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Charlotte Amalie
Friday, March 29, 2024
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St. John Celebrates MLK Day

In prayer, reflection and song, St. John celebrated the life of Martin Luther King Jr. with a ceremony Monday in Cruz Bay Park sponsored by the St. John Ministerial Group.

“We’ll walk hand in hand. We shall live in peace. … We shall overcome, someday,” the nearly 75 people gathered for the celebration sang as the ceremony came to a close.

Early in the ceremony, those attending sang the traditional “Lift ev’ry voice and sing,”

“Let us march on till victory is won,” they sang.

Sen. Myron Jackson pointed out in his keynote remarks that music was an integral part of the civil rights struggle. He said while Mahalia Jackson was the voice of the movement, others like Nina Simone and James Brown also left their marks.

Jackson said he was coming of age in the Virgin Islands during those years, a place where black people were in the majority and schools and other aspects of Virgin Islands life was integrated. He said that television opened his eyes to events on the U.S. mainland.

Students from Gifft Hill School and the St. John Women’s Ensemble also participated at the ceremony.

The Gifft Hill fourth- and fifth-graders sang a rendition of “Down by the Riverside,” and groups of students from pre-school through 12th grade took turns at the microphone, singing songs such as “Freedom is Coming,” “One Man’s Hands” and “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.”

The Women’s Ensemble performed “Sweet Prospect.”

Jackson gave kudos to the island’s youths who stood on the bandstand to “sing their hearts out.”

St. John resident Alan D. Smith also had nice words for the children who lent their voices to the celebration.

“I’m particularly delighted to see the young people,” he said as he began his remarks.

Jackson spoke about the changes that came along with the civil rights movement. First known as Negroes, then blacks, and then African Americans, Jackson said they went from tailored suits and hats to dashikis and afros.

“We have come a long way since (King) departed from this earth,” he said, referring to the assassination on April 4, 1968.

King was born on Jan. 15, 1929.

The Rev. Dennis Estridge of St. John New Testament Church used words from King’s Aug. 28, 1963, “I Have a Dream” speech to end his benediction.

“When all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’” Estridge read.

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