DEKALB COUNTY. Ga. — As many honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we know his legacy and roots are deep within the church especially in Atlanta.
“Today’s is special for a variety of ways. A drum major of justice,” said Pastor E. Dewey Smith Jr. with Greater Travelers Rest.
That’s how Smith described the holiday known for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday.
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Smith is the leader of Greater Travelers Rest in Decatur, a church that has deep ties to the King family.
“I’m honored to be in the Pastoral lineage of Dr. King’s father, Dr. Martin Luther King Senior, who actually pastored Greater Travelers Rest from 1923-1932,” Smith said.
Smith said King’s dad only left Greater Travelers Rest to take over at Ebenezer Baptist Church after his father-in-law and the pastor of Ebenezer at the time got sick.
But Smith said Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and two of his siblings also called Greater Travelers Rest home at one point in time.
“All three of his children were born. Martin Junior, A.D., and Christine,” Smith said.
Smith believes that is why the church played a huge and pivotal role in executing the dream and vision of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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“When you think about the role of the Black church, first of all, there is only a Black church in America, is because of our lack of equality. Because we weren’t welcome in other churches,” Smith said.
Equality is something Dr. King fought so hard for from education to voting rights.
Pastor Dr. Jamal Bryant, the leader of New Birth Baptist Church in Stonecrest, told his congregation on Sunday that Dr. King was so much more.
“They tried to limit Dr. King to ‘I Have A Dream’, but there was so much more to his life and so much more to his mind and so much more to his contribution,” Bryant said.
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Bryant said Dr. King woke up the world during his time and movement but there’s a lot more work to do.
“There’s still a lot of strides to be made when you consider that home ownership is lower in 2023 than it was in 1968. Now we got to turn the knob that we don’t want to ride the bus, we want to own the bus company,” Bryant said. “We don’t want to just own food trucks, we want to own five-star restaurants. It’s time to take it up a notch, so that we shift from, symbolic success to substantive success.”
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