JANUARY 20, 2025 – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Galveston District (SWG), honored the life and memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in a ceremony at district headquarters on King’s birthday, Jan. 15, 2025.
Dr. Paul A. Cox, SWG Engineering Technician, gave the invocation.
The observance was organized by Dr. Rose M. Caballero, SWG Equal Employment Manager and Ms. Patricia “Pat” Agee, Black Employment Manager.
SWG Commander, Col Rhett A. Blackmon gave opening remarks to the scores of people who attended in person and many more watching online.
“As we celebrate Dr. King this weekend, his life and his legacy, the things he did for our nation, I think it’s appropriate that we think through that,” Blackmon said. “He was someone who inspired folks to be the best version of themselves, in terms of how they behave towards other people. How they view other people, and respect other people and the contributions of other people, regardless of where those people come from and what their background is. We should do that in our society and our workplace and our families.”
After the commander’s remarks, Ms. Agee introduced the keynote speak, Pastor Malcolm Dotson, of the New Beginning Church of League City, Texas.
“As a nation, we don’t celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. because he was black, or we don’t celebrate him because he was assassinated, and we don’t even celebrate him because he was a preacher,” Dotson said. “However, we celebrate him because he was a Great American and as a great American, to be a great American has nothing to do with the color of your skin. It has nothing to do with what your ancestry may or may not be, nor does it have anything to do with your political point of view.”
Dotson told the audience how King, as a Great American, learned to put others before himself.
“Instead, it has everything to do with the fact that you are concerned about the well-being and God-given rights of every American regardless of the color of their skin regardless of their ancestry and yes even regardless of their political view or their religious preferences,” Dotson said. “A Great American never fails to remember that we are all Americans and that we all deserve to be treated with dignity and with respect.”
A Great American is defined by how they treat others, not where they came from, Dotson continued.
“When we talk about his origin, when we talk about how he comes from humble roots when we say that there is nothing special about him, he was a man just like any of us are,” Dotson said. “He didn’t walk on water, he didn’t part the Red Sea, he didn’t do any of those great things, but there was something about him and these humble roots that he came from and his upbringing and our upbringing and the life experiences that each and every one of us goes through – it helps us to become who we are.”
Dotson also shared a story from King’s childhood which laid the foundation for his future.
“Dr. King spoke of his own childhood when he tells the story about how he became friends with the little white boy who lived across the street, his father owned the business across the street from where King’s home was and he said that in September of 1935, when they were six years old and they were about to start school, Martin Luther King Jr. had to attend a school for black children, Young Street Elementary School,” Dotson said. “His playmate, the white child, went to a separate school for white children only. Soon afterwards the parents of the white boy stopped allowing King to play with their son, stating to him, ‘We are white, and you are colored’. When King relayed this to his parents, they talked to him about the history of slavery. They talked to him about the history of racism in America. At that time, King would later say, that it made him determined to hate every white person. His parents instructed him however that he was a Christian and as a Christian his duty was to love everyone and when we think about his origin when we think about where he came from and when we think about how his parents helped him foster the way to who he became this great American by teaching him to do right even when he was faced with a situation that was all wrong. Martin Luther King Jr. stated in his own words, ‘The time is always right to do what is right.’”
Great Americans dare to dream, Dotson said.
“Because he had a dream, that is what great Americans do. Because he had a dream that is what we witnessed. As I quote from his speech on the hills of the Lincoln Memorial, ‘I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia sons of former slaves and sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down at the table of brotherhood,’” Dotson continued. “’I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream my four little children will come one day to live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.’ When Americans dream, we are able to see some things that maybe some other people cannot see, because history has never shown it, but it doesn’t mean that it cannot be done and that it cannot come to fruition when Americans began to dream. Like Martin Luther King Jr., I too have a dream today for a country that is willing to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. Like Martin Luther King Jr., I too today have a dream that one day that my children and my grandchildren will live in a nation where we will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Dotson encouraged the audience to use Dr. King’s example.
“When we see injustice, our challenge today is to make a difference in someone else’s life and to make someone else’s life better,” Dotson said. “Our challenge today is to see others as better than ourselves. Our challenge today is to realize that the world does not revolve around us, but as great Americans, we too have to do our part.”
Dotson finished his remarks with an excerpt from his favorite Martin Luther King Jr. speech, at Bishop Charles Mason Temple in Memphis, Tenn., to Memphis sanitation workers on strike and would become his last public speech.
“It concludes with this,” Dotson stated. “‘I don’t know what will happen now. We have some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now because I’ve been to the mountaintop, and I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long while. Longevity has its place, but I’m not concerned about that now I just want to do God’s will and he’s allowed me to go up to the mountain and I’ve looked over and I’ve seen the promised land … and I’m so happy tonight I’m not worried about anything I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.’ May God bless you and May God keep you and May God bless America, Amen.”
After the event, Col. Blackmon and Dr. Caballero presented Pastor Dotson with a certificate of appreciation from the SWG.
Story by Luke Waack
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District