Dozens of people gathered in Crystal Lake Monday morning to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at a prayer breakfast hosted by FaithBridge.

FaithBridge, an organization that encourages interfaith communication, had the 17th annual prayer breakfast Monday with a theme of “Can you Feel a Brand New Day?”

Speakers from various traditions, including Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism and Indigenous traditions, shared prayers and also spoke about King and his legacy but also connected it to current events.

Jon Nilson, who is from the St. Anne Catholic Community in Barrington, reflected on Martin Luther King Jr.

Nilson spoke of how the late Pope Francis came to the United States in 2015 and reminded Americans religion has contributed to building and strengthening society. Nilson said the pope offered a vision of politics “as cooperation in pursuit of the common good that would foster the full flourishing of every person.”

He said the pope singled out four people who could inspire that vision, including Abraham Lincoln, Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton and King. Nilson said the pope had a lot to say about Day and Merton but not King.

He said the pope didn’t mention much about how King insisted there is no economic justice without racial justice and how he gave his life for his belief in the beloved community, among other things.

Nilson said the late pontiff “knew that the scope and depth of King’s message has often been reduced to something like, ‘Let’s be more polite to each other.’ You understood that he was truly a prophet. You saw that the quality of our national life even then showed that we had not heeded him, and now our times and especially this past year, are showing us the catastrophic consequences of our mistake.”

Singer Darlene Benton sang “If I Can Help Somebody” and “If I Can Dream” at the breakfast. Benton shared some history behind the songs.

Benton said “If I Can Help Somebody” was one of King’s favorite songs and he had heard the song while preaching at Ebenezer Baptist Church in 1956. King was so moved by the song he had it personally recorded for when he traveled as a reminder of why he was doing what he was doing.

“If I Can Dream” was performed by Elvis Presley, who Benton said was moved by the song in 1968 when King was assassinated and later that year, Robert Kennedy too.

“This song was written especially for [Presley] to sing and he sung it with such passion that it actually touched me in the same way,” Benton said.

The Rev. Norval I. Brown, pastor at Cary United Methodist Church and Community United Methodist Church of Fox River Grove, delivered the keynote address.

He said the day is about the children and especially Black and Brown children. He cited Ruby Bridges, who was the first child of African descent to attend the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans and was escorted by federal marshals to school.

“This day is for Black and Brown children who walk to school today on streets lined by ICE agents seeking to arrest and detain and deport their parents,” Brown said.

The day is also about Emmett Till, who was “lynched because of offending a white woman,” and about Michael Brown, Cornelius Ware, Laquan McDonald and other men, teenagers and children of color who have been shot by police, Brown said.

Brown said white advantages persist in economic, political and social realms and that the history of white people and Black people in America cannot be ignored.

He also mentioned states like Florida have tried to find silver linings in slavery by highlighting “skills slaves acquired.” Florida teachers are now required to instruct middle-school students that enslaved people “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit,” the Associated Press reported in 2023.

Brown said the fact that people were imprisoned in a slave status and were denied education, freedom of speech and other First Amendment rights “must never be downplayed.”

Brown said society has largely overcome overt racism but that “we must balance the desire to coat history with a honey view of what has gone on in the past, while declining to use the disinfectant of truth to clean our viewing screen.”