Out & About
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“Wow, I’m used to standing o’s, but that was amazing,” Usher Raymond IV told the more than 1,000 people gathered Monday night at the Congress of Racial Equality’s 22nd annual celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.
The 27-year-old recording artist, known to the world simply as Usher, kept the focus on the internationally revered civil rights leader. “I want you to transfer that love to one magnificent man,” Mr. Raymond said. Showing off his skills as an actor (he’s been in several films), he put on a pair of sunglasses, moved his head side to side, and sang Stevie Wonder’s “Happy Birthday.” Guests clapped and sang along.
The other speakers – such as the governor of Mississippi, Haley Barbour, and
America’s ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton – didn’t have the same glittering effect on the crowd. But each delivered serious messages about King’s legacy.
“There’s a lack of diversity in the entertainment industry. You see men and women of color in the forefront, but that’s not where the influence is,” Mr. Raymond said. He then spoke of the New Look foundation, which he has founded to expose underprivileged children to careers in the music and sports industries.
Governor Barbour brought news from Mississippi, an important site for the civil rights movement.
“Equality is a reality in Mississippi,” Governor Barbour said. He spoke proudly of his state’s attorney general, James Hood, for prosecuting the former Klansman Edgar Ray Killen, who killed three civil rights workers in 1964. He also boasted the state has more African-American elected officials than other states with three times its population. Of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, Governor Barbour said, “It clobbered the rich and the poor, blacks and whites and Hispanics. Equality was a reality.”
The chairman of the nonpartisan Congress of Racial Equality, Roy Innes, said that the fight against racism had been won. But he spoke of a new disease of the 21st century, “neoracism,” “which allows indecency to escape as the voice of black America. … It’s not a favor to hear only from Jesse Jackson or the Reverend Al Sharpton,” Mr. Innes said. “I don’t want to silence anybody’s voice. I just don’t want a monolithic voice to represent black America.”
Ambassador Bolton summed up what makes the congress effective, and why it draws such a wonderful cross-section of New York to its Martin Luther King Jr. celebration – from industry to academia to the diplomatic community.
“CORE is at the forefront of on the ground efforts advocating real solutions,” Mr. Bolton said. The congress’s programs include job training, legal assistance to immigrants, and social support services for victims of violent crime.
