Hundreds gathered Monday morning at the Benton Event Center to celebrate the birthday and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who would have been 86 this month.
Billed as “A Day of Service: A Day On, Not a Day Off,” the event was sponsored by the Arkansas Martin Luther King Jr. Commission. The day featured vendors set up in the entryway, classic cars and motorcycles on display outside the center and a free lunch following the program. But the majority of the people had come to hear the keynote speaker — Eric Braeden, a German immigrant and an Emmy Award-winning actor known across the nation as Victor Newman on the long-running soap opera The Young and the Restless.
Benton Mayor David Mattingly and Gov. Asa Hutchison also spoke.
“Welcome to our town,” Mattingly said to the standing-room-only crowd.
He mentioned three great tragedies of the 1960s — the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
“I tell you, as a person of the ’60s, [the assassinations] made a mark on many of us today,” he said. “Many worried about what was happening to our country.”
Mattingly said one of the things that has come about since the loss of King is the day of service that Benton has held for the past several years to honor the slain civil-rights leader.
“It warms my heart to see you here and to see our community come together in the spirit of service and goodwill and fellowship. The most pressing question I can ask is, what are you going to do for others?”
Mattingly said that when he spoke during a celebration held two years ago to honor King, he referred to a quote by the late Fred Rogers, star of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood on Public Broadcasting Service stations.
Paraphrasing Rogers, Mattingly said, “In a world in which we need to share responsibility, it’s so easy to say, ‘It’s not my child, not my community, not my world and not my problem.’ Those who see the need and do something — they are the true heroes.”
DuShun Scarbrough of Little Rock, director of the Arkansas Martin Luther King Jr. Commission, introduced Hutchinson, prefacing his introduction by asking the audience, “Are you ready for a new day in Arkansas?
“Asa Hutchinson is the 46th governor of Arkansas. This is one of the first of the first events in his first 100 days in office.”
Red, white and blue streamers came flying through the air as drums accompanied Scarbrough’s chant, “46 … 46.”
Hutchinson said he was proud “to show off Arkansas, our spirit, our history, our vision and our future.
“Thank you all for being here,” the governor said. “You’re looking at a newly minted governor.”
He told the audience that people gather on Martin Luther King Jr. Day “to celebrate the history and contributions of Martin Luther King with a day of action.
“King caused people to act, to make a decision,” Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson referenced several world leaders — former President George W. Bush, President Barack Obama, King and Jesus — noting that they all made some decisions that might not have been popular, but they all called for action.
“Great leaders inspire people to act, to make a choice,” Hutchinson said.
He also referenced a letter that Little Rock Catholic High School Principal Steve Strassel wrote to his students about the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.
Strassel wrote, “Dr. King does not need you to honor him. What great men want is for their lives to inspire action. Get into the game. Don’t be a bystander.”
Hutchinson called on those in the audience “to engage in action for our families, for our next generation.
“This is a new day of action. The people of Arkansas want to work, and when you work, you get ahead. That is what freedom is all about; that’s what equal opportunity is all about.”
The governor said King talked about “the fierce urgency of now” in his I Have a Dream speech.
“I challenge you to act, to do something, and I pledge to walk right beside you as we accomplish these things,” Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson received a Dream Keeper’s Award from the local King commission.
Little Rock attorney Phil Kaplan, chairman of the Arkansas Martin Luther King Jr. Commission, introduced the ceremony’s keynote speaker, Braeden, with a few remarks.
“Eric was born in Germany during World War II. He came to the United States in 1959, rode a bus [from the North to the South] and saw the evils of racism. As an emigrant, he believed America was a place for freedom for everyone,” Kaplan said.
“He attended Montana State University, where he excelled in track and field. He experienced racism firsthand when a friend and fellow athlete, who was an African-American, could not experience all the privileges of the rest of the athletes.
“He is a member of the German-American Advisory Board (of the German-American Heritage Foundation), and this is his first trip to Arkansas. We are so fortunate and privileged that his first visit is part of the King Commission.”
As Braeden approached the podium, the crowd erupted in applause, many of the women yelling, “We love you, Victor!”
Braeden said the reason he accepted the invitation to attend Monday’s event “is because I’ve been very impressed with what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did.”
Braeden, born Hans Gudegast in 1941 in Kiel, Germany, read from a speech he had written and titled What It Means to Be German.
“The first year of my life was spent in a basement,” he said.
He recalled memories “of bombing and fires, … of fear that gripped everyone at the sound of approaching allied bomber squadrons who would inevitably unleash their fury on cities and villages like mine, … of burning farms and screaming animals.
“I have memories of being hoisted upon the shoulders of my teenage brother to see the city of Hamburg aflame, … of thousands of homeless and hungry people … left to dig for any leftover potatoes or kernels of wheat.”
He said he remembers the Christmases when the only present he might receive would be a pair of shoes that would have to last to the next Christmas.
“I remember leaving it all behind … when I was 18, … boarding an ocean liner while the orchestra played ‘Boy, Come Back Soon.’”
He recalled seeing the Statue of Liberty, the skyline of New York City and “the frenetic hustle and bustle of white and black and brown-skinned people, of taking the Greyhound bus through the Southern cities, where they had separate toilets and drinking fountains for whites and blacks.”
He said that when he arrived in Montana to go to school, he experienced discrimination because he was German. And when he finally arrived in Los Angeles to start his theatrical career, he still faced discrimination because he was German and was asked to play only characters who represented Nazi Germany.
He said he wanted to shout to the world and ask, “When will you give us credit for 40 peaceful democratic years during which Germany has been an exemplary democracy? … When will you ever talk about and acknowledge the untold contributions made by German immigrants?”
Braeden said black people in America could ask the same question.
“I see a parallel,” he said. “Instead of talking about just black rappers and black athletes, it is important to talk about black scientists and teachers and nurses and doctors and people who work their fingers to the bone for this country — who have fought in foreign wars for this country.
“It needs to be fully recognized, and you need to have full equal rights. It will happen when we start talking about it. We need to open our hearts and extend our hands to each other.”
Following his speech, the King Commission presented Braeden with an award and certificate.
Other award-winners included the Ralph Bunche Agape Community Development Corp. of Benton, which received the Humanities Award, and Everett Buick GMC and the Benton Area Chamber of Commerce, both of which received the 2015 Economic Development and Outstanding Community Service Award.