MLK Day in Nashville finds the dream marching on...Struggles recalled; legacy celebrated

PRLog (Press Release) - Jan. 22, 2010 - The Rev. Kelly Miller Smith Jr. used to think all families' dinner-table talk revolved around how to get one's child enrolled in a segregated school. He was 5 years old when his father, the first NAACP Nashville chapter president, became one of the first parents to sue to integrate the city's schools.

"What you remember is the brick thrown into a home, the house set on fire," said Smith, 55, a Hillsboro High School graduate and pastor of Mount Olive Baptist Church-East in Knoxville. "My sister had dogs sicced on her."

On Monday, Smith delivered a speech to thousands on the Tennessee State University campus, observing Martin Luther King Jr. Day 50 years after his father filed that desegregation lawsuit and a year into the term of the nation's first African-American president. He said the invitation to speak made him reflect on the enormous impact having those dinnertime conversations, and taking action despite the dangers, had on this nation.

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Sunday School Publishing Board is the primary publisher of the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A. Inc. The Sunday School Publishing Board produces, markets and distributes African-American Christian resources to 40,000 churches and individuals nationwide

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