The annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day program and parade returns to the local community next week, concluding at the historic Oak Grove A.M.E. Church in Benton, where King paid an overnight visit during a 1966 march.
The parade and program will be held on Monday, Jan. 15, from 8 a.m. until noon. The parade line-up begins at 8 a.m. at Berry’s in Benton and will conclude at Oak Grove A.M.E. Church on Highway 16 in Benton. Walkers, automobiles, floats and ATVs are welcome to participate.
A program will also follow at the church with special guests Yazoo County Voices and Dr. Rev. Calvin Collins, pastor of New Zion M.B. Church and a Benton native.
The rural church has its own history with King’s vision and the civil rights movement.
“We, along with community leaders, have been commemorating Dr. King with marches and breakfasts at the church,” said Mildred Brown, in a previous Herald interview. “The members of Oak Grove are so proud to be a part of this occasion.”
King and a group of voting rights marchers made a stop at Oak Grove in June of 1966 on their way from Yazoo City to Jackson. While passing through the Benton, the group stopped for the night.
King, along with the marchers, were given shelter, food and water by members of Oak Grove and the Woods family, who owned the property next to the church.
Brown and two other church members, A.B. Shelton and Dr. Hazeltine Woods Fouche, were there the day King and his group set up camp in the Yazoo countryside.
“I was one of the ones who helped feed them and get them water while they were here,” she said.
Brown was in her late 20s when she met King. She recalls his thoughtful nature and gratitude to the church for providing food and shelter.
“He was so joyful,” she said. “But he was also slow in his speech because he really put a lot of thought into what he was going to say.”
Brown said the table, water bucket and wash pans the group used still remain inside the church. And then there was the quilt she gave to King.
“I felt proud because I was able to give a quilt to Dr. King for him to sleep with that night,” she said. “He said, ‘you’re a miracle. I was wondering what it was going to be like sleeping on that hard bench.’”
Although King and his group stayed at the church, the impact they left with the small congregation continued.
“They were the pioneers in helping people do better and have equality,” Brown said. “We were delighted to have someone in our midst who was trying to teach us how to help each other. And it wasn’t just for black people. It was for everybody to have an equal opportunity.”
Over the past five decades, the Yazoo church has participated in a variety of events to honor King and other movement leaders.
