Debut event draws 700
By Ellen Crawford, ecrawford@forumcomm.com
The Forum - 01/22/2002

About 700 people packed the Fargo Theatre Monday night for the city’s first-ever community Martin Luther King Jr. celebration.

The crowd ranged from youngsters not yet born when King was assassinated in 1968 to retirees such as Fargoan Lew Lubka, who met King in 1960.

Janeen Kobrinsky, mistress of ceremonies and a member of Fargo’s Human Relations Commission, fired up the audience with a song about King’s struggle against racism called “Early in the Morning” while accompanying herself on the guitar. She encouraged the crowd to sing along, which it did enthusiastically.

Next the audience watched a film of King’s appeal to the country on the Mall in Washington, D.C., in August 1963, which has become known as his “I Have a Dream” speech. It’s one that not many have seen in its entirety, Kobrinsky said.

The Trollwood Performing Arts School’s Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Choir sang “Freedom is Coming,” a song of protest and praise, and performed “N’kosi Sikele’l Afrika, South Africa’s national anthem, in Swahili. The choir consisted of two dozen area elementary, junior and senior high students whom their choir directors recommended be part of this special event.

Human Relations Commission chairwoman Cheryl Bergian, with help from Fargo Mayor Bruce Furness, presented the first Fargo Human Relations Awards to Gladys Ray, a 69-year-old American Indian elder and tireless advocate for American Indians in the Fargo-Moorhead area, and the People Escaping Poverty Project.

“I feel truly humble and honored to receive this award,” Ray said. “I shall cherish it forever.”

She commended the Fargo City Commission for creating the Human Relations Commission. She also praised the Human Relations Commission for its efforts to condemn racism and protect people’s basic human rights.

Ray received a standing ovation.

Furness said city officials deliberately chose not to call the board a human rights commission because everyone is entitled to human rights. Instead, they named the board the Human Relations Commission because they wanted to develop relationships.

Relationships are an important part of making the community a better place, said Duke Schempp, director of People Escaping Poverty Project. It’s a Moorhead-based organization that works to help low-income people with affordable housing, police accountability, immigration, health and youth issues.

Andrew Jackson, a member of the organization’s board, challenged the F-M community to stamp out racism, bring about equity and eliminate homelessness.

Monday night’s celebration ended with the audience reciting the Birmingham Pledge, inaugurated at the 1998 Birmingham, Ala., Martin Luther King Jr. unity breakfast, and singing “We Shall Overcome.”

Readers can reach Forum reporter Ellen Crawford at (701) 241-5523