By Jesse Jones
Elected officials, faith leaders and residents gathered at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Parish in Rio Rancho Jan. 20 for the 15th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day luncheon. Hosted by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) of New Mexico, the event honored Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy and reaffirmed the community’s commitment to social justice.
The event drew a passionate crowd, including many local dignitaries, who joined community members in anticipation of hearing from Dr. Clayborne Carson. The renowned King scholar and Los Alamos native who briefly attended the University of New Mexico reflected on King’s legacy and inspired attendees to continue the fight for social justice.
“When it comes to the scholarship of Martin Luther King Jr, there is no person on this earth, there’s no person who has lived and or who will ever live, who has done more to advance the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” said the Rev. Marcus Goodloe in his introduction of Carson.
Carson primarily taught U.S. and African American history at Stanford University. He is the founding director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute and serves as emeritus faculty and a member of the university’s Academic Council.
“This has been a privilege to come back to a place that was the place where I learned all the values that I took to the rest of the world and try to use them in order to understand what’s going on in the rest of the world,” Carson said. “Particularly equity in education, especially the Native Americans in this state.”
In 1985, Coretta Scott King, the wife of MLK, asked Carson to lead a project to publish King’s previously unpublished works, which Carson and his team had spent decades working to edit and publish.
“Little did I know that after 40 years, I’d still be working (on the project),” Carson said. “It’s taking us longer to edit and publish his papers than it took him to live his life. He died of assassination at 39 years old.”
During his speech, Carson challenged attendees by asking, “What would (King) say if he were still with us?” He drew on his historical knowledge and insight into King’s vision to provoke thoughtful reflection.
“One of the things that I think I can imagine as a historian is he would begin to tell us that the struggle still continues. I think that that would be his great disappointment,” Carson said. “It’s not that he wouldn’t appreciate the celebration of that first 39 years, but I’m sure he would get up in front of you and say, ‘But I’m not done yet.’”
Carson said King would feel disheartened by the limited progress in addressing poverty and global inequality.
According to Carson, MLK would highlight the “glaring contrast between poverty and wealth throughout the world” and criticize Western capitalism for prioritizing profits from developing nations over their social development.
Looking ahead, Carson said King would focus on how technology could address resource scarcity, citing fusion energy as a potential solution to provide free electricity for all. He suggested that communities like Los Alamos and Silicon Valley could play key roles in achieving King’s vision of a better world.
Carson urged the audience to read King’s final book, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, reflect on his last message and imagine what could be accomplished in the next 39 years. He emphasized that King would not be content with the progress so far and would challenge society to continue striving for global justice, equality and poverty eradication.
Before Dr. Carson’s speech, Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull, U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), former U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, and Rio Rancho City Councilor Karissa Culbreath — the city’s first African American councilwoman — all talked about the ongoing fight for justice, equality and peace.
“We must remember and practice Martin Luther King Jr’s message of respecting everyone, no matter who they are or their background,” Haaland said. “Our beautiful state must continue to choose hope over fear, love over hate, community over division because we are all kindred spirits in the face of adversity, we have a long way to go, but I have faith that we can get there.”
“We must take the words of Dr. King piece by piece, through small and big acts of resistance and resilience and action, and piece them together until we build a hole that realizes the dream that Dr. King put before us and the world,” Stansbury said.
