Cartwright discusses Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy and what the civil rights icon may have thought about today’s politics
Justin Cartwright, formerly of Parsons, shared the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. at a Sunday service at Hamilton Chapel United Methodist Church. He also shared what he thinks King would think about current events in the United States.
Monday was MLK Jr. Day, a federal holiday. Cartwright grew up in Hamilton Chapel Church, where his father preached for a time. He teaches at Field Kindley High School in Coffeyville.
He said childhood memories flood through him when he visits Hamilton.
“It’s so many great memories. And every time I walk through these doors, there’s just such a flood of those that have come on before us,” he said.
He said King’s legacy is of non-violence and love in the tumultuous time of the civil rights movement that sought to end racial discrimination and segregation. King, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
He quoted a couple of passages from the Bible. The message from the first, Philippians Chapter 3, was to keep pressing toward the mark for the prize of the higher calling of Jesus Christ. He said King pressed toward the mark of equality, love and non-violence, and he exemplified that struggle in the time of segregation, systemic oppression and the deafening voices of hatred Cartwright quoted King: “Faith is taking the first step, even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
“Pressing toward the mark is not just about action, though.
It’s also about sacrifice. So Dr. King’s life was a testament to the cost of pursuing that righteousness,” Cartwright said.
King spoke of getting to the mountaintop and seeing the promise land. “So even he recognized that he may not live to see his vision of a loving, non-violent world, but he still had that in his heart. He still pressed on toward that mark.”
King’s faith gave him the courage to act in the face of uncertainty, lead when the path was unclear and hope when despair seemed inevitable, Cartwright said.
Cartwright said his father was a teacher and a coach.
“He always said this about pressure: ‘Pressure does two things. It will either make a diamond, or it’s going to make the pipes burst.’” The outcome is up to the individual. King showed us that by keeping up the pressure, a diamond would be the result, Cartwright said.
Sadly, Cartwright said America still faces some of the same struggles that King fought against. King likely never thought America would be heading backward or fighting the same fight he was.
“Some 60 years after Dr. King’s message and his mission to work for justice and equality for all, here we find ourselves in a really critical juncture in our nation’s history,” Cartwright said.
America elected its first Black president, Barack Obama, in 2008 and re-elected him in 2012. It seemed at the time that America was pressing against the mark and had achieved some measure of equality through non-violent means.
Of 47 presidents in the U.S., only one of them was black. He said Obama poked the sleeping giant in the nation’s fabric.
If King were alive today, his message would be widely rejected, Cartwright said.
“He would be told that his viewpoint was too woke for society. And that it’s damaging our country.” He would hear that America is wasting too many resources on diversity, equity and inclusion, DEI “Political messages today say that we need to take back America because it’s under attack. And you’ll hear it said that it’s actually white people who are under attack and not Black people, that DEI efforts are hurting white people and give the positions of power, ranking and prosperity to underqualifi ed and undeserving people of color,” Cartwright said.
He said even the Labette County Commission last week voted to remove the Juneteenth holiday for 2025 to allow county employees to take off Dec. 26 instead. Juneteenth is a state and federal holiday memorializing when Texas slaves found out in 1865 about their freedom, about two years after the Emancipation Proclamation abolished slavery.
“Today, it seems like we celebrate when a group of marginalized people have their rights taken away. People get happy seeing people being discriminated against. This is counterintuitive to Dr. King’s message to press toward the mark,” he said.
For those who feel that DEI or being “woke” is threatening their freedom or well being, Cartwright said he would argue this: “Never has a white man been considered three-fifths of a human being by the U.S. Constitution, the supreme law of the land. But a Black man was considered three-fifths of a man under the Constitution. Never has it been wrong for a Caucasian to use certain bathrooms, water fountains, pools, or any other public places,” which Blacks endured during segregation.
“Dr. King never meant to put Black people ahead of anyone. That was never his message. His message was never one of superiority but one of equality. We a re a ll b etter o ff t ogether. … “It was all of us at the mountaintop together. And there on the mountaintop, we can enjoy our individual prosperity and our individual freedom,” Cartwright said.
The overarching impact of misinformation and disinformation in this political cycle will be felt for generations, he said.
“We’re living in a time where fact is being created as fiction. Fiction is being pushed as reality, all in the name of freedom of speech. But freedom of speech does not mean freedom of the consequences whenever that speech is meant to be deceptive and destructive,” he said.
King’s legacy challenges us to keep pressing toward that mark, not just in our personal lives but as society. The work far from finished, Cartwright said.
The nation cannot continue to celebrate his legacy and continue to allow the country to go backward.
He returned to the Bible passage in Philippians, where those of us who are like-minded should keep pressing toward the mark.
Too many today are worried about their personal freedoms and do not care about their fellow man.
“The joy of one should never come at the suffering of another,” he said.
Another passage in the Bible, in Revelation, talks about it’s better to be hot or cold on an issue, not luke warm. We cannot be luke warm in this country now.
“Now is not the time to ride the fence. Now is not the time to just sit back and say, ‘Well, it doesn’t affect me, I don’t really care.’ Now is not the time to sit idly by when other people are hurting and being put under the political or whatever is getting ready to come. This is not the time for that,” Cartwright said.
“Let’s stay hot, not just for ourselves, but also for our fellow man.”
King calls for us to build bridges, act with courage, fight inequalities and economic disparities. The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice, King said.
Cartwright encouraged those attending Sunday’s service to vote, volunteer, seek out policies that uphold equity and inclusion.
“So the mark is still there. The mark hasn’t changed. The mark hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s us that has to keep pressing, no matter how bad it gets, no matter how unpopular it gets. We just keep pressing toward the mark, the mark of equality, freedom, liberty and justice for all. That’s the best way to honor Dr. King’s legacy. If he were still alive today, that would be his message,” Cartwright said.
The Sunday service also included music from Parsons High School choir students and the PHS debate students recited King’s “I Have a Dream: speech.
