Founder Mary Wyatt recalled at Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast in Amherst
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AMHERST - The mood was festive as an estimated 300 residents and elected officials gathered at Amherst Regional Middle School on Saturday to celebrate the life and teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and to remember the late Mary Pittman Wyatt, founder of the event.
Sponsored by the Wesley United Methodist and Goodwin AME Zion churches, the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Breakfast has been an Amherst tradition for 28 years. Wyatt, who died in November, was referred to by many as "mother Mary" because of her kind and nurturing personality.
"This is the first time we have done this without her and I think many people came to honor her memory," said Richmond Ampiah-Bonney, one of the event's organizer.
In his opening remarks, James Collins, first justice of the Franklin and Hampshire Juvenile Court, choked back tears as he recalled Wyatt and promised to help continue her work.
"In 1968 she became my second mother," Collins said. "For so many of us she meant so very much. To mother Mary, we can promise you, that we are going to keep on doing it."
He described the breakfast as "a room full of love, hope and commitment."
The featured speaker was Wyatt's second cousin, the Rev. Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, who is the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Sociology and African-American Studies at Colby College in Maine.
"I enjoy celebrating my cousin and the work that she has done, and I am always happy to speak about Dr. King," Gilkes said.
According to Gilkes, Wyatt had attended a community breakfast honoring King held in a small church basement in Boston some 30 years ago. That sparked her idea to create such an the event in Amherst.
"The Boston breakfast started as a small group of people in a church basement way before there was any Martin Luther King Day. Now it draws 3,000 people and they have to hold it at the convention center," Gilkes said.
She added that she is pleased to see how the breakfast in Amherst has grown as well. "This is her work and the work of people in the community who care," Gilkes said.
She spoke about King's accomplishments furthering the civil rights movement, promoting non-violence and recognizing global connections. She then encouraged the audience to remember that the struggle for equality continues.
"We are in a boat in the middle of a sea and the winds are contrary," Gilkes said. "The struggle for non-violence is still with us and we still face savage inequality.
"We have at least one presidential candidate who calls Martin Luther King Day 'hate whitey day' and we have other politicians who want to get rid of the Department of Education, even 60 years after Brown vs. the Board of Education," the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1954 outlawing segregation in public schools.
Gilkes recalled King's book "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?" published in 1967 and described it as valuable work that addresses race, class inequality and globalization "even though Dr. King didn't use that word back then," she said.
"We are not alone, we are all connected and our consciousness must reach past boundaries of locality," Gilkes said.
Scholarships were awarded to Amherst Regional High School seniors Zeke Foerster and Kyle Josias for their writing about the importance of King's legacy in their lives.
Ticket sales and contributions fund the organization's scholarship program. "We won't know the amount of each scholarship until we know what the take is at this event," said Ampiah-Bonney.
Citizens awards were given to Ophelia Sowers, secretary of the MLK Committee of Amherst, and Dr. Ronald Loescher for his work improving access to health care through free clinics and service to the poor.
And the 2012 Norma Jean Andersen Award for Civil Rights and Academic Achievement was given to teacher Jasmine Robinson of the Crocker Farm Elementary School.
State Rep. Ellen Story of Amherst, the master of ceremonies, said the breakfast is an import community event. "I love this event," she said. "What is especially nice today is that I see a lot of new faces and that is very exciting,"
Congressman James McGovern, D-Worcester, who would Amherst after redistricting if he is re-elected, also attended the breakfast.
"This is the first time I have been to this event," McGovern said. "I feel privileged to be here. Martin Luther King had a wonderful quote. He said 'service is the rent we pay for the space we occupy.' I take those words to heart, "
Bill Harris of Amherst said he has attended the event since it started. "I think this is the best community breakfast I have been to. It was a moving, epic, history lesson given in a very personal way," Harris said.
