BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer

Sean Byrnes, chief volunteer officer of The Community YMCA, Bishop Fred Rubin and Dr. D. Crist Northington at the 17th annual Breakfast Celebrating the Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and His Legacy. WEST LONG BRANCH — “Thank God for dreamers.”

That was the message in the speech given by the Rev. Dr. Dwight C. Northington, of Calvary Baptist Church, Red Bank, at the 17th annual Breakfast Celebrating the Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and His Legacy.

The breakfast took place at Branches, Route 71, and was hosted by The Community YMCA of Red Bank and the YMCA of Western Monmouth County.

“It’s important to understand that all dreams take time to develop,” said Northington, speaking from the podium to a full house. “Not all dreams come true instantaneously.

“What often happens in our fast, microwave, GPS world is that we want instant results. We find comfort with instant oatmeal.”

Northington referenced the biblical story of Joseph, in which Joseph, son of Jacob, had a dream in which he ruled over his brothers. After his brothers attempted to dispense with Joseph because they were jealous, the dream did come to fruition, as Joseph became the governor of Egypt, he related.

“Sometimes,” said Northington, “when man tries for evil, God has a way of turning him good.”

Northington said that he believes King’s dream for an America without prejudice will come to fruition, just like Joseph’s dream did.

“God shows up just when you think he’s forgotten about us,” he said. “I believe the oppressed in our society will experience liberation.”

Northington also recited some of King’s speech delivered in 1955 at the Holt Street Baptist Church during the Montgomery bus boycott, though Northington was only 4 years old at the time the speech was made.

“And we are not wrong,” Northington recited. “We are not wrong in what we are doing. If we are wrong, then the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong. If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong. If we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong. If we are wrong, Jesus of Nazareth was merely a utopian dreamer and never came down to Earth. If we are wrong, justice is a lie.”

Northington’s voice rang through the room as shouts of “Yes!” and “Amen,” answered him.

“It’s easy to conclude after 40 years,” said Northington, “when blacks and other people of color remain second-class citizens, that it’s easier to just give up.

“After 40 years, discrimination is still in America. Black people are sentenced to death at a higher rate than white people for the same crimes.

“In African American communities, resources are so few. No wonder why crime is so high.

“But the dream is alive,” he continued, “and each generation gets a glimpse of its power.”

Northington said that his view of King goes beyond that of respect for a civil rights leader.

“Dr. King,” he said, “was more than a civil rights leader, more than an activist, more than a dreamer. He was a man of God who brought us a message from God.”

Bishop Fred Rubin, from Community Refuge Church, Manalapan, spoke next.

Rubin said that he had been raised in an Orthodox Jewish household, and that King’s teachings shaped his life in a very personal way.

“As a young man in the ’50s and ’60s,” said Rubin, “I heard verbal attacks on Dr. King from people who said he sought too much too soon.

“I went to an integrated school but segregated neighborhoods. I heard Dr. King speak and seeds were planted in me to bring a transformation of my thoughts.”

Rubin spoke of what he said was one of his most painful memories: the assassination of King in 1968.

“I was concerned about what would happen to his dreams, his thoughts,” he said. “It was not the content of the dream, but the fact of needing somebody to not only be willing to dream, but who would have the courage to pursue that dream.”

Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis A. Valentin was also on hand to present the Humanitarian Award to Middletown High School North senior James D. Thornton, who volunteers monthly at a local soup kitchen and works with Habitat for Humanity.

Students at local high schools were asked to answer how they, as teens living in today’s world, could help pursue that dream and promote King’s message, as a part of the annual essay contest.

The two winners of the contest, Shanel R. Ingram, a senior at Freehold Borough High School, and Asia Martin, a junior at Monmouth Regional High School, Tinton Falls, each received a $500 scholarship to Brookdale Community College, and a one-year membership at the YMCA.

“This nation cannot become a great nation without unity,” Martin read aloud from her essay. “America can’t overcome its past if people don’t work together toward the future.”