The Rev. Claybon Lea Jr. urged the Stockton community to avoid celebrating a “domesticated” version of Martin Luther King Jr., and instead commit to honoring his legacy by standing up to injustice and living with mercy and humility.
Lea’s comments occurred at the community commemorative service for the slain civil rights leader, held at the Stockton Memorial Civic Auditorium on Sunday and organized in part by Ministers and Community United Inc. The event was themed “Mission Possible: Building Community, Uniting a Nation the Non-Violent Way.”
Lea, a senior pastor of Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Fairfield and Suisun City, delivered the keynote address, emphasizing the rejection of a “sanitized” MLK, one in which he is reduced to the “I Have a Dream” clip.
Instead, Lea warned against ignoring King’s stronger demands for America to live up to its promise.
“The meat of (King’s) message, that he had iterated over and over again in other speeches, was that America had not yet lived up to the full meaning of its creed,” Lea said. “So my prayer for us is that we will not celebrate a sanitized nor domesticated Martin Luther King Jr., but a Martin Luther King Jr. that did more than dream, a Rev. Dr. King who dared us to live up to the full meaning of who we claim to be as a country.”
Lea implored the congregation to move from celebration to commitment to King’s legacy and pursue the same mission.
He challenged the audience to accept responsibility for change, to own the mission personally, to fight specific injustices structurally, to practice merciful empathy and to lead with humility.
“We can come here today, and we can engage in all kinds of words that suggest that we are really committed to the mission and we want the work of Rev. Dr. King Jr., and the civil rights movement to continue on, and it can just be a useless, worthless, empty rhythm,” Lea said. “The real question that we have to ask in our hearts is: Are we willing to put some skin in the game? Are we willing to make sacrifices? Are we willing to push for change that will facilitate the accomplishment of the mission so that it becomes more possible than impossible?”
Lea insisted that honoring King and fulfilling the mission means confronting and addressing concrete injustices the community faces.
“When you look at our country today, there might be many questions, especially in the minds of young people, as to whether or not the achievement of the dream that Rev. Dr. King Jr. articulated really is possible,” Lea said.
Lea went on to list national situations, including protesters gunned down in Minneapolis, environmental injustice, food deserts, the rolling back of voting rights, redistricting, Project 2025 and generational poverty and crime.
“It makes you wonder whether or not the mission really is possible, and only you can answer that question,” Lea said. “Only you know whether or not the mission is possible based upon your decision to accept the mission and the responsibility to execute it that accompanies.”
After the address, Stockton City Manager Johnny Ford noted that addressing the community’s needs is important to him.
“We are going out and providing services, regardless as to what part of town you live in, being consistent with providing those services,” Ford said. “When we talk about community as a whole, we’re not only talking about North Stockton or West Stockton, we’re talking about East Stockton, and we’re talking about South Stockton. So we have to provide services throughout the community as a whole.”
Stockton Mayor Christina Fugazi, having taken notes on the service, expressed her thoughts on the mission Lea gave the congregation.
“The message from Rev. Dr. Lea Jr. was so inspirational. Everybody needs to hear that message,” Fugazi said. “If we all make the commitment to do justice, to have mercy and to walk humbly, by God, we do that together. We make that commitment. I need to live it, and I need to lead by example and share with others.”