By Owen Boss
Staff Writer
NORTHAMPTON - At events across the city Monday, area residents gathered together to remember the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his eternal message of challenging society's inequalities through persistent acts of nonviolence.
The American Friends Service Committee's 26th annual celebration of the holiday began with a guided African-American Heritage tour led by local resident Steven Strimer, which started at the Sojourner Truth statue in Florence and passed through her home, the homes of other former slaves, and several nearby underground railroad sites.
The tour culminated with an afternoon memorial service that drew more than 150 residents to First Churches on Main Street, where event organizers took time to remember Julius Ford, a Pioneer Valley community organizer and longtime emcee of the event who died suddenly at the age of 41 in October.
"In many ways (Ford and King) walked along a similar life path. They were both men of African-American descent who lived in the United States and fought for justice and against white supremacy, classism, and homophobia," his friend and colleague Mike Funk said before a video of Ford singing was played.
"They're really of the same ilk, they were both irreplaceable, they were both once-in-a-lifetime kind of people," Funk said.
Debora Ferreira-Ford, along with the couple's 6-year-old son Phoenix, also spoke at the service and compared Ford's promotion of equality in the local community to the role King played on a much larger scale during the civil rights movement, reminding those in attendance that "It's really all about peace."
After reading an original poem she wrote shortly after Ford's passing, Ferreira-Ford introduced Rebirth, a band Ford helped create, who sang his song "Church," and drew a lengthy standing ovation.
"They were both self-actualizing individuals and I believe that Julius left in this community an absence, but we are much richer as a community because of who he was in our lives and because we had the opportunity to walk with him," Funk said.
Following the tribute to Ford, eight local residents, whose activist affiliations span a host of local community groups, took turns reading from King's famous speech "Why I am Opposed to the War in Vietnam," given at Ebenezer Church in New York in 1967.
The program wrapped up with a general discussion about King's life, nonviolence and political activism led by Vijay Prashad, a professor of international studies at Trinity College, and Tim Carpenter, the national director of Progressive Democrats of America.
Another area group celebrating Monday's holiday was the Community Action Youth Program, which hosted a free lunch and workshop for area children at College Church on Pomeroy Terrace.
The program, designed to stimulate a discussion about King's teachings among local schoolchildren, featured several creative workstations and a performance by Alpha Squad, a hip-hop dance group from Florence Heights.
Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com
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