Texana – Brenda Blount is well known for serving her community – and for doing so with a great big smile.
“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can and to all the people you can, as long as you can,” she said on Jan. 19, when she was the special speaker during the 32nd annual Martin Luther King Prayer Breakfast at the Texana Community Center.
Blount is retired after 25 years with Cherokee County Schools as assistant finance director and parent involvement coordinator, plus 12 years with Wachovia Bank as an administrative assistant. However, she hasn’t slowed down, as she continues to serve as a volunteer with her church and the Texana Community Development Club.
The theme of this year’s event was “Stronger Together: Building Bridges That Last.” All of the speakers came back to that theme, but none moreso than Blount, who talked about growing up in a time of racial segregation while not allowing that to lower their standards and expectations for education and life.
“Older people in the community adopted us, they truly believed it takes a village to raise a child,” Blount said. “They said things like, ‘You have to stay in school; education is something nobody can take away from you.’
“Look beyond negativity and forward,” she said a teacher told her after white students received new textbooks, with black students getting their hand-me-downs. “You are not behind, the system is.”
Blount shared how simple travels could be difficult during her youth because of the limited motels and restaurants available to black folks at that time. Instead, her mom would prepare a picnic to take with them, and they’d find a place to stay with a local black family.
“They understood community,” she said.
Blount talked about meeting her future husband, Frank Blount, who was from Murphy, while attending Lewis Business College in
Detroit. She learned confidence, independence and life skills in school, but something even more meaningful through him.
“I came to understand the civil rights movement not as a distant idea, but as a disciplined way of life. Frank didn’t just admire Martin Luther King Jr., he marched with Dr. King while he was in school at Clark College,” Blount said in her talk.
“He would tell me how Dr. King would pray before every march for guidance and protection. He would say, ‘If you are carrying any hatred, go back home,’ because violence would not be tolerated.
“(King) led as a bridge builder, calling people to rise above division and walk together for justice and reconciliation. It takes discipline to teach unity over rage. It takes courage to tell your people that the work requires restraint, not retaliation. It takes community to hold one another accountable for something positive.
“Dr. King understood that you cannot build bridges with hatred, you cannot build community with unchecked anger and you cannot build anything that will last unless people are willing to walk together – even when it’s hard.
“When he spoke above dignity, we learned that in the way we treated each other. When he spoke about non-violence, we modeled it in our homes and churches. When he spoke about justice, we understood it had to include everyone.
“He built bridges between faith and public life, between protests and policy, between the young and the old, between black and white, between the working class and the poor. And he reminded us by how he lived that no bridge lasts unless someone maintains it.”
What bridge am I building?
“When I look around this room, I do not just see familiar faces. I see neighbors. I see people who show up, over and over again, for Murphy.
“This marks the 32nd year of the Martin Luther King Jr. Prayer Breakfast, and that matters. Traditions matter. But what matters even more is why we keep coming back. We come back because the work Dr. King called us to is still unfinished, and because this year’s theme speaks directly to who we are and who we are trying to be: ‘Stronger Together: Building Bridges That Last.’
“When we talk about building bridges, it is easy to treat that phrase like a slogan, something that sounds good and feels safe. But real bridges, whether made of steel or made of trust, are not easy to build. They take planning, patience and people willing to do the hard work, even when it is uncomfortable.
“Here in Murphy, our most important bridges are not just the ones that cross rivers. They are the bridges between neighbors, between generations and between people who do not always see the world the same way.
“Dr. King reminded us that we are all connected, and that what affects one of us ultimately affects all of us. In a small town, we do not have to imagine what that looks like. We live it. We see it when neighbors help after a storm, when volunteers step up without being asked, and when we choose to sit down together and talk things through instead of talking past each other.
“Being stronger together means listening, even when we disagree. It means standing up for people whose voices are not always heard. And it means remembering that Murphy can only truly thrive if everyone has a fair chance to do so.
“Dr. King did not ask us to pretend we are all the same. He asked us to make sure our differences do not become walls. Unity is not passive. It is something we build, protect and maintain.
“So as we share this meal and this time of reflection, I hope we each ask ourselves a simple question: What bridge am I helping to build, and am I building it in a way that will last?”
– Opening remarks by Tim Radford, mayor of Murphy, at the 32nd annual Martin Luther King Prayer Breakfast