Virtually every adult American knows that Mahalia Jackson sang at the 1963 March on Washington and that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech there on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
The Rev. David Hunter McAlpin, Jr., born January 19, 1928, in New York City, died peacefully, surrounded by his four children on August 5, 2022, in Skillman, New Jersey after a long, full life.
“With this faith we shall be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope” was the theme for Wednesday’s special online worship service commemorating and celebrating the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The theme was a quote from Dr. King’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech delivered at the 1963 March on Washington.
Carlton Johnson, an associate for Vital Congregations and a worship leader for the Black History Month service at the Presbyterian Center Wednesday, opened the service with a soulful rendition of the hymn “A Charge to Keep I Have.” The hymn served to remind worshipers that during the time of slavery, those enslaved were killed for knowing how to read — and therefore much of the communication had to be done through song.
