The Woodford Memorial United Methodist Church in Elkins hosted a special program in honor of King Sunday. The program included meaningful quotations from MLK, songs, a dinner and a keynote speech from Michael Jackson, the Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Program Unit Manager at Huttonsville Correctional Facility.

“I really enjoyed doing the speech again this year,” Jackson told The Inter-Mountain. “The weather kind of hindered some things, but the mayor (Jerry Marco) made it out and we had a pretty good crowd.”

It was the second straight year that Jackson was invited to speak at the Woodford Memorial United Methodist Church MLK event, which was sponsored by the Randolph County Cultural Awareness and Enrichment Group. 

“In my speech, I talked about how Martin Luther King wanted all of us to come together as a community and take care of each other,” Jackson said. “I spoke about how we can be mentors to people that don’t have any, and reach out to the older people in our community and take care of them.

Submitted photo Dr. Robert Quarles was the keynote speaker for Davis & Elkins College’s Presidential Initiative on Diversity and Inclusion’s Martin Luther King Jr. Discussion Monday.

“I also talked about how we need to hold our leaders accountable, from the dog catchers to the president. To make sure they are living up to the morals and ethics that they are responsible for. We just need to come together in our communities and not be as hateful as things are today sometimes.”

Jackson said he also talked about his job during his speech. 

“All the guys I work with are addicts, and I work to try and get them off drugs and get them re-entered back into society,” Jackson said. “And I kind of wove what I do to help them into the speech I gave. I explained what I do with my job in helping these people who have all these problems. It kind of tied in together.”

On Monday, Davis & Elkins College’s Presidential Initiative on Diversity and Inclusion’s Martin Luther King Jr. Discussion took place in the Myles Center for the Arts on the D&E campus.

The keynote speaker was Dr. Robert Quarles, who is Dean of Student Affairs at South University — Richmond & High Point.he serves as the Dean of Student Affairs for

“So many of us have shared experiences,” Quarles said during his speech. “One of the best parts about coming to West Virginia at 17 years old was coming without any preconceived notions about what the world was like out here. My family has seen me go through multiple commencements and presentations, and one of the things they’ve always said was, ‘It’s not West Virginia. These people didn’t treat you as well as they did in West Virginia.’ This state did a lot of good for me and my family, so I’m always excited to come back and share experiences.”

Quarles spoke about King’s historic visit to Charleston, West Virginia.

“On Jan. 24, 1960, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at the First Baptist Church (in Charleston) to hundreds of people crowded into every nook,” he said. “That morning, King gave a sermon that most people would feel quite controversial… He gave a good Christian message, ‘Forgive and love your oppressors.’ … I believe King saw some grace in West Virginia.

“A year after King’s speech, the West Virginia Human Rights Commission was established to ensure that all establishments were providing services and resources to all people.”