A prominent youth leader from Bloomington-Normal showcased his oratorial skills during a key Martin Luther King Jr. observance over the weekend.
Bradley Ross Jackson, youth and college president of the Bloomington-Normal NAACP, recited King's iconic I Have a Dream in a video produced for Sunday and Monday services at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the Reverend King's former church. U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., has served as the church’s senior pastor since 2005.
“Today, I honor Dr. King by reciting his words, words that remind us the dream is alive and within us,” Jackson said at the beginning of the video.
Jackson is a member of Ebenezer Baptist Church's college ministry and attends Morehouse College, a historically Black college in Atlanta—and King’s alma mater. Jackson was vice president of the Black Student Union at Normal Community High School, where he founded the Bradley Encourages Kindness, or B.E. Kind, Campaign. In 2023, he was the youngest recipient of the NAACP Image Award for Youth Advocacy—and the first winner from Illinois. The same year, he attended Disney’s Dreamers Academy and rode in the Grand Marshal’s car with the franchise’s first Black Ariel, Halle Bailey.
"Dr. King's dream is not only his, but is ours to carry forward," Jackson said after his recitation of King's speech, first given during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug. 28, 1963.
Monday’s observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, celebrated on the third Monday of January each year, happened to fall on the same day as Donald Trump’s inauguration—something that’s only happened once before. President Bill Clinton was sworn in for the second time on MLK Day in 1997.
