With temperatures at 13 degrees and dropping on the evening Jan. 15 -- the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., -- more than 50 people gathered at St. Sabina Church, 1210 W. 78th Place, to honor his legacy and march and pray for peace. Carrying battery powered candles with blue lights – blue symbolizing a color of peace -- they processed in silence around the neighborhood. “It seems crazy to go out into the cold, but the cold is symbolic of the coldness of the society we live in right now. It’s a cold world. It’s a heartless world. It’s a mean-spirited world,” said St. Sabina co-pastor Father Michael Pfleger. “We are going to have to go out into the cold and warm it up, not just with our presence but with our truth and with our love and with our justice.” He encouraged those gathered to follow King’s example. “If there’s anything King taught us and taught me was there was nothing out here that we’re facing that we cannot overcome if we come together,” Pfleger said. King inspired the priest’s ministry after the civil rights leader marched in Chicago in 1966. A teenager growing up in Marquette Park at the time, Pfleger rode his bike over to see the march and what he witnessed changed him forever. He recalls seeing “so much hate” and even people he knew from his parish and neighborhood throwing rocks, bottles and trash at the marchers. Afterward, Pfleger went home and read everything he could about King and has been advocating for civil rights ever since. King’s legacy called other participants to march. “I came out because Chicago needs healing. I feel that our presence, and, quite frankly, our silence as we march and pray, hopefully will help to change some hearts and some minds in the neighborhood. Also I came out to bring attention to the fact that there are neighborhoods, not just this neighborhood, that are in need of faith,” said Viveca Coleman. As marchers sang “Amazing Grace” parishioner Rastaffri Woods recalled growing up during the Civil Rights movement and King’s marches. “We wouldn’t be looking at and thinking of peace in a time in which we should be thinking about this and always be looking for this [without King]. We all are human beings and all he ever tried to do was keep everything right, give us a fair chance,” said Woods. “I was one of the kids back there then. Looking at this now, this march is important – it should be important to us all, he should be important to all.”
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