For the closing benediction everyone joined hands and sang "We Shall Overcome" at the 33rd Annual Martin Luther King Humanitarian Awards program. photo by Wayne Hinshaw; for the Salisbury Post

Dr. Linda Bryan, the keynote speaker, addresses the 33rd Annual Martin Luther King Humanitarian Awards program. photo by Wayne Hinshaw; for the Salisbury Post

Humanitarian Service Award winner Karen Puckett at the 33rd Annual Martin Luther King Humanitarian Awards program. photo by Wayne Hinshaw; for the Salisbury Post

Humanitarian Service Award winner William Peoples at the 33rd Annual Martin Luther King Humanitarian Awards program. photo by Wayne Hinshaw; for the Salisbury Post

Humanitarian Service Award winners were the Smith Family, William, Diamond and Sherry, at the 33rd Annual Martin Luther King Humanitarian Awards program. photo by Wayne Hinshaw; for the Salisbury Post

By Elizabeth Cook

ecook@salisburypost.com

Selfless service and a love for humanity wove through the service Sunday afternoon at Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church.

And the dream — always the dream.

Officially, it was the 33rd Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Celebration and Humanitarian Awards Day.

Spiritually, it was a chance to revisit The Dream — the message of hope that rang out from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial when King gave his historic 1963 speech.

"I have a dream," King said, "that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood."

And Sunday people of all hues sat together at a service of brotherhood.

"I don't know about you," said the speaker, Dr. Linda Bryan of Raleigh, "but I embrace the dream ... I'm walking in the dream. ...

"The dream is very much fulfilled today. We are better off."

Thanks to the dream and King's work, she said, people have homes they never thought they'd have, they live in neighborhoods they never thought they'd live in, they have money and cars they never thought they'd have.

The move toward equality is "not completely off the hook," she said, but life is better.

"God has opened doors and windows and blessings poured down," Bryan said.

Bryan, executive secretary-treasurer of the Women's Baptist Home and Foreign Missionary Convention, said children recite King's words 47 years later because they hold hope — not just for African-Americans, bur for America.

Fifth-grader Zion DeBose, a winner of Mount Zion's essay contest, dreams of a day when anger gives way to something better. The essay was based on a quote from King, "Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend." Young Zion cited history-making people who have come before — Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, George Washington Carver — and said no amount of hate and disrespect could be equal to the power of love.

Thomas Lowe, another essay contest winner, said he'd had his ups and downs. He was a football star at East Rowan High School as a sophomore, then was dismissed after his third game as a junior last year. He transferred to South Rowan High School but did not play football again until the fall of 2009, his senior year. Saying this was the first time he'd talked publicly about the dismissal, Lowe said he lost most of the people who he thought cared for him, and some still bash him. "My mom said, 'Thomas, God loves you and I love you.' " Faith has given him the power of love and the ability to make positive strides, he said. The ultimate measure of a man is how he holds up in times of adversity, he said.

The service included the presentation of three humanitarian awards to people who have been giving hope to others.

- Karen Puckett has worked to raise money for the Lost Boys of Sudan and has helped form Sudan Rowan.

- William Peoples, past president of the local NAACP, addresses City Council about community needs. He is a member of the West End Community Association and several other groups working for safe neighborhoods, equality and better race relations.

- Sherry Smith is director of blood services for the Elizabeth Hanford Dole Chapter of the American Red Cross, which collected 7,000 units of blood last year. She was recognized along with daughter Diamond Smith and husband William Smith.

Sherry Smith, who said friends tease and call her "vampire," said giving blood or giving donations "is all about helping hurting people." It's not the Red Cross that needs blood, she said. People need blood.

At the beginning of the program, public officials spoke briefly.

"Every year we talk about what we're going to do to make race relations better," state Rep. Lorene Coates said. "What have you done?"

Mayor Susan Kluttz said the founder of the Humanitarian Awards Day — the late Rev. S.R. Johnson, pastor of Mount Zion — would be proud of the way the celebration of Martin Luther King Day has grown.

The annual breakfast being held at 7:30 this morning has outgrown the Civic Center and moved to the Event Center owned by Cornerstone Church. For the first time, the Freedman's Cemetery will be the scene of a community observance at 9:30 a.m. Kluttz praised the controversial decision to remove a section of the wall of the adjoining Old English Cemetery, a gesture that showed the walls between white and black were coming down.

"I know we have a long way to go," Kluttz said. It won't be easy. "It takes changing people's hearts."

Carl Ford, chairman of the Rowan County Board of Commissioners, read the county's proclamation for Martin Luther King Day and talked about putting God first. The three best things that happened to him, he said, were becoming a Christian, meeting his wife and being appointed to the Department of Social Services board. There, he said, he learned about people who were truly hurting and in need, and he got to know the board's chairman, Dr. Nilous Avery — pastor of Mount Zion. "I love this man," Ford said.

Granite Quarry Mayor Mary Ponds talked about loving one another regardless. "We forget to love and let other things take its place," she said. She emphasized unity and posed a question. "I wonder why when we did integration, why we didn't start in the churches?"

Tammy Corpening, representing the East Spencer Board of Aldermen, said she was glad she'd been asked to fill in at the service for the mayor. "I feel so good to look out on this audience," pointing to multicultural crowd.

Dr. Jimmy Jenkins, president of Livingstone College, said education is the key to upward mobility, and said we must overcome the ignorance of looking at people by the color of their skin.

Rick Stephens, provost of Catawba College, quoted a remark Andrew Young said at President Obama's inauguration, saying "we are in biblical time" — a reference to the 40 years since King's death and a parallel to the 40 years the Israelites wandered in the wilderness. "There's work to be done," Stephens said.