TALKING ABOUT DR. KING: Speakers at JW’s observance of Martin Luther King Day included (from left): Borough Mayor Yina Moore; former Borough Mayor Mildred Trotman; and former Township Mayor Michelle Tuck-Ponder. (Photo by Stephen Dunbar)

“Leadership” was the theme of last week’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day observance at John Witherspoon Middle School (JW). A packed audience in the school’s auditorium enjoyed a multi-media program that included song, dance, choral speakers, a video, and comments from Borough Mayor-Elect Yina Moore; former Borough Mayor Mildred Trotman; and former Township Mayor Michelle-Tuck-Ponder.

Community leaders in the audience included Township Committeeman Lance Liverman and Township Deputy Mayor Liz Lempert. Students also made sure to acknowledge the achievements of community activist Shirley Satterfield; former Township Mayor James Floyd; and former JW principal Bill Johnson, all of whom were unable to attend the event.

“What I love most about my job are the opportunities to be together,” said JW Principal Jason Burr in his introductory comments. “This is one of them.”

Students’ rendering of Mr. King’s “I have a dream” speech was made more touching by the image of diversity suggested by the wearing of different color T-shirts. Langston Hughes’s poem, “I Too Sing America” received a striking treatment by two students who alternated reciting in English and Spanish, and a dance sequence, interrupted by the wail of police sirens (intended), was a chilling reminder of the persistence of troubled community relations in the country.

A chorus, led by student Gabe Greenwood in a gospel version of Oh Happy Day, pretty much brought the house down. Audience members reacted collectively and individually to the rousing number (“Will you listen to that!” Ms. Trotman said).

“Without a doubt, the opportunities that I have had are attributable to the leadership of Martin Luther King,” said Ms. Moore, a Princeton University alumna, in her comments. Students listened quietly as Ms. Moore recalled how she and an earlier generation of black students walked, to the tune of “We are Marching to Pretoria,” from the Nassau Street School [The Witherspoon School for the Colored] to the John Witherspoon Middle School.

Ms. Trotman noted that there was no “one thing” about Martin Luther King, Jr. that she liked best. “It was him as a person; his entire being,” she said. Speaking, in particular of 1959 and the “tumultuous” years when she was in college, Ms. Trotman recalled that “the whole atmosphere was just inspirational to me” as Mr. King “went from town to town throughout the country.”

“Children like you” were leaders as people mobilized during the Civil Rights movement, Ms. Tuck-Ponder told the audience. Although Rosa Parks assumed the mantle by refusing to give up her seat on a bus and may not have perceived herself as a leader, Ms. Tuck-Ponder insisted that she was. “Anybody and everybody can be a leader. We all have the fire of leadership in us.”