West Hartford held the 30th annual ceremony on Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, with speakers reflecting on the life on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the awarding of the Earl Exum Servant Leader award.

By Ronni Newton

“Audacity” and “mutuality,” two of the key themes in some of the most notable speeches given by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., served as the framework for messages shared at the Town of West Hartford’s 30th annual celebration of the late civil rights leader’s life.

When accepting the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, King said, “I have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.” And, in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in 1963, he said, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”

Students, officials, and others in the community shared their perspectives on those themes with the standing-room-only audience in the West Hartford Town Hall Auditorium, capped off by a keynote speech from UConn professor, Dr. Fiona Vernal.

Monday’s celebration was set against the backdrop of sharp division in the United States.

King believed that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” Mayor Shari Cantor said as she welcomed the audience. “Those words feel especially urgent today. They call us to recognize the dignity and humanity of every person, particularly in moments when fear, division, or power make it easier to look away. Dr. King did not speak only to his own time – he spoke to every moment when justice is tested. His words ask us to examine how we treat one another, whether our actions reflect the values we claim to uphold,” she said.

“At times like these, when compassion can give way to cruelty and silence can feel easier than courage, Dr. King reminds us that progress depends on ordinary people choosing dignity, fairness, and humanity, courage, and strength – again and again,” Cantor said. “We have to remember that our country has changed over time, not because of the people in power, but because of the power of the people.”

West Hartford has continued to demonstrate “spirited audacity and mutuality,” and generosity in many ways, Cantor said, noting that when SNAP benefits were suspended due to the government shutdown last fall, the community donated generously to assist the 5,100 residents who were impacted. And, she added, the town has made affordability a priority as new housing is developed, to provide the opportunity for people of all income levels to live in town. “I am reminded so often that we are a community that looks out for one another.”

Democratic Town Council member Lisa Lazarus served as emcee for the event, and shared some of her own thoughts as well. She read excerpts from a letter King wrote after spending a memorable summer in Connecticut, and then returning home to the segregated South, having to transfer to a separate rail car in Washington, DC. “Young enough to feel it in his bones. In Connecticut he experienced freedom as daily life. But on that train home, at the nation’s capital, that freedom abruptly ended.”

Segregation, Lazarus said, “did more than separate bodies. It wounded dignity. It revealed how injustice damages the soul and fractures our shared humanity.”

King, in his work, continued to speak with “audacious belief in equality, and audacious faith in humankind,” Lazarus said. “He named love not as sentiment, but as discipline. Nonviolence not as passivity, but as courage, because he had the audacity of hope.” She said King reminds us “that courage is not limited by age.”

Lazarus urged the audience to look back with honesty as the country approaches its 250th anniversary, “not only at how far we have come, but at what we have to choose to do next. Our destiny is found, high, in an inescapable network of mutuality.” She urged people to continue to show up and stay engaged.

“And as Dr. King reminded us, the time is always right to do what is right,” Lazarus said.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said while he was listed on the program as offering “Reflections from the the U.S. Capitol, “I’m here to be audacious. … I’m here to make trouble – good trouble, good trouble. Good trouble is what we need now because we are in the fight of our lives, the fight for our democracy, the fight that we all see day to day that demands all of us, whatever our background, or race or religion, we’re in it together.”

Blumenthal pledged to continue the fight, reminding the audience that King died in Memphis while advocating for the sanitation workers. “And today, just to be really blunt, I often wonder what Martin Luther King would say about what’s happening in Minneapolis, about the brutality of our own government against peaceful protestors.”

He said he hopes that what’s happening now in the country will lead to inspiration. “We don’t have the luxury of despair or detachment,” Blumenthal said. “We have to muster the same kind of courage that Martin Luther King did, and never abandon or surrender this fight for justice. The moral arc of the universe, as he said, bends toward justice. But what he didn’t say was that it takes a few benders to do it,” Blumenthal said, asking people to consider Martin Luther King Day not as a “day off,” but rather as a “day on.”

Each year, students from West Hartford’s public high schools are selected to offer their perspectives, and this year’s speakers were Rowan Thompson from Conard High School and Nybol Bona from Hall High School.

We all have a duty to close the gaps created by moral injustice, Thompson said.

She spoke about examples of racism, sharing a story her mother had told her about an incident in a park when her older brother was just 3 or 4 years old. Another child, slightly older, said he couldn’t play with her brother anymore “because he was too dark.” Her mother overheard, and was appalled, Thompson said, “most of all because her son’s first experience of racism had been in the hands of another Black child, one of his own peers.” Nearly 20 years later, her mother still remembers that day.

When she first heard the story, Thompson said, “I had my own reactions of shock … because I could not believe that a child, much less a child of color, could say such a horrible thing to another child simply because his skin was darker.” Children of color can’t live in a state of ignorance, she said.

“You can praise the progress that’s been made thus far, and we should acknowledge and honor all the people who whose work brought us to this point, while you must understand that there’s still much to be done,” Thompson said.

“We all must have the audacity to believe in the future, based on freedom, equality, and love for one another,” she added.

“If I had to describe Dr. Martin Luther King in one word it would be ‘audacious,'” Bona, the speaker from Hall, said.

While King wasn’t the only one affected by the “cruel and aggressive racism” of the time, “he became one of the few people with the public advocacy needed to the forefront of the civil rights [effort],” she said. He was “consistent and persistent about influencing people’s beliefs,” eventually being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He then told the word about his “audacious belief that people everywhere can have three meals every day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits,” none of which she said seem audacious.

We’ve been celebrating King’s legacy in West Hartford for 30 years, Bona said, and while it took a long time after King’s death for the town to have this celebration, she said those who have been fortunate enough to attend West Hartford Public Schools have been able to receive an authentic historical education, including learning about King. From those lessons, she said she first learned the word and concept of “perseverance.”

Bona urged the audience to “be the person who speaks out … be the person who takes advantage of their educational opportunities. Be that person who wakes up in the morning with hopes of doing something kind. Be that person so you don’t have to rely on others to do that for you … so you don’t have to rely on others to do that for us.”

Before the keynote speech, Drs. Elena and Booker DeVaughn were honored as recipients of the Earl Exum Servant Leader Award. Cantor presented them with a proclamation and Adrienne Billings-Smith, the town’s employee engagement and community development manager, presented the award.

The Earl Exum Servant Leader Award was given for the first time at last year’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, in honor of Exum’s legacy, to recognize members of the community who serve others, foster a supportive environment, and empower people to grow.

Both Booker and Elena DeVaughn “have exemplified servant leadership and dedicated service to the Town of West Hartford,” the proclamation states. Among their contributions, they were early members and former presidents of the West Hartford African American Social and Cultural Organization (WHAASCO), were founders of the town’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, established a scholarship for students in the Black community in STEM professions through the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, and have supported many local institutions.

Billings-Smith said a pastor at a recent funeral she attended spoke about the “dash” – the period of time in between birth and death which is “how you choose to live,” treat people, and contribute. “And I’m so happy that this couple, two amazing individuals, are still in their ‘dash’ period,” she said.

“They show that through all the trials and tribulations of life, you can always contribute and uplift your community,” Billings-Smith said, noting that they have lived a life of service. Monday’s ceremony wouldn’t be in its 30th year if not for them, she said. “Their dash has not been wasted, and they still have more to give.”

It’s on days like this, Billings-Smith said, “when we gather and sing, lift every voice and sing, and we shall overcome, I want you to think about the very people who have watched this nation fail them on their worst days, but gave them resilience to overcome and to see on their best.” We are “all responsible for protecting each other,” she said, and while we don’t have Martin Luther King, we have each other.

Portia Wise Bachman of WHAASCO introduced Dr. Fiona Vernal, the keynote speaker.

Vernal is associate director of the Africana Studies Institute (ASI), associate professor of History and Africana Studies, and the director of Engaged, Public, Oral, and Community Histories (EPOCH) at the University of Connecticut.

Her expertise is as an oral historian, and according to her biography has collected more than 1,200 oral histories and developed a modular exhibition framework for libraries, universities, community organizations, non-profits, and municipalities to leverage audiovisual storytelling and oral histories to communicate shared values, promote civic engagement, and educate the public about pressing historical and contemporary issues. Her teaching and research center on African, Caribbean, and African Diaspora histories. She is currently working on a book and digital humanities project, Hartford Bound, that integrates oral histories, archival research, and GIS methodologies to offer new visual and spatial histories of race, ethnic belonging, migration, and community succession in Hartford, Connecticut.

Vernal spoke about the “treasure trove of letters and speeches” that are part of King’s legacy. Those include letters to his parents written during his two early visits to Connecticut, in 1944 and 1947, when as a teenager when he worked on a tobacco farm in Simsbury, and wrote to his family in Georgia about mundane topics such as the food.

“The 15-year-old Dr. King, as mentioned by some of the other speakers, marvels at being able to eat in restaurants, attend church, ride public transportation, and not having to think about segregation,” she said. But Simsbury, at the time, was 99% white.

“Oral histories from other tobacco workers show that Connecticut was no racial paradise in 1944,” Vernal said. King and his fellow students who were working on the tobacco farms were on their way to college, not looking to move in permanently. “So it was very easy for people in history to be kind and open and welcoming to people who were here temporarily, but not to be so kind and open and welcoming to be permanent for the population that was seeking housing, long-term employment, and housing.”

King returned to Connecticut as an adult, “to fight for education in America, to fight for housing in Hartford, to fight for full employment in Hartford and in the rest of Connecticut.”

There are many stories that reside in the oral histories of resistance and dignity, she said, of people who helped Black people buy homes. “And we need to tell these stories of people who stepped up and filled in the gaps,” she said, who weren’t looking to walk across the stage and receive a medal. They were being neighbors, “and they did not need to be rewarded for it.”

Vernal invited the community to become part of history. “Be audacious. Consider writing a letter or letters to document the moment you are in now so that your views and your opinions and your experiences can be a part of the historical account 20 years from now, 50 years from now, a century from now.” Her oral history platform is available as well, and she encouraged people to participate.

“What would you want your future self to know at this moment? What action do you resolve to take now, or in the future, to be a part of the change that you want to see?” she asked.

To the young people in the audience, Vernal said, “Do not let anybody take your dignity and ‘somebodiness’ away.”

Pastor Cloe Graham of Faith Congregational Church delivered the invocation. The Hall High School Jazz Combo provided a musical prelude, and musical interludes included a group sing of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” led by the Conard Solo Choir, and a performance by the King Philip Middle School KP Singers.

As is customary, the choirs combined, with the audience, for a rousing rendition of “We Shall Overcome” to end the ceremony.

The entire ceremony can be viewed on the West Hartford Community Interactive YouTube channel.

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