NILES — The life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was not only celebrated at Mount Calvary Baptist Church Monday morning. His words, efforts and impact were used to inspire future activism in racial justice and equality.

Mount Calvary hosted its annual Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast from 7 to 9:30 a.m. at 601 Ferry St. The event drew in dozens of attendees, who filed into the church’s basement as time allowed them.

Niles area residents listened to a number of speakers over bacon, sausage, grits, eggs and biscuits.

Isaac Hunt, of South Bend, was the keynote. On top of giving speeches on issues facing minorities, Hunt is a group violence intervention specialist at Goodwill Industries of Michiana.

His message was about the issues King fought for that continue to be issues today.

Mass incarceration, mass school suspension, racist court systems, fair housing, profiling, law enforcement conflicts and workforce rights were each reality for people of racial and ethnic minorities in the 1960s, Hunt said. These realities still persist today, despite the groundbreaking work Civil Rights Movement leaders achieved.

Hunt said each of these issues, collectively, piles up on individuals, making their chances for socioeconomic success slim.

“If this is not disturbing, then we sure need to talk,” he said. “If this is not what Martin Luther King was fighting for, the Civil Rights Movement was about, then we really need to talk.”

One way many address the issue is to blame public officials, Hunt said. While some of that blame may be justified, officials cannot change everything.

Hunt stated a phrase frequently throughout his speech: “If you’re not on the table, you’re on the menu.”

If community members do not let officials know of issues, they may not know those issues exist, Hunt said. If community members do not take proactive steps to teach youth or prevent issues from emerging, public officials can only be reactive.

Relationships, he said, are key, not only between communities and their public officials, but between communities’ members.

Hunt said a movement to create a better world does not have to be massive and publicly present right away.

“We’re in a basement,” he said. “The Civil Rights Movement started in a basement. It didn’t start with 100 people. It started with five people in an Alabama basement.”

Charlie McAfee, a Niles council member and longtime organizer for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day breakfast, led a movement that created positive change herself.

Years ago, she said she grew frustrated that Niles Community Schools would not take the national holiday off. She and others would have to sign their children out of school to attend Mount Calvary’s breakfast, then sign them out again for an afternoon event.

The school’s zero tolerance policy for unexcused absences did not make the situation easier.

So, McAfee worked with district administration and used her radio personality presence to incite change. Now, Niles students have Martin Luther King Jr. Day off. 

“I may not be able to change the world, but I did change the school system,” she said.

McAfee’s peer in Niles City Council, Mayor Nick Shelton, said his daughter, Emery Freeze, was excited that she had Monday off, but she did not initially know why.

After Shelton mentioned the national holiday, Freeze shared that King knew that people were all the same inside, regardless of skin color, and that each person should have the same rights.

“Powerful words from an 11-year-old,” Shelton said. “Emery, at its most basic level, understands Dr. King and his message of love and equality.”

People must not only celebrate King’s message, he said, but live it.