The
event, sponsored by the City of Somerville, the Somerville Public
Schools, the Early Childhood Advisory Council and Somerville's Human
Rights Commission, and hosted by the co-chairs of that latter
organization, Ify Mora and Barry Rafkind – focused this year upon Dr.
King's "legacy of community service." Through speeches, a choral
performance, a dance routine and the presentation of awards to those
who have "excelled in community service," the event was a
"celebration," as well as a "remembrance and a tribute," in the opening
words of Walter Pero, president of Somerville's Board of Aldermen.

The
audience was chatty but patient as organizers waited for snow-delayed
stragglers, and then rapidly fell silent with the screening of an
introductory clip in grainy black-and-white of Dr. King delivering his
famous "I have a dream" speech. While the clip set a tone of somber
reflection – Dr. King's voice seems never to lose its spine-tingling
power – the imminence of Tuesday's inauguration of President-Elect
Barack Obama infused the atmosphere with a sense of hope and optimism.

Nearly
all of the speakers made reference to Obama's election, and many spoke
of his inauguration as emblematic of the progress made by the civil
rights movement Dr. King once led. "Rose sat for Martin to walk; Martin
walked for Obama to run," student speaker Rahel Ghebermichael said in
her speech, quoting, in fact, a poster hanging in the hallway outside
the auditorium. The audience responded with spontaneous shouts of
approval and applause.

In his keynote address, Ron Marlow,
Assistant Secretary of Access and Opportunity in Deval Patrick's
administration, began by recollecting a childhood lived under the
racial tension of Boston in the 1970s before waxing philosophical.
Quoting a Martin Luther King line that, he joked, no one else had yet
used, Marlow read that "although the arc of history is long, it bends
towards justice."

"I disagree," Marlow said. "It only bends when
individuals like yourselves are willing to tilt it in that direction,"
when "thousands who see a wrong correct it." "On the day before the
inauguration when we swear in a president who ran with a fierce
urgency, let that urgency motivate you to affect those around you,"
Marlow concluded, to applause.

But even as he echoed the other
speakers by emphasizing the symbolism with which Obama's inauguration
is laden, Marlow cautioned against complacency in the face of
persistent racial tension. "In the euphoria of the election, this
notion of being 'post-racial' gives pause to many invested in civil
rights," Marlow said in response to an audience question about how to
document past civil rights struggles in the face of Obama's success.

"Clearly
November was a momentous occasion," he said, but reminded the audience
that only a few weeks ago, an unarmed black man – 22-year-old Oscar
Grant – was shot in the back, allegedly by a California transit police
officer. Noting the tension between remembering past suffering and
focusing energy on the future, he opined that "we must never lose sight
of history, but we won't allow it to remain a shackle."

Two
awards were presented by the Somerville Human Rights Commission. The
first, for an organization "upholding Martin Luther King's values,"
explained Mora-went to the Jonathon M. Tisch College of Citizenship and
Public Service Scholars Program. Nancy Wilson, Associate Dean of the
college, accepted the award on behalf of the college.

She
praised the role Somerville's community plays in the college's
community service. "Somerville is a great partner for our faculty" and
the community is vital to "holding us to task" and prompting
reflection, she said.

The second award, this time for an
individual leader in community service, went to Dora Tevan, founder of
the Ethnic Arts Center of Somerville. For over thirty years, explained
Mora, Tevan has been designing cultural programs and fostering
intercultural understanding.

"I knew that I wanted to bring
cultures alive through an anthropological approach, so that one can
have pride in one's own culture and appreciate other cultures," Tevan
said in explaining why she started the center. She closed with a
poignant look back across the past thirty years. "When I first started,
little black children and little white children didn't want to look at
each other. Things really have changed."

The remarks of both
speakers and awardees were punctuated by both song and dance. The St.
James Episcopal Choir, under the direction of Pat Michaels, performed
three pieces, including "We Shall Overcome," in the performance of
which the audience was invited to join. The Indo-Pak Dance group,
counting three Somerville High School students and one
audience-charming eight-year-old among its members, performed to an
audio montage of Indian and Pakistani pop and dance songs.

In
her closing remarks, Mora interwove, one more time, the legacy of King
with the promise of Obama. "Some think it's a coincidence that we
celebrate Martin Luther King on the eve of Obama's inauguration," she
said, before drawing parallels between the civil rights movement that
King led and the political movement that grew around Obama's
presidential campaign.

In these movements, she implied, lies the power to confront future problems.

"As
we face a worsening economy and growing challenges in our communities,
we must keep the spirit of 'yes, we can' in our hearts."