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Richard Pfeifer

A picture of MLK hangs above Keating Theater's stage before the celebration's start.

When Harriet Patton applied for a library card at the Kirkwood Public Library she was denied. She was told that she was not part of the community. Although she lived only a few blocks away from the library, there was a line dividing her from the rest of the surrounding cities. A railroad track ran as a divider between the two separate worlds of Meacham Park and Kirkwood. Patton took on the task of uniting the two communities 27 years ago, and as president of the Meacham Park Neighborhood Improvement Association (MPNIA), she is now shaking hands with the mayor of Kirkwood as a Kirkwood resident at the fourth annual Martin Luther King Jr. Musical Celebration at KHS.

The annual celebration is held in joint partnership between the MPNIA, KSD and the City of Kirkwood, and pulls hundreds of organizations from the Kirkwood area and speakers both concerned with improving social rights. The organizations set up booths outside of Keating Theater draped in banners advocating for social equality of all peoples as their members talked to the visitors about their organization’s mission and accomplishments.

“I never thought [this event] would be at KHS,” Patton said. “Twenty years ago, my Girl Scouts leader, who was in her 80s, had a brown paper bag with news clippings about Meacham Park and made me read every one. After I was done, she told me to create an organization that will give back to the community. That’s what we’re doing here today. We’re giving back.”

Along with Patton’s 27 years of experience, she also has enlisted the help of Jeffrey Bales, her vice president, who stood as one of the masters of ceremony, in charge with transitioning between speakers, during the main events in Keating Theater.   

“Even with the current political climate, the overall situation in Kirkwood has been improving,” Bales said. “We have never been more able to come together [than any time prior] here in Kirkwood, and this event displays it perfectly.”

MPNIA and the Martin Luther King Jr. Musical Celebration have the backing from Michelle Condon, the KSD interim superintendent, and mayor of Kirkwood, Timothy Griffin. Representing institutions that decades before resisted the Meacham community, now join MPNIA officials and Meacham Park natives on stage to voice their support.    

“Non-violent resistance calls for love,” Condon said at the celebration. “A love that is stern. We have to start by teaching our children, with stern love, the value of each and every human life. Especially their own. For the children here today: you are important, you are crucial and in many ways are a continuation of MLK’s work. You use the stern love to right the wrongs of our country. You are our future. You are loved and supported by everyone here. We will show you through our actions, we will support you when you stumble, but most of all we will love you.”

Condon was joined by Griffin and member of the Missouri House of Representatives (MHoR), Deb Lavender, to award Darien Wagner, Kharynton Allen and Sha’Diya Tomlin with the MPNIA scholarship along with a resolution from MHoR congratulating them. The MPNIA scholarship award is a merit-based scholarship awarded to originally a Meacham Park resident; however this year Tomlin broadened the scope of students eligible to all African-American KHS students.

“It’s a big thing for [African-American students] to get a whole ceremony in front of the community,” Tomlin said. “I live in Riverview School District, but I wanted to apply for the scholarship, so this year they broadened it to all African-American students at KHS. To get a plaque from MHoR, and [KSD] was something that I’m really proud of. I was proud to tell my brothers and sisters that go to KSD about the scholarship so they have a path to take when they become seniors.”