{"id":91099,"date":"2026-01-19T21:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T21:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/91099\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T21:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T21:45:09","slug":"bethlehem-residents-honor-mlks-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/91099\/","title":{"rendered":"Bethlehem residents honor MLK’s message"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dozens of people braved the cold and snow from the weekend storms<\/a> for the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Civil Rights Movement March on Monday in south Bethlehem, a march that focused on bringing people together.<\/p>\n

The group, led by children holding flowers, sang \u201cWe Shall Overcome\u201d as it marched from the Comfort Inn on Third Street to Martin Luther King Park on Carlton Avenue, where there is a memorial for King and his wife, Coretta Scott King. The march was one of several holiday events in the Lehigh Valley honoring King\u2019s legacy.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The marchers stopped at Holy Ghost Catholic Church, which is next to the park, and prayed while the flowers were placed at the memorial just before local leaders spoke to the crowd.<\/p>\n

Bethlehem Mayor J. William Reynolds, who has participated in the march over the last 20 years, thanked the people who attended, saying that Bethlehem residents understand King\u2019s message of being part of a community and working together.<\/p>\n

King\u2019s message, he said, was about doing something right, and that people in 2026 generally don\u2019t think they\u2019re part of something bigger than themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbove all else, Martin Luther King\u2019s message was that idea that to make the world a better place we need to work together,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to understand that progress can only come when we are working together for other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor said there has been some real progress, but there have been steps back in fighting racism and inequality, and that some people believe it\u2019s not real.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe beautiful thing about Bethlehem \u2026 you understand that we\u2019re stronger as part of a community,\u201d Reynolds said.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Steve Samuelson, D-Northampton, told the group that he remembered King\u2019s \u201cI\u2019ve Been to the Mountaintop\u201d speech, in which mentions the country\u2019s freedom of assembly and right to protest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to make sure our country never forgets to hold the words of our founding documents in our hearts and in our lives and in the way that we live,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to work together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frankie West, who has organized the march for the last 36 years, said it was a \u201cbeautiful thing\u201d that a diverse group of people participated.<\/p>\n

The march began in 1969 with just three people, and he estimated close to 100 people participated in this year\u2019s event.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it went very well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dozens of people braved the cold and snow from the weekend storms for the annual Martin Luther King…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,182,139,432],"class_list":{"0":"post-91099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}