NBA dad headlines MLK event

  • Published
  • By Angela Woolen
  • Robins Public Affairs
ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  Martin Luther King Jr. spoke about peace and equality.

In a service Wednesday at the base chapel, that ideal was showcased in the MLK Volunteer Choir which had members of differing races, ages and genders, from all different walks of life. They came together to sing about both the spiritual, physical and emotional journey of the nation.

Guest speaker Dwight Howard Sr., father of NBA Houston Rockets center Dwight Howard Jr., talked about dreams. He related King's dream to his own dream of providing essentials to families so they can realize their own dreams.

The elder Howard spent 21 years in law enforcement and volunteers as the athletic director at Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy.

His foundation, Sheryl and Dwight Howard Foundation Inc., has been helping inner city children in Atlanta realize their dreams by providing mentoring for life skills like how to set a table to balancing a checkbook.

"I believe all of us have a gift or talent that can help improve someone else," Howard said.

King used his gifts to promote peace during the Civil Rights Movement.

Pastor Mark Pulliam remembers rioting in the street the day King was shot. Reflecting on those moments, he realized that was not the way King would've wanted people to react. "Love is as strong as death when anyone is willing to die for what they believe in," Pulliam said.

The march on Washington, D.C. where King gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech was in the forefront of singer Charlene Mickens mind during an interlude of the song "I Never Lost My Praise."

Mickens remembered some of the freedom fighters stopping in her hometown in Virginia on their way to the march.

"It wasn't a black thing. It was a human thing," she said.