothers and sisters make up 38% of the population but make less than 51% cents on a dollar we do have challenges when 90% of the wealth in Fort Worth is controlled by a small minority group of people we have challenges but as we strive to become the best big city in America I would like to remind us of the poem that Dr. King so often would say to inspire us to be our very best if you can't be a pine on the top of the hill be a shrub in the valley but be the best little shrub on the side of the real be a bush if you can't be a tree if you can't be a bush just be a bit of the grass for some highway some half of your make if you can't be a musky just be a bass but the liliest bass in the lake we can't all be captains we got to be the crew there's something for all of us here there's big work to do and there's lesser to do and the task we must do is in the near if you can't be a highway then just be a trail if you can't be the sun be the star for it isn't by the size that we win or we fail be the best whatever you are for we are one Fort Worth and I leave you with the immortal words of Dr. King we're all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny and whatever affects one indirectly affects us all directly and for some strange reason I can never be who I ought to be until you are who you ought to be the rich man can never be who he ought to be until the poor man is who he ought to be placed it in graphic terms no man is an island and tired of himself every man's a piece of the continent a part of the main and then toward the end of that he would say any man's death diminishes me because I'm involved in mankind never since to know for whom the bell tolls it tolls for thee for we are one Fort Worth well we really appreciate everyone coming out but before we go I would like to let everybody know that just in case if you didn't get a chance to eat we got like 10 or 15 burgers out there from in and out so if you got a we got some burgers left but I want to say thank you to John Gonzalez the public events Felicia Cochran also we did not know we did not know we had this room available in this kind of setup available but to John just touching bases with everyone and say hey we got this little room over here and everything came to fruition I want to say thank you to Katrina Newton she had the vision to put all this together the employee committee the MLK Employee Committee as well also I just want to again thank the people who came out because without you this event wouldn't have taken form Reverend Tatum Reverend Jones Miss Jibari and thank you for being an excellent facilitator again thank you all for coming out we would love to have you as part of our committee so if you want to sign up get involved let me know but again thank you all for coming out and this is the end of our program