By Freda L. Thomas, edited by Jim Luce
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the gifted orator and formative civil rights figure, was the pastor to my church, Ebenezer Baptist in Atlanta, Georgia. My first memory of Dr. King was at the age of five. The year was 1960 and he delivered the sermon for the Sunday morning worship.
I don’t remember the subject, and yet, even at the age of five, I knew that I was in the presence of someone special, someone with the gift of grace in his spirit and in his ability to captivate an audience and leave them wanting more.
As he delivered the sermon, I had this feeling of being swept away as he conveyed words of hope and optimism in the face of bias and suffering. Despite my inability as a child to fully grasp what was taking place in that first speech, somewhere inside of me I knew that I was witnessing a monumental time in history.
Freda Thomas with her mother Vivian Thomas.
Every Sunday, my family and I attended worship services at Ebenezer. And as my childhood and church experience progressed, so did my exposure to Dr. King. My parents knew him as M.L. He was their pastor and pier.
I remember him as charming, easy on the eyes, and easy to share a big laugh. What I loved most about him was his ability to show genuine interest and affection for others.
At the age of eight, one such favorite memory of Dr. King took place after he had completed a sermon for the Sunday morning worship. As he walked through the sanctuary, I along with a group of children stood nearby waiting for him to approach us. We started shouting his name,”Dr. King, Dr. King!”
I remember that he looked down at us and he spoke directly to me saying, “How are you doing?” “You’re Fred and Vivian’s child, aren’t you?” Well, my heart just burst with pride to know that Dr. King knew me by my lineage.
Having Dr. King as my pastor, I knew it as a gift from God, a coming together of all the forces of good for my life. What he taught me, us, the members of his congregation was to be kind to one another, to love each other, to fight social injustice and inequality wherever it might be.
His speeches and sermons served as the catalyst to shape my life, and as I matured into young adulthood, his words continued to compel me to do my part to try and make a difference in my community and in the lives of others.
Baring witness to many years of civil protest caused me and a group of high school students to put together a black studies program so that the history of our people could be taught at our school. We presented the program to school administrators and the idea was squashed.
We staged a protest and walked out of the school at an appointed time. The demonstration resulted in the principal and other administrators taking another look at our initiative. The result was the implementation of a black studies program at my school, Frederick Douglass High.
The author at the Ebenezer Church Girls Auxiliary Coronation.
From high school through graduate school, and even now, I continue the quest to serve. I have created an informational pamphlet for the homeless of New York City which provides locations within the city for shelter and food. I have served as a volunteer tutor at an Adult Literacy Program.
I also created a scholarship program that provides training for a single mother to acquire needed skills to obtain employment. The scholarship program also benefits a motivated high school student with a demonstrated financial need and helps to pay their college tuition.
My family’s commitment and connection to Ebenezer remains, as some fifty-five years after first joining that church, my mother continues to maintain her membership, where she serves as one of the first female deacons.
Those fiery sermons and the manner in which Dr. King lived his life have helped inform and shape the woman that I am today.
And just like Dr. King, I hope that on my final day that someone will say that I, too “tried to love somebody. I want it to be said that day that I did try to feed the hungry. And I want it to be said that I tried to love and serve humanity.”
Read also:
Tidbit - Martin Luther King
Tidbit - Civil Rights Movement
Freda L. Thomas is a New York State Certified Business Advisor with several years of achievement in business and economic development, serving NGO’s and micro enterprises. Freda possesses 15+ years of experience developing, directing, and implementing plans that improve and expand an organization’s market position and financial profitability. She recently left her position at the Small Business Development Center of New York to start her own consulting firm. For ten years she ran a successful greeting card distributorship with office and warehouse space at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. And while owning that company, she was named Entrepreneur of the Year by the York College Small Business Development Center. Freda holds an MBA from Baruch College in New York City with a specialization in International Business Management. For more details about Freda, visit fredathomasscholarship.org and www.consultflt.com.