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Down on Auburn Avenue at Big Bethel AME Church, which is located a stone’s throw from the John Lewis *HERO mural, the choir sang “We Shall Overcome” and the complete version of the Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
Observance of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day holiday will take place throughout the city. There will be parades, dedications, public gatherings, and parties. But the observances will especially be in the churches of Atlanta, where Dr. King was once a prominent senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church.
But at Big Bethel AME, world famous for its “Jesus Saves” sign high above Atlanta’s highways and byways, the day of observance and prayer was both a party and a call to order, according to Rev. Dr. Jonathan C. Augustine, the senior pastor at Big Bethel AME Church, who wore a gold sweater festooned with Dr. King’s image.
“Today is a day that we celebrate a living legacy,” Augustine said.
The annual celebration of King’s life, work, and ongoing legacy has been taking place at Big Bethel for decades. Sunday’s service was packed with regular members of the church and special guests. Judge Penny Brown Reynolds, who is running as a Democrat for the Secretary of State seat vacated by current Republican gubernatorial candidate Brad Raffensperger, was in attendance and spoke during the service. So did Dr. King’s nephew, Isaac Newton Farris, Jr., a senior fellow at The King Center. The guest list also included United States Congressman Troy Carter (LA-02) and Fulton County Board of Commissioners Chairman Robb Pitts.
Before Reynolds and Farris took turns in the pulpit, the church’s Signs of Praise ministry mimed a creative expression performance to the sound of Dr. King’s final speech on April 3, 1968, at the Church of God headquarters in Memphis. The church grew silent as King’s voice could be heard saying, “I’ve been to the mountain top.”
Along with King’s prophetic words, the topic of politics was on the agenda. Carter spoke first, and after thanking his hosts, said he would have never thought we would still be talking about voting rights for Black Americans in 2026.
“Be informed, be invested, be engaged, because this battle we face is real,” Carter said. “We cannot sit back and be quiet.”
Pastor Augustine set the table for Reynolds to give both a testimony and a stump speech when she followed Carter. “The election we will have this year will be the most important we will ever have because we have a wannabe dictator in the White House,” Augustine said.
Reynolds, a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., said she knows she has the support of her AKA sisters, who were there celebrating Founders Day, but she needed much more support to make history and become the first Black woman to serve as Georgia’s Secretary of State.
“The largest voting bloc in the state of Georgia is Black women. They understand that, and they fear it,” Reynolds said of those looking to make voting more difficult in Georgia.
The Black church has always been a place for candidates to make their pitches, and Carter made sure to point that out on Sunday. “In 2026, we still have the Black church,” he said.
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