PRESS RELEASE - MLK FIRST HAND HISTORY PRESENTATION MLK Birthday Celebration Joint Venture Reverend Samuel "Billy" Kyles will be the first ever guest speaker at the annual MLK Service hosted by the Joint Venture of Central Reform Congregation (CRC) and Cote Brilliante Presbyterian Church (CBPC). Reverend Kyles has been the Pastor of the Monumental Baptist Church in Memphis TN since 1959. He has had a life which has always fought for justice and was in addition, touched very deeply by how history brought him into relationship with Dr. King. Reverend Kyles was the minister who had brought Dr. King to Memphis to support the sanitation workers where on April 3, 1968 Dr. King delivered his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech. The very next evening found them together with plans to go to Reverend Kyles' home for dinner which his wife was preparing. It was only Reverend Kyles and Reverend Ralph Abernathy who were alone with Dr. King in his motel room for the hour before he was assassinated. And in a moment frozen in history, Reverend Kyles was the ONLY person on the balcony with Dr. King when he was shot (despite what many people believe from a famous photo taken the next day). He is now the only one of the three still alive. He will tell us about the events around the sanitation worker's strike and will very movingly share with us stories about the last hour of the life of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Several of our CRC members have had the experience of hearing this first person narrative and describe it as incredibly powerful and moving. This is an event that will stick in your memory and in your heart. This is definitely a once in a lifetime moment, an event that children should definitely be brought to be a part of. This is an incredible way for families to teach and demonstrate the collected responsibility we all have to work for civil rights for everyone. Rabbi Joshua Heschel marched arm in arm with Reverend King, teaching us how to 'pray with our feet'. Fourty years later we now have a unique way to honor the life of Dr. King by standing and praying with a man who stood and prayed with Dr. King - closer to the great prophet than most people have ever had and that none of us can ever have in the future. The Joint Venture is a program begun in 1991 to demonstrate both congregations shared concern for justice in our St Louis region despite differences of race, religion, etc. Over these years the Joint Venture has sponsored mixed race dialogue, elementary school mentoring and other efforts - including an annual Martin Luther King Service. The program will begin with the CBPC Bell Choir and will include Choirs from both Congregations, CRC drummer/performer Robert Fishbone, and highlighting youth from both congregations reading portions from various Dr. King speeches. CRC member Chris Hexter, a founder of our Joint Venture and one of the young civil rights activists who in Freedom Summer 1964 trained with the martyred Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, will have the honor of introducing Reverend Kyles. CBPC Reverend William Gillespie will host us with CRC's Rabbi Susan Talve and Rabbi Randy Fleisher both participating in the program. The service will be followed by a reception where members of both congregations can meet and talk personally with each other and Reverend Kyles. The planning committee includes CBPC members Neil Westbrook and Jesse C. Swanigan and CRC members Diane Levine and Philip Deitch. |