(BEDFORD) – The 31st Martin Luther King March will be held on Sunday at the Lawrence County Courthouse starting at 2 p.m.
Following a few remarks and the march around the Bedford Square, the event will then move to the Mometumn Church located at 1403 R Street in Bedford.
This year’s speaker will be Former Indiana State Senator Brent Steele and songs will be sung and prayers given throughout the event.
Recently letters were left in the Bedford Community with Nazi symbols and white supremacy websites.
“I have been following Jesus Christ for about thirty years now. Being raised in the church, my mother being raised in a Christian home. My mother and father, I would not say they were strict, but efficient in raising the children the way children should be raised according to God,” said Brown.
“Then, I was 30-33 began to read my bible and realized there was a man he did not do everything the way everybody else did. His approach to things was from God, he knew there was only one way you could do things. He came to love, and I look at his ministry, he taught the disciples what to do. But, you must follow Jesus Christ. And with these things that have occurred in Bedford, I do not get mad. Jesus taught love and I also read he told us to love our neighbor, love everybody. He did not play favoritism, in fact on the cross he died for all,” Brown added.
“Jesus taught us to love our enemies. Your enemies could be anybody that is against you, do not like you, hate you, and the only thing I say is I love you. I do not hold anything against you. and hope you change your mind and heart,” Brown stated.
“I heard they investigated this, I have not looked into this I just pray about and leave law enforcement to the law enforcement and the politics to the politicians. I am a minister of God and want to leave my ministering to God. If these people are for real they are in a dangerous position to hate. To hate your brother, because you will have to give an account to God,” Brown continued.
“ I want to give a shout out to these people that left these letters, it is not just happening here; it is happening all over the world. We have wars going on, people cannot seem to come together.” Brown stated.
“When this happened in Bedford and I received texts and phone calls stating Clarence we are with you. Well, all I can say is if you are truly with me, come down and march with us. We can fill up a basketball stadium with 4,000 people but can only get a few hundred to march with us.” Brown said.
“In our community, if you are hating on people if you are you need to check yourself. Would you want to be done like that? We got to keep the Martin Luther King Marches because people were not always around. We must remind them what kind of community we are.”
Brown says the Bedford community does a lot to show love like Becky’s Place, Bertha’s Mission, and Men’s Warming Shelter.
“We care about one another,” Brown emphasized. “I am going to heap love on them or whether they love me or not.”
Brown reflected on the Dr. Martin Luther King legacy he said King did not know he was going to be chosen.
“Sometimes the mind is not always in the right place. But when the heart is in the right place it will show up in your actions. So with Dr. King being who he was, being born for that reason, God says in Jerimiah 1:5 – Before I formed you in the belly I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”
“He chose Dr. King, and God knew it was not going to be easy. And it was going to hard to get everyone to go along with what man had set up, and doing for so long. God chose a minister, a Southern Baptist minister and knew Dr. King would do it his way and in love, and without violence. That the way things should be done, out of love and without violence,” Brown said.
“Violence will never get anything done. We are going to conqueror this with love. Dr. King went to Washington D.C. quite a few times with the politicians kept putting Dr. King off, saying some other time just not now. Just trying to talk them into what they were supposed to do,” Brown added. “They did that for a long time. After you keep doing that for a while; you can get mad and not come around for a while, and quite. Dr. King was following God, and actions speak louder than words. Sometimes it takes drastic measures to get something done,” Brown reflected.
“Then, I read out of the book ‘Parting the Waters’ that Dr. King wrote and the things they faced. The KKK and Skinheads and hurts to even call out some of their names. I do not want to think I am putting them down, they are in these groups and you got to say who they are. And whoever else is out there that feels that way. We have nothing to be fearful of, God has our back. God is still in control.”
“Call everyone North, South, East, and West and over 250,000 joined Dr. King on that August 28, 1968, and everyone knows what happened on that day. I went to Promises Keepers back in 1996, I could only imagine what it was like on that day. Dr. King had something for them. ‘I Have A Dream’ that had something for everybody,” Brown said.
“We want to everyone come out Sunday and stand as a community and be in unity. Why don’t’ you come you are not ashamed to stand for a diverse community. We are slacking in the things that are really important in the people of Lawrence County. Let us let our light shine, what our community really is about,” Brown concluded.
