03-04-2025
On anniversary of MLK Jr.'s death, NJ friends and fans recall meeting a civil rights icon
Theodora Lacey still displays the Christmas cards that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. sent her family in her Teaneck home.
"I keep them on my bookshelf to look at them often," Lacey said.
They remind the longtime Bergen County resident, teacher and activist of the close relationship between the Laceys and the Kings that goes back to when she lived in Montgomery, Alabama, in the 1950s. Her father was president of the board of directors of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where King was pastor.
Lacey, 92, is one of a dwindling group of residents who saw King when he visited North Jersey to speak at various venues in the 1960s, at the height of the civil rights struggle. That was before his tragic death on April 4, 1968, after he was felled by an assassin's bullet while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.
In happier times, Lacey remembered, she and her late husband would greet King whenever he visited North Jersey.
With the 57th anniversary of his death approaching, spoke to Lacey and Saddle River resident Robert Lahita about their remembrances of King. Lahita also had an opportunity to engage face to face with the legendary civil rights leader when he came to the Garden State.
Lahita, now 79, was a sophomore at Saint Peter's University (then College) in Jersey City in September 1965 when King came to the school to address the students. A bomb scare early in the speech led to students sitting in the front row and King being moved to another section of the auditorium before he could resume, Lahita recalled in a recent interview.
"They took me and another student and put us in the proscenium with a police officer and a German shepherd. And Dr. King was there with me," Lahita said with a laugh. "I tell this to my kids and my wife, and nobody believes me."
King's presence in New Jersey dates back to when he lived in Camden from 1948 to 1951 while studying at the Crozer Theological Seminary. In the nearby town of Maple Shade in 1950, King was involved in his first act of civil disobedience when he and three friends were refused service at a cafe by a bartender, who fired his gun in the air when they insisted on service as chronicled by Stanford University's Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute.
That incident did not deter him from returning to the state, as he did several times, particularly the week before his death, to gain support for his Poor People's Campaign.
On March 27, 1968, King spoke at the Community Baptist Church of Love in Paterson, now known as the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Some attendees who heard him talk that day recalled to in 2018 that a large crowd "flooded" the street outside the church awaiting King. That would be his last appearance in New Jersey.
Earlier that day, King visited Jersey City, where at the Metropolitan AME Zion Church, in front of an audience of over a thousand people, he told them, 'If you can't fly, run. If you can't run, walk. If you can't walk, crawl – but move.'
He also visited several Newark locations on the visit, including South Side (Shabazz) High School. During his speech, he said: "We must recognize our dignity and worth as human beings… the doors of opportunity are opening now, and we've got to be ready to enter." King also spoke at the Union Baptist Church in Orange that day.
Among his other North Jersey visits in the years before his death were those in Rutherford in 1967, Montclair in September 1966, Jersey City in September 1965 and Teaneck in 1964.
Lahita remembered his father trying to dissuade him from seeing King when he came to Saint Peter's. But Lahita was determined to have a front-row seat to see the civil rights activist.
"I said 'I had to go hear this guy talk' because there was a lot of press coverage about him. Most of it was unfavorable, and I said 'I had to see that guy,' " Lahita said.
On Sept. 22, 1965, King received an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws and Letters from St. Peter's during its Michaelmas Convocation at the beginning of the academic year.
Lahita, now the director of the St. Joseph's Institute for Autoimmune and Rheumatic Diseases in Wayne, was sitting in the front row of the Dineen Auditorium when King addressed over 500 students and officials. In his speech, according to the college newspaper, the Pauw Wow, King told the audience that he was hopeful despite challenges in the civil rights movement.
"Although some will be scared, lose jobs, and be called bad names, our problems will be solved. We shall overcome," King said.
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The defunct Hudson Dispatch newspaper noted a bomb threat was received by the college's Public Relations Department early in King's address, an unfortunately common occurrence during his lifetime. Lahita said that the bomb threat was an unwelcome interruption of King's speech, but the 30-minute wait led to an encounter that has stayed with him ever since.
"We had a wonderful conversation. He was a very smart guy. He was so witty. He said, 'Any Catholic institution that invites a guy named Martin Luther to come and give a talk has got to [get] a lot of credit. I have to pat you guys on the back,'" Lahita recalled. King's reference was to his namesake, the German priest and theologian who led the Protestant Reformation that challenged the Catholic Church in the 1500s.
Lacey has kept the memory of her friend Martin Luther King Jr. alive over the years.
Lacey, her late husband Archie, and friends organized a candlelight ceremony on the day of King's death after she found out about his assassination from a fellow student at Hunter College in New York City.
Later, they would form the Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Committee to celebrate his Jan. 15 birthday, and then the federal holiday in his honor. The committee was also responsible for a life-size bronze statue of King erected in 2014 on the Hackensack River Pathway that crosses Fairleigh Dickinson University's Hackensack Campus.
She remembered a man who was down to earth and full of humor, who never forgot his friends. She also recalled how, whenever King came to New Jersey, he expressed how he felt about Lacey and her husband leaving their native Alabama and the civil rights work they were doing there with him to move to Teaneck.
"So, whenever I saw him, he teased me about leaving the South because we went to the North, but we assured him that there was plenty of work that needed to be done," Lacey said in a recent interview. "He understood because, of course, he had many encounters in the North, like Skokie, Illinois, for example, where people threw rocks and stones at him when he tried to help end discrimination in housing."
Lacey and her husband did not leave their activist past behind as they helped form the Fair Housing Council of Northern New Jersey, which worked to end discriminatory housing practices. They were also behind the formation of the North East Community Organization, which led the way for a school board vote in May 1964 for the integration of Teaneck schools, the first to happen in the United States.
It turned out that King was paying attention to their actions and made sure to get a copy of the book, "Triumph in a White Suburb," a recounting of the integration effort that was published three months before his death. It was part of the collection of his papers and books up for auction in 2006 at New York City's Sotheby's until they were taken off the block and given to his alma mater, Morehouse College.
"He was quite pleased and impressed with us and kept it as part of his collection," Lacey said. "And when some of his materials were exhibited in New York City, I think in Sotheby's, that book was in the collection."
Ricardo Kaulessar covers race, immigration, and culture for For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
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This article originally appeared on On MLK Jr. anniversary, NJ residents recall meeting civil rights icon
