Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: Keeping His Dream Alive

On January 19, 2015, Attorney Adam Barrington was invited as a guest of Fletcher “Big Show” Collins to speak at one of Elizabethtown’s Martin Luther King Jr. events. Mr. Collins, owner of “Big Show Auto Finish,” is the sponsor is believed to be one of the largest Martin Luther King Jr. celebrations in Eastern North Carolina. The day started out with a parade in Downtown Elizabethtown with hundreds of participants. At the end of the parade, the festivities moved to Big Show Auto Finish, located at 2900 W. Broad Street in Elizabethtown, where food was prepared for an anticipated 5,000 people. Mr. Collins said that they fed 3,500 people in 2014. Their goal was to feed 5,000 people in 2015.

Attorney Barrington was personally invited by Mr. Collins to address the crowd. Mr. Barrington felt quite at home talking to a large crowd, saying it took him back to the days when he spoke from the church pulpit every Sunday. Mr. Barrington told the story of a trip he took when he was in college in 1998 to Montgomery, Alabama. There, he toured the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, where Dr. King pastored from 1954 to 1960. It was from his office in the church basement that he organized the Montgomery Bus Boycotts.

Mr. Barrington then told the crowd about stepping up to the pulpit and flipping through the pulpit Bible, which was allegedly the same pulpit Bible used by Dr. King to speak Sunday after Sunday. Attorney Barrington ended up at Psalm 121: “I will lift up mine eyes to the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help comes from the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth.”

Armstrong & Barrington PLLC would like to honor Fletcher “Big Show” Collins for organizing such a great event to benefit the community in Elizabethtown. We also honor the legacy and dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.