An Iowa native returned today as the keynote speaker for the state’s Martin Luther King Junior celebration. Emmy award winning actor GregAlan Williams sang today and gave a talk to those remembering the 75th birthday and the dream of the slain civil rights leaders. Williams said were are all part of “a single garment of destiny.” Williams says the garment is like a giant coat keeping us all warm in the Iowa cold. But, Williams says there’s a tear in the garment.He says when he came up in the school system in Des Moines, there was only one book on an African American in the school library, one on George Washington Carver. He says he’s grateful that he’s been able to see a significant degree of success. But he says he’s “saddened” and “terrified” that so many of his contemporaries and their children “who are failing to walk through the doors that have been opened to them.”He says it is a cold, cold day for far too many. He says although we sit far away from the breach, we have so much to give and so much to give. Williams encourage the audience to “be about the business of mending that breach in the single garment of destiny.” Williams says government programs and plans can only do so much, and we all have to take action as individuals to help the people who have been left behind.
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