Many eligible to receive the vaccine feel as though they’ve been left in the dark because of a lack of communication and clear direction from health officials.
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YOUNGSTOWN Natalia McRae strongly feels if you read a speech Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered during a victorious moment nearly 56 years ago, it quickly will become apparent that his words are just as relevant today.
“Dr. King said this in 1965 at the end of the Selma-to-Montgomery march. It is still appropriate today,” McRae, an East High School senior and member of Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past, said.
McRae was referring to King’s “How Long, Not Long” speech that he delivered to about 25,000 people who gathered March 25, 1965, in Montgomery, Ala., at the conclusion of the famous five-day, 54-mile walk for voting rights. King’s words were intended mainly to reassure the masses that the days of brutality in the South against blacks by white people were waning.
FILE - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. acknowledges the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial for his I Have a Dream speech during the March on Washington, D.C. on Aug. 28, 1963. A new documentary âMLK/FBI,â shows how FBI director J. Edgar Hoover used the full force of his federal law enforcement agency to attack King and his progressive, nonviolent cause. That included wiretaps, blackmail and informers, trying to find dirt on King. (AP Photo/File)
There is still work to do in achieving the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of more than 50 years ago, Valley clergy and activists say, as they view present-day upheaval in Washington and protests in American cities following violent police encounters with blacks.
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Staff photo / R. Michael Semple
Lea Dotson of Warren, one of the founders of IVote Black, a political organization formed in Warren in 2020 that focuses on making sure political leaders and organizations work on issues affecting black communities and their progress, stands by the gazebo at Courthouse Square.
Work still needs to be done to achieve the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of more than 50 years ago, Valley clergy and activists say, as they view present-day upheaval in Washington and protests in American cities following violent police encounters with blacks.
That work, they note, entails putting people in office and holding them accountable to the black community, working for policy changes, involving youth in local discussions and addressing covert racism.