By Steve Huffman
shuffman@salisburypost.com
Dr. Bryant Norman told those gathered Friday at the Hefner VA Medical Center that Barack Obama’s election opened a new world to many ó minority children, especially.
“Children of all (races) can now dream things they never before dreamed,” he said.
Bryant, president of the Salisbury-Rowan NAACP, was the keynote speaker at Friday’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebration at the VA. The theme was: “Thus far by faith.”
Lester Smith served as master of ceremonies for Friday’s event and music was provided by the jazz band from Knox Middle School. Tamika Lattimore performed a mime presentation.
Bryant said that had King not been felled by an assassin’s bullet, he would have turned 80 Friday.
He described King’s assent to national prominence, beginning in 1955 when he was selected to lead the bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala., a boycott sparked by the refusal of Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, to give up her seat to a white man.
King was only 26 at the time he was selected for the task, leading the boycott that stretched 381 days before the U.S. Supreme Court finally ruled that segregated public transportation systems were illegal.
Norman is a graduate of Livingstone College and recalled that he and his wife, Kay Wright-Norman, were involved locally in many of the protests that marked the turbulence of the 1960s.
But Norman said the local protests weren’t met with the same opposition that existed elsewhere.
He recalled that a protest march to integrate Salisbury’s Capitol Theatre proved quickly successful.
“One week and it was opened” to blacks, Bryant said. “There was not that much resistance on the local level.”
Elsewhere, the civil rights movement was at times bitter, with police dogs turned loose on crowds of peaceful protesters, and shootings and lynchings not uncommon.
Bryant read some of King’s words, spoken in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
“Being a negro in America is not a comfortable existence,” Bryant quoted King as having said. “It means having your legs cut off and being condemned for being a cripple.”
Bryant said the country has come far since the days of civil rights protests, with Obama’s election an example of the strides that have been made.
“We’ve come this far by faith,” Bryant said, repeating almost exactly the theme of Friday’s celebration.
“We’ve set an example for the rest of the world to emulate.”
But in his next breath, Bryant cautioned that many challenges remain. He mentioned the New Year’s Day shooting of a young black man in Oakland, Calif., by a white police officer that led to violence and protests there.
“A lot of people think things have changed,” Bryant said, “but not really.”
He said that with the sour economic times, the poor are at particular risks as are schools.
Bryant encouraged attendance at school board and PTA meetings, and encouraged the accountability of elected officials.
“A democracy cannot be sustained unless it has educated and informed citizens,” he said. “You must take time to become part of the education and training of one of God’s greatest gifts ó children.”
Bryant said 42 million Americans don’t have health insurance. He said the United States leads the world in money spent for health insurance, but said the nation ranks a dismal 37th in terms of meeting the health needs of its citizens.
Bryant said that as bad as the current economic times are, things will improve.
“The storm of recession will give way to the sunshine of prosperity,” he said. “We believe in America and want it to be the best it can be. The dream of Dr. King lives.”