King's vision of hope celebrated at concert
Award recipient Aubespin: There's ‘a lot of work to do'
By Harold J. Adams • hjadams@courier-journal.com • January 17, 2010
The sanctuary of St. Stephen Church was packed Sunday afternoon for the annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration and presentation of the 2010 Mayor's Freedom Award to Mervin Aubespin, a retired Courier-Journal reporter and editor.
Aubespin worked with King in the 1960s on such issues as the Montgomery bus boycott and the march from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama, and began a 35-year career at The Courier-Journal in 1967, during which he helped nurture the careers of many young minority journalists.
Accepting the Freedom Award from Mayor Jerry Abramson and Stephen Williams, chief executive of presenting sponsor Norton Healthcare, an emotional Aubespin said, “It's been a long, long, road.”
He recalled that King, who he said was “my hero and one of my teachers,” always told him to “keep your eyes on the prize and move on.”
The remaining agenda from King's work is long, with “a lot of work to do,” Aubespin said. “We may have three African-American football coaches (at major Kentucky universities), but we've got to find a way to keep our young people in school.
“We may have a wonderful African-American police chief (in Louisville), but we have got to find a way to keep our children from killing our children,” Aubespin added.
Following those challenges issued by Aubespin, the audience was entertained and inspired by an assortment of performers, mostly children, in a ceremony of music and dance. None captured more attention than 2-year-old Dunyeh Washington, who stood front and center among 37 members of the River City Drum Corps keeping perfect time with other drummers ranging to age 17.
Ed White, director of the Drum Corps and Dunyeh's grandfather, said the program by his group and others showed “the diversity of talent we have as people … all done by children.”
Some of that talent was demonstrated by young singers from the Louisville Central Community Center, featuring 9-year-old RoDijett Jones as a soloist, as they performed “Celebrate Your Dream,” a title that also was the theme for the event.
During the song, children dressed in the clothing of dream careers assembled in front of the stage. There were future medical professionals, musicians, educators, shopkeepers, athletes and dancers.
There also were performances by adult singers Voices of Kentuckiana, a Louisville Youth Orchestra string quartet and the Walden Theatre's Keith McGill, along with violin and dance from ArtsReach.
Two Kentucky Opera Studio artists, soprano Erica Cochran and baritone Phillip Morgan, performed “Chorus of Hope” by local musician Harry Pickens.
Reporter Harold Adams can be reached at (812) 949-4028.
