An icon's lasting influence: MLK's words resonate with Brevard County residents decades later

Minister, activist, civil rights icon: The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s messages were powerful enough when they were first spoken.

More half a century after King's assassination, for many, appreciation has only deepened for the Nobel Peace Prize winner's calls to action; for his memorable takes on courage, racial equality, dignity, unity and so much more.

Count among those inspired three Brevard residents — Karen Houston, a union representative; the Rev. Joel Tooley, lead pastor at Melbourne First Church of the Nazarene and an advocate for immigrants; and Rachad Wilson, Cocoa High School principal.

On this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the trio details how some of King's lesser-known quotes, as well as those carved in time, resonate with them personally and professionally — and are just as relevant in 2022 as when first shared.

'No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.'

Karen Houston's first job was at a small fishing resort in her little hometown of Crescent City, Florida, working as a housekeeper.

She was 17, and didn’t care what kind of job it was "as long as it provided me with spending money," she said.

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There was little industry other than agricultural in the Fruitland community where her family lived, but Houston aspired to "much higher accomplishments."

"Having come from meager beginnings I failed to see the actual worth of from whence I came. I didn’t recognize that while I had little, I had more than many," she said.

"I didn’t recognize the fact that I always felt safe and had a family unit that taught me to love myself and never to look down on others."

All these years later, as the local field staff representative for the Space Coast AFL-CIO, this Cocoa resident can easily relate to the struggles of people in lesser-paying but critical roles in the workplace.

She looks for inspiration to the words of Martin Luther King Jr., who, she said, "wanted to uplift humanity and bypass those ideas that some jobs are lesser than others and that included the people doing those jobs."

"Little did I know that eventually I would learn to appreciate the jobs that were recognized as the bottom of the barrel," Houston said.

"Sanitation and housekeeping and restaurant work — the very necessary jobs that most people look down on but find them impossible to live without. I have been a bus driver, a landscape worker, a convenience store manager and worked for many years as a maintenance service worker at Kennedy Space Center — right back to my meager beginnings but within the scope of union wages on a federal enclave."

Houston once met a woman who asked her for a ride on a hot day. A hotel housekeeper, the woman was almost 60 years old and had just $20 left to last the rest of the month after paying her rent.

"She would have had to walk a couple of miles," Houston recalled. "She had cleaned 25 rooms that day. She made 50 beds, cleaned 25 bathrooms, vacuumed 25 carpets and more, at a beachside hotel where they normally get over $150 per night and more if it is beachfront."

Houston, who later wrote about the encounter, figured the woman earned $2.56 per room, working eight-hour days at $8 an hour. 

"But yet she had a pleasant demeanor and was grateful," Houston said. "I remember quoting in my article that those beds were her cotton fields and she deserved much more than what she earned."

Houston has always, she said, "sought to uplift people, from childhood to today."

She fought against bullying while she was in school. Today she fights for "fairness on the job, in the community, and for an uplifted humanity."

"As we celebrate the MLK holiday, think for a moment about how Dr. King strived to ensure that all people regardless of race, creed, color, background, or job title deserved to be held in the highest of regard," she said.

"The people spoke in 2020 when we passed a minimum wage of $15 an hour. As the world faced COVID-19 we learned to appreciate life and many of the people who were there all along doing what they are doing now. We saw just how much value they have but it was there all along.

"Now we have to work to keep our protection of workers, advancements in equitable living, and to empower our voices in acquiring affordable housing, health care, and the right to speak out against anything that threatens our livelihoods."

'We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back'

Growing up in Oskaloosa, Iowa, the Rev. Joel Tooley said, he didn't pay much attention to "the lack of diversity in my monocultural, homogenous childhood hometown."

"That is, until the still-black-and-white TV era of the late '70s, when President Ford’s resettlement efforts led 'boat people' from South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos into our neighborhood and into our very lives," said Tooley, lead pastor at Melbourne First Church of the Nazarene.

"It was then that I began to see the ugliness of xenophobia and full-blown racism in full color. As ugly as racism revealed itself to be at that time, my childlike love of others blossomed through the examples of solidarity that arose from my community — from those who had always been there and with those who had just arrived."

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.”

"Perhaps it is this heartbeat that pounded in the chests of those who modeled for me what it was to learn from the errors and ugliness of our nation’s demons," Tooley said.

"Even for those who were proud of their beautiful, strong (mostly European) heritage, there were lingering memories of hardship, persecution, and war."

Today, in his work as an advocate for immigrants, Tooley observes that Americans who might typically exclude those different from themselves "do not have to go very far beyond their own heritage and stories to reveal some shared experience of overcoming significant challenges in a journey to America that is full of hardship and overcoming."

These past couple of years, he said, locals have witnessed countless examples of "beautiful humanity across ethnic, cultural, religious, and socio-economic lines."

For example, a team of health care workers from a Louisiana university came to the Space Coast to spend a week providing free medical services for migrant farmworkers and laborers.

Through the Mutual Aid group on Facebook and the work of area advocates, Tooley and other advocates "have seen families receive immigration legal assistance, groceries, transportation to vaccination appointments and so much more."

"While the ugliness of racism and xenophobia have made intimidating dents in our community, the courage I find comes from the beautiful humanity experienced in partnering with friends from the NAACP, the Islamic Society of Brevard, pastors and faith leaders representing Evangelical, Catholic and Orthodox Christianity as well as friends from our Hindu and Jewish communities and many who observe no specific faith at all," Tooley said.

"With the heartbeat of Dr. King, we must address the ugliness of racism and divisive rhetoric — but we must also march ahead. We cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone."

'Mother Dear, one day I’m going to turn this world upside down' 

Rachad Wilson knows the lasting value of education, volunteerism and the support of friends, family and community.

He saw it in action from childhood — and daily, as Cocoa High School principal, sees how that approach to life benefits students.

The Rockledge native recalls former teachers including Bettye Bryant; Theresa Brown; Cora Knighton; Theresa Thomas; the late Tom Ferrence; Shirley Bradley; and Charles Stockton.

But the biggest in influence in his life, without question, he said: his parents, Alberta and Samuel Wilson.

"My brother and I were blessed to have wonderful parents. Our mother, in particular,  epitomizes service to community. We grew up seeing this kind of involvement," said Wilson, CHS principal since 2017.

"I’ve told this before, but it’s worth repeating. I vividly remember on Saturdays having to assist in doing things in the community. It was either helping to set up tables for voter registrations, food drives, or NAACP community meetings, or clothing giveaways and oftentimes, church functions."

Wilson doesn't know if he'll ever surpass his mother’s involvement, but her dedication to bettering the lives of others "definitely left an indelible mark on who I am today," Wilson said.

"A lot of people talk the talk, but few walk the walk," Wilson said. "To this day this is the blueprint I see. This is what drives me to leave the world a better place than I met it."

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His fierce devotion to the futures of Cocoa High students reflects that passion.

Martin Luther King Jr. was an anomaly, Wilson said, "a great man who was in a category all by himself."

"But as an educator, I, too, will hopefully leave some positive mark on my children as well as some of the young folks at CHS and beyond," he said.

"Daily, I try to effect change in them."

For example, he said, the JROTC students at CHS are very involved in the community, and school leaders stress that involvement. Teens participate in the city of Cocoa's Trash Bash and Keep Brevard Beautiful efforts. They partner with Central Brevard Sharing Center and Boy Scouts. They're involved with the city's Memorial Day parade and support the Elks Lodge and the Military Officers of America. 

"We are going through some very challenging times right now for a number of reasons, especially in education. But as my late father always shared, 'Tough times will come, but tough people will last,'" Wilson said.

"My words of encouragement to young people, especially those for which I have the greatest impact, regardless of how tough a situation, are: Work hard. Discipline yourself. Surround yourself with positive people, strive for greatness, and in doing so, always, always remember to keep God first."

And Wilson comes back again and again to draw on King's timeless values.

"There are many sayings of this great man that I love and often refer to," he said.

"But the quote that resonates with me more than any is this: 'The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy.'

"This says it all for me."

Contact Kennerly at 321-242-3692 or bkennerly@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @bybrittkennerly Facebook: /bybrittkennerly.

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