Cold and icy weather did not keep Esther Lee and members of the Bethlehem NAACP from celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Jan. 17. Usually, the annual celebration starts with speeches at the Martin Luther King Jr. Park on Carlton Avenue in South Bethlehem, but the below freezing weather and snow prompted a change in plans.

Participants did, however form a caravan at the park and then went under police escort to planned celebrations at the Charles Brown Ice House on Sand Island.

Lee issued a clarion call to attendees. “I challenge you to move forward, because God is with us.”

One of the speakers, Pa. Representative Steve Samuelson summed up the general sentiments of the crowd.

“Speak up when we see a wrong,” said Samuelson. “Replace hate with love. We need to reflect on how we can work together for hope, justice and love.”

United State Representative Susan Wild, who showed the audience a picture of her with the late Rep. John Lewis, attended and offered her support for the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

“We don’t have a vote fraud problem in the United States,” said Wild. “We have a vote suppression problem. This is no time for complacency.”

Executive Director Dawn Godshall of the Community Action Lehigh Valley, spoke about the homeless.

“The homeless are looked at as criminals, but they are not,” said Godshall. “They are seen as bad folks; they are not.”

Ce-Ce Gerlach, an Allentown City Councilwoman, said, “We have to reframe the system. Elected people who are not doing things for the homeless, we need to vote them out.”

Rayah Levy urged community solidarity by, “Working together as a community.”

A speaker who identified himself as Pastor Dan rejected the idea that the homeless are criminals. As to mental health policies that contribute to homelessness, he recalled that when the Allentown State Hospital closed, psychiatric patients were literally turned out on the street.

Bethlehem Area School District Superintendent Dr. Joseph Roy praised the BASD school board’s response to racism by pushing back on the notion that teaching history is equivalent to the ideas of so-called Critical Race Theory.

Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure said, “It’s time to live up to our Declaration of Independence.”

McClure also affirmed that he is for funding the police. “Because we need the police.”

McClure, Wild and Samuelson were but a few of the political leaders who came to pay their respects to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Also attending was the City of Bethlehem’s government: Mayor William Reynolds, Director of Planning and Zoning Darlene L. Heller, City Councilwomen Rachel León, Hillary Kwiatek, Grace Crampsie Smith and Kiera Wilhelm.

The ceremony closed with a rendition of “We Shall Overcome,” the hymn of the civil rights cause in this country.