Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
More than 300 community members came together to celebrate cultural diversity Monday at the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration luncheon at Rodeheaver Auditorium.
"This is the day we gather to salute the ideals of a man who walked across the stage in the 1950s and '60s," said Joe Banks, chairman of the board of directors of The Committee to Commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Inc.
The focus of Monday's program was a dramatic re-enactment of the highlights of the life of Harriet Tubman, a former slave who was known for her work with the underground railroad.
The re-enactment, coordinated by drama teacher Dana McAfee, was performed by members of the Warsaw Community High School drama team and was done behind a screen in pantomime while the Rev. Frank Beard, of Walnut Creek United Methodist Church, narrated.
Tubman, who was born in 1820, escaped to freedom in 1849, then returned to the South repeatedly, eventually helping more than 300 slaves escape.
Her last trip was in 1860, and during the Civil War she worked as a nurse, scout and spy for the Union Army. She died in 1913.
A reading by Marsha Cook and McAfee emphasized the "sound of freedom continued in the heart of Martin Luther King Jr. ... His desire was for freedom to ring in every ... state and every city."
Monday's program ended with a group tribute to the victims of Sept. 11, and included the statement: "As the soot and the ash and the dirt rained down, we became one color. ... We are one, we are united, we are America."
