On MLK Day, Needham Reflects on King’s Legacy

January 21, 2025
• Needham honored Martin Luther King Jr. in a ceremony at Needham High School Monday morning.

The words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. resound through high school graduations, church homilies and funeral services, uplifting and encouraging listeners to dream of a freer world, find light in the darkness and resist injustice.

On MLK Day, his words filled the Needham High School auditorium, where attendees were reminded of the reverend’s enduring legacy and commitment to civil rights. Local students, lawmakers and musicians gathered there to memorialize King, who studied theology in Boston.

The ceremony, organized by the Needham Diversity Initiative, coalesced around one particular MLK quote: “Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.” NDI member Kim Marie Nicols taught the audience how to sign the quote in American Sign Language.

“We have a dream to make sure this country is united, that civil rights are maintained, that justice prevails,” Nicols said. “Kids of all ages, everyone who showed up here today, serves in some way, and we are connected.”

Nicols led attendees through a group exercise, in which they joined plastic links together to make colorful chains. Members of the Human Rights Committee, community leaders and local clergy assisted in the activity. Rev. Sandra Bonnette-Kim of Carter Memorial Church later shared remarks.

“Bless our young people with dreams as bold and transformative as Dr King’s, and guide our elders to inspire us with their wisdom and example,” Bonnette-Kim said. “They all who are here today carry the light of justice into our home, school, places of worship, workplaces and beyond.”

Fifth graders at Eliot Elementary are currently learning about King, and they joined third and fourth graders in a reenactment of the Montgomery bus boycott, instigated after Rosa Parks’ arrest in 1955. About 45 students circled the auditorium and sang “Glory Glory Hallelujah.”

The scene comes from the play “I Remember Martin Luther King, Jr.,” which the fifth graders will stage next month, music teacher George Vallatini said. He led his students in a discussion about the boycott in class, imparting King’s wisdom to them.

“We talked about the ideas about peaceful change, and Dr. King was very, very clear on not being bitter and not being angry, just to be loving and positive all the time, just to work for change,” Vallatini said. “That’s the way to change people’s hearts, to do it peacefully.”

Adonai Baptista, president of Needham High School’s Black Student Union, works to create inclusionary spaces “where every voice is valued,” but admitted that it’s a challenge. Baptista, however, is guided by King’s words: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

At times, Baptista said he questions whether “people here truly care about change,” but he reaffirmed that, in order to make progress, everyone must be involved.

“Dr. King reminded us that ‘injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,’ and yet we cannot deny that injustice lives here, in this town, in this building,” he said. “I know it because I’ve seen it. I’ve lived it — the slurs, microaggressions, the blatant acts of hate and the quieter, subtler ways racism persists through indifference and inaction. Friends, this is not just a moment to reflect on the work that Dr. King started. This is a moment to recognize that his movement, the movement for justice and equity, is far from over.”

NHS’s Bomb Squad — a stepping team — performed on stage, and other students read excerpts from King’s famous 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech. Pollard Middle School students created a video reflecting on King and his monument on the Boston Common.

King’s transformative work is inspiring, local leaders said, but there’s more work that has yet to be done.

Select Board Vice Chair Heidi Frail encouraged those listening to volunteer and engage with their community, while state Rep. Josh Tarsky stressed that, amid division, the need to embrace our similarities is as important as ever.

State Sen. Becca Rausch, wearing a t-shirt that read “Democracy is not a spectator sport,” asked the audience how they could best serve and live out King’s dream.

“It cannot just be the Dr. Kings of the world or the presidents or the members of Congress or me and my colleagues in state government or those who serve in local governments. It must be every single one of us,” Rausch said. “No matter what you do to serve, do it with integrity, do it with respect for other people’s humanity and do it with respect for the very basics of our democracy.”

For Lisa Perskie, King was “a healing person” and a figure she hopes can continue to shepherd young people toward what’s right.

“I just hope he’s not forgotten,” Perskie said.