WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — In 1962, at the height of the Civil Rights movement in the United States, Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. went to the First Baptist Church in Williamsburg. There, he spoke to a crowd of various backgrounds about continuing the fight for equal rights.
“The crowd was so large that the church couldn’t hold all the people,” said Liz Montgomery, historian for the ministry.
As the leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Montgomery says that Dr. King understood the importance of getting the word out in Virginia.
Northeastern North Carolina
Generations join together to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Elizabeth City
“Any advocacy that he had to do, any civil rights work that he had to do, he had to start it here,” she said.
On Doctor King’s birthday, 62 years later, members of that same church gathered to remember his visit and honor his legacy. One of those at the ceremony on Monday night was Christine Gardner Jordan, who was there when King paid a visit all those decades ago.
“The most special part was, when he had entered the car and they closed the door, and he reached his hand out, and I shook his hand,” she told News 3. "That was the greatest thrill."
Gardner Jordan had just finished up at Virginia State University when she heard Doctor King was coming to town.
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“He spoke about how we need to get involved with the movement, that we needed to get involved in the movement that is was,” she said. "That we needed equal rights, freedom and all the things that all American citizens want and desire."
Christine has hardly missed an MLK day ceremony since the church started doing them, remembering the day as ‘very special.’
“We should continue to recognize the things that Doctor Martin Luther King stood for, and continue to work towards those goals,” she said.
More than six decades later, both Montgomery and Gardner Jordan say they agree that the fight King lead all those years ago still is not over.
