King celebration in Tacoma offers words of motivation for a ‘better together’ future

“We’re Better Together” was the theme Monday of Tacoma’s celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Greater Tacoma Convention Center.

There was no shortage of people to make that case.

The spirit of the event was motivational as much as inspirational, drawing from King’s quotes to point the way forward and rousing performances from the MLK Community Choir, among others.

Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards told the audience she was humbled to see a clip of King on TV earlier in the day, as it reminded her that “however young you are, you have a responsibility to make our nation better for everybody, make life better for everybody.”

“We can all make Tacoma the best place if we do it together because we are better together,” Woodards said.

Congressmen Denny Heck and Derek Kilmer were two in a line of speakers reminding everyone it was a day on, not off.

Heck called on people to remember King’s words and one of his favorite quotes from the slain civil rights leader: “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.”

“Our work is not done,” Heck added.

Lt. Gov. Cyrus Habib, one of the event’s speakers, imagined a world with King still in it.

“He’d say get off Twitter and stop trading hate for hate,” Habib said. “We know hate doesn’t drive out hate — only love can do that.”

Keynote speaker Dr. Isiaah Crawford, University of Puget Sound’s president, recalled his aunt, who made the trip to see King speak in Washington, D.C., in 1963.

“It was her hunger to make a difference to make that journey,” Crawford said.

That appearance, and his relative getting to hear one of King’s most famous speeches, carried on as a life lesson for Crawford.

“It was the luminous Ms. Mahalia Jackson who exhorted (King) to ‘tell them about the dream,’” he said. “It’s so important to be open to those moments and deliver the messages we need to deliver as we become the fully just and equitable society we’re destined to become.”

Among this year’s event honorees: Dr. Dolores Silas, who was given the Lifetime Service Award. Silas was the first African-American woman to serve on Tacoma’s City Council and as a Tacoma Public Schools administrator.

In accepting the award, she said that it was “important to remember that today’s accomplishments were yesterday’s impossibilities.”

“Nothing is impossible. Say to yourself, ‘I can do it and do it,’” Silas said.

The event also honored Vanna Sing with the Emerging Leader Community Service Award. Sing is founder of the Tacoma Healing Awareness Community, a nonprofit, grassroots organization that assists Southeast Asian American communities in tackling immigration and deportation issues.

“We are doing this for our children’s children,” Sing noted. “Let them reap what we sow.”

She closed her remarks with “Here’s to you, 253.”

Linda Burgess-Duncan, the city’s longtime American Sign Language interpreter who died of cancer last year, was honored in song, dance and a commemorative video.

This was the 31st anniversary of Tacoma’s King celebration, which is held on the national holiday in King’s honor.

King was born Jan. 15, 1929. He was assassinated April 4, 1968, in Memphis. He would have been 90 this year.

Also Monday, retired Sen. Rosa Franklin was honored with a Legacy Dream Award at the Martin Luther King Jr. Unity Breakfast at the University of Washington-Tacoma.

In giving the award, UWT noted she was an early advocate for a branch campus of one of the state’s major universities to be in the South Sound, as well as for calling for a nursing program at UWT.

According to UWT, the award goes to those who have “made significant contributions to the UWT community in the areas of diversity, social justice or civil rights.”

UWT’s nursing scholarship fund also is named in her honor.

Franklin represented Pierce County’s 29th District in the Legislature, starting first in the House in 1991. Two years later, she became the first African-American woman to be elected to the state Senate. She announced her retirement in 2010.

This story was originally published January 21, 2019 at 3:01 PM.