Martin Luther King’s words echo through halls of Nassau County government building in tribute to civil rights leader

On what would have been Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 96th birthday, the words of the assassinated civil rights leader reverberated in the halls of Nassau County’s executive and legislative building Wednesday.

From King’s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” to the iconic “I Have a Dream” speech and beyond, the handful of speakers at the Theodore Roosevelt Executive and Legislative Building in Mineola recalled the activist who fought racial injustice with a nonviolent philosophy.

“Today, in Nassau County, we come together as one people united to pay homage to a man who truly believed in the power of … America — all of us coming together and being one,” said Deputy County Executive Anissa Moore, one of the speakers along with Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, County Comptroller Elaine Phillips, Deputy County Comptroller Beaumont Jefferson and others. 

This is the third year that the Nassau County’s Office of Minority Affairs held this commemoration of King, reading from some of the Nobel Peace Prizewinner’s writings and speeches. He was slain at the Lorraine Motel in Tennessee in 1968 at the age of 39.

King’s birthday is Jan. 15, but Martin Luther King Jr. Day — the federal holiday in his honor — is commemorated on the third Monday in January. This year the holiday will coincide with the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump

The county leaders paid tribute to King, with some describing his legacy as a call to service and others saying there is still more progress to be made in race relations.

“We’re not at the promised land yet, but we’ve come a long way,” Blakeman told an audience of a few dozen.

Rudy Carmenaty, Nassau County Department of Social Service deputy commissioner, read an excerpt from King’s last sermon at the Washington National Cathedral. It was called, “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution.” It talks about a triple revolution of technology, weaponry and human rights.

Carmenaty said King “captured the world through the power of his vision, the compassion of his words, through his ability to convey an empathy and humanity that was second to none.”

Nassau County Legis. Scott Davis quoted King by saying: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?” Davis said a way to honor King’s legacy is to take a moment and ask yourself the same question.

“And for all of us, it is something different,” he added.