By Luke Glaser

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“Monumental Moments” was more than a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

It was a celebration.

Lexington’s 40^th annual celebration of Dr. King’s birthday coincided with the centennial of Mahalia Jackson, a celebrated African-American gospel singer, so music would play a prominent theme throughout.

200 yards away from the Lexington Center’s Heritage Hall, one could hear the jubilant harmonies of a choir and the crowd’s raucous response to the music.

Several actresses from the musical “Mahalia,” which was written by a UK student in 1983, returned to the stage to perform some of her most famous numbers. Highlights included Sandra “Cissy” Williams’ “Take My Hand, Precious Lord,” and Gloria Edward Tompkins singing “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” (with added lyrics to include entities like Catholics, racists and President Obama).

A delegation of UK students who had attended the opening of the Martin Luther King Jr., Memorial in Washington, D.C. were recognized at the ceremony, including hospitality management and tourism junior Ashley Campbell.

“That was the first time I had heard of [Mahalia Jackson],” Campbell said. “There wasn’t a song I didn’t like.”

On hand to welcome the crowd was UK’s president Eli Capilouto, who spoke of the lessons of Dr. King.

Capilouto, who was born in Montgomery, Alabama, grew up during the tumultuous times of the Civil Rights Era in the segregated city, and said that his father’s office was mere blocks away from King’s home when it was bombed. Despite the “full scale racial war” erupting around them, Capilouto said King prevailed.

“He conquered hate with love for his enemies,” Capilouto said, also speaking of King’s “simple truths— love for one another, an understanding and acceptance for one’s heritage.”

Speaking of Lexington’s checkered past in regards to race was Mayor Jim Gray. “There have been a lot of peaks, but there have been a lot of valleys,” Gray said. “One of the most inspiring moments of every year it today.”

The keynote address was delivered by Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, one of the leading hip-hop generation intellectuals in the country.

Campbell said Hill left her with a sense of goals and purpose. “Lots of people think we have made it, but actually we haven’t,” she said. “We need to keep striving to educate ourselves, respect each other, those of different cultures and minorities.”

The ceremony was preluded by the annual march commemorating Dr. King, which Campbell described as crowded and successful, despite the rain. “I felt like I needed to go there,” said Campbell, who was marching as a representative of UK NAACP. “Marching is what brought me there.”

Charles Little & Ensemble, which had the crowd singing and dancing before the ceremony even began, started the ceremony off with the Black National Anthem. Written by James Weldon Johnson, the song’s verses included the lyrics, “We have come over a way that with tears has been watered.”

The march and the ceremony, a commemoration of what has been, was also an inspiring tribute to how far down that path humanity has come.

Mistress of Ceremonies Saida Grundy summed up the feeling of the attendees: “Today is truly a monumental moment.”