It never ceases to amaze me how much I love interviewing. It is by far my favorite aspect of being a journalist. When I called the Reverend Dr. Samuel McKinney I don’t know what I was expecting on the other end of the phone. But as soon as he started telling me of his days growing up during the civil rights movement, I felt like I was there with him. At 86, McKinney was one of MLK Jr.’s right hand men in the North while King gathered support in the South. McKinney grew up in Ohio and later, after attending Morehouse College alongside King, he was sent to Seattle’s Mount Zion Baptist Church. In Seattle, McKinney spearheaded the movement for Civil Rights. From the north and then living in the north as an adult during this time was not quite the same as King’s experience in the south. McKinney did not fully embrace the commitment to nonviolence that King preached. But it was something, he says, he developed as a kid in Ohio where one was allowed to strike back if they were attacked.

Also he said, “Joe Louis was the boxing champion of the world and the hopes and dreams of the black society were essentially riding on his fists.”

These sentiments have changed for McKinney as time has passed, of course. But social justice is still a deeply ingrained aspect of his Christian life. He will be one of the key note speakers at a MLK Jr. Day event on Bainbridge Island, organized by Sing Out! Kitsap.

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It is Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s voice that is remembered today as one of the strongest megaphones of American courage — a voice that was able to move crowds to take to the streets and use their own voice.

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed,” spoke King in late August of 1963. “‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’”

On Jan. 9, the voices of four generations will be hosting “Carrying on ‘The Dream’ of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” in honor of the late reverend’s birthday.

Of those speaking are Rev. Dr. Samuel Berry McKinney, a former classmate and close friend of King; and Ali Saunders, a senior at Bainbridge High School and the president of BHS’ United Brothers and Sisters Club.

They sit at opposite ends of time.

One’s voice rings with the sound of a history some need to be reminded of. The latter’s voice speaks of the tribulations of a modern society that doesn’t stray too far from the tree.

McKinney and King met, as McKinney says it, when they were both “youngsters” before college. Both their fathers were pastors and sometimes they would go to church meetings together.

Like King’s father, McKinney’s father confronted civil rights issues in his sermons.

“My father was strong on social justice issues,” McKinney says. “So I guess it was since then in my DNA.”

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