Every year, Peggy Harrison-Jenkins and Vermelle Jones meet on King Street in Charleston to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the city’s annual parade.
And every year, they hold up the same framed photo of Dr. King in honor of his birthday.
“There was a store called Leon’s Five & Ten on King Street,” says Harrison-Jenkins. “And this is actually one of the pictures from that store in 1968.”
A lot has changed, the women say, since then.
“King fought for the right to use the bathroom, the right to vote, the right to march for justice and the right to attend certain schools” says Harrison-Jenkins.
“Even here in the Lowcountry, I recall one of the clinics that I went to, I had to go through the back door,” she says.
The long-time friends joined hundreds of people who braved the cold for a glimpse of marching bands, floats and dance teams that made their way from Burke High School to Mother Emanuel AME church.
“It means a lot because Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood for peace, love, and togetherness,” says Teresa Rivers who brought her youngest daughter and two grandsons along for the day.
She says King’s message must be heard.
“Even now more than ever, because we live in such a cruel world,” says Rivers.
She points to a world in which wars still rage, and to a nation that is politically divided.
“You know how much better the world would be if we just come together and help one another and love one another instead of just hitting on each other?”
River’s 14- year-old grandson Joshua McNeil says it’s up to his generation to make sure Dr. King’s dream is realized.
“It’s not going to be an easy journey, but I feel like if everybody comes together, we will definitely be able to spread the word like Dr. King did,” he says.
78-year-old Richard Singleton says he celebrates because he survived war and segregation.
“We had to drink out of different water fountains,” says Singleton. “We couldn’t sit at the stools and had to sit in the back of the bus when we came over into the city.”
“I would always ask my mother why, you know?”
But Singleton was able to put his life on the line for his country, a country that had been far from kind to Black people.
He says he was drafted in 1966 to serve in Vietnam and came back three years later to a nation still fighting for racial equality.
“When I came back, there was a hospital strike right here in the city of Charleston.”
The 1969 Charleston hospital strike was over unfair wages for mostly Black female workers at the Medical College Hospital, now the Medical University of South Carolina. It led to more than 100 days of protests, a National Guard presence and mass arrests. But ultimately, there were pay raises.
Allison Cox brought her entire family out to teach them about Dr. King. She remembers first learning about his life when she was in elementary school.
“I think it’s confusing, particularly as a Caucasian woman who has lots of privilege to realize that not everyone grew up that way,” says Cox.
“I think it’s important that we teach other people too.”
On this MLK Day, people Black, white, and Hispanic came together to dance, sing, and say, “Happy King’s Day” as they practiced what Dr. King preached, that all people are created equal.
