By Shawn Nowlin
It was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who once said, “Everybody can be great because everybody can serve.
Without ever getting to meet Dr. King, Reverend Bill Lee, the pastor of Loudon Avenue Christian Church for nearly 40 years, says the civil rights icon taught him how to be selfless, operate through strategy rather than emotion and how a leader should respond to hurdles placed in front of them.
When Lee spoke at Temple Emanuel on Jan. 19 for an interfaith celebration of the life and impact of Dr. King, he reminded all in attendance that at the end of the day, we are all human beings.
“While I never met Dr. King, I’ve had many conversations with those who knew him well, including people who were with him the day he got assassinated. When I asked them what he was like, they always said he was a lot of fun,” Lee said. “A lot of people forget that he was a human being. He shot pool. He smoked Salem Cigarettes. He drank Budweiser Beer, contrary to his father’s chagrin. If I can ask us to do anything, let us not enshrine him, but let him live.”
Continuing, he added, “The beloved community that he preached can be a reality in Roanoke in 2025. But as with anything, you got to want it bad enough.
When King looked at the Black church, he saw a model of the beloved community. A whole lot of Black folk don’t even know that we have a model that we are to share with the world.”
The event also featured speeches from Reverend Preston Tyler, Hill Street Baptist Church Pastor; Reverend David Jones, Williams Memorial Baptist Church Pastor; Reverend Andrew Whaley, Raleigh Court Presbyterian Church Pastor; and Mayor Joe Cobb, among others.
“There’s a story on my heart that I’d like to share. Although they couldn’t attend school together in 1939 in Kansas, a white boy named Billy and a Black boy named Eddie could play together and encourage each other. In high school, Billy sat with Eddie when others wouldn’t. Their friendship lasted a lifetime. Billy is my dad. When he died in 2020, I was going through a box of old photographs and found one of them that I now carry with me everywhere,” Cobb said.
“Dr. King once said in one of his speeches, ‘I am tired of marching for what should have been mine at birth. I am tired of the tension surrounding us. I am tired of living under the threat of death,’” Tyler said. “I’m here to tell you tonight that we can’t stop going. Yes, it gets tiring sometimes, but we got to keep going until God tells us, ‘Well done.’”
Under the direction of Cantor Edmondson and accompanist C.W. Markham, the Temple Emanuel Choir performed various selections throughout the event. The gathering concluded with the 2025 MLK Jr. Interfaith Choir singing, “We Shall Overcome.”
Rev. Lee encourages people to listen to Dr. King’s infamous “I Have A Dream” speech in its entirety. If he were alive today, This would have been his 96th birthday.
