Photo by Lester Smith
Rev. Nathaniel Smith, the principal speaker at the Martin Luther King, Jr., Day service at the Third Baptist Church, tells of his collegiate education in Alabama in the years following the MLK assassination and the passage of the Civil Rights Act.
Suffield’s annual observance of Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, held each year by the Greater Suffield Interfaith Council at the Third Baptist Church, has been noted not only by good encouragements to follow King’s teachings and example, but also by the powerful, moving music. This year was no exception, with several well-sung pieces by the Interfaith Choir and the W. N. A. Male Chorus of Third Baptist. (The late Rev. William N. Allen was for 35 years the beloved pastor of that church.) In particular, Soloists Sonia Hill with the Interfaith Chorus and Jerome Hill with the Male Chorus gave rousingly excellent performances.
The main message of the service was delivered by the Rev. Nathaniel Smith of the Third Baptist Church in Springfield. Brought up in Ohio, Smith got his undergraduate education in Alabama and his graduate school degree in Rochester, N. Y. He compared the social and educational opportunities open to a black student in his limited Ohio neighborhood and in Alabama and New York, commenting that his church, in each case, was a vital part of the teaching. He recounted Dr, Martin Luther King’s education, also strongly shaped by the church.
The service ended on another enthusiastic musical note, as all present joined in “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” No. 477 in the hymnal.