MLK’s nephew joins local pastor on 53rd observance of the Rev. King’s assassination in reaching out to city’s homeless

By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer

It was Assassination Day, the 53rd anniversary of the death of his uncle Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the Rev. Dr. Derek King was passing out food to the homeless under the Claiborne Avenue overpass with his lifelong friend and former SCLC president, the Rev. Byron Clay.

Yet the April 4 event constituted just one of the many times over the months since the pandemic began that Clay, a South Kenner-based pastor, had set up food distribution under the Treme interstate thruway. He would do so again less than a week later on April 9, trying to both bring help to a community whose hunger had intensified amidst the economic isolation of the previous months, and whose needs had even more greatly been ignored as the challenges of COVID-19 obsessed our society.

Feeding the homeless was not exactly a new activity for Byron Clay. He has been doing it almost weekly for the last several years. However, he wanted people to know the problem had grown even worse in 2020, so on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, Clay asked the great man’s nephew to help him serve the poorest of the poor.

As the Rev. Derek King explained to The Louisiana Weekly, he was no stranger to the magnitude of the problem, but it truly has intensified since the pandemic began. “I used to do homeless work in Atlanta. I’m passionate to serve the homeless myself. Career choices took me off the frontline. Christians, and any people of faith, have a social responsibility. Find some work to give to people who are less fortunate. Give of your time, your talent, and your resources. And that’s what Byron Clay is doing.

“COVID has added, in my opinion, numbers of people, families, into the community of the homeless – because of how COVID has impacted the economy and the fabric of normal life in America. As we were driving in [to do this interview], I said to Rev. Clay and our traveling companion that homelessness and the needs of the homeless, some people say, they are forgotten. I say, ‘Oh no, they’re not forgotten. How can you forget something that is visible, clearly visible, on a day-to-day basis!’ They are ignored. Overlooked, so we have a resource so social responsibility to care as Rev. Clay says, as the Bible says, that by Jesus’ command that we have to do something about those people that don’t live in a traditional community – if there is such an animal.”

The Reverend Byron Clay chimed in, “Those of us who truly love God, we have to look beyond our immediate concerns and fears and rise above it and help the homeless …Jesus said in the 25th chapter of Matthew ‘When I was hungry, you fed me, and when I was naked, you clothed me. When I was outdoors, you took me in and when I was thirsty you gave me water’… ‘When you’ve done it to the least of them, you’ve also done it to me.’ But he goes further than that. He said, ‘When you have not done it onto them, then you have not done it unto me.’ I say this to say that HE has a special grace and a special compassion for the homeless.”

Clay continued, “In absolute obedience to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I have an ardent commitment to demonstrate his compassion and his kindness toward those [who] were least among us. And so I’ve always had this passion about helping those and serving those who are least among us and, you know, Jesus says in his Word that if any man hears his words and sees his brother in the need – and he intentionally describes another person as brother even if you’ve never met them, even if you don’t know…describe us as brothers – and if you see a brother [in] need, and shut up your bowls of compassion, he said the love of God does not abide in you.”

“And the Lord also says to us if any man closes his hand to the poor, and fails to hear his cry, will one day himself cry. So Jesus has always had a great compassion for those who are least among us. My only desire is to let his love and his light shine gloriously and brightly through me, and so I go out and minister to them— not for Byron Clay— but pointing them to the love of God. Each day I go out there and let them know that he is sending me out there to them, and they know that my love for them is authentic and genuine. And it is, and that’s because I have always prayed and asked God to give me the same kind of love for others that he has shown to the whole world.”

Part of the reason the Rev. Derek King came out on Assassination Day was to remind others, “In early years of SCLC one of [Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s] first programs addressed homelessness as it relates to hunger. There was a program, in the national structure, called ‘Operation Breadbasket’ and breadbasket’s mission was to all set up soup kitchens to the hungry, back during the 60s into the early 70s. On [the anniversary of the assassination] April 4, this past April 4 as we do every all April 4 for 53 years, as a family we acknowledge the murder of our uncle, our father. There is nothing celebratory about April 4 for us. It’s a sobering day where we hit the pause button, but the work does not stop.”

It should be a day to remember that sacrifice should lead others to service, like feeding the homeless, the Rev. Derek King emphasized. Clay echoed the sentiment, observing, “We can demonstrate the love of Christ to others.”

The Rev. Byron King not only leads these “Feed the Homeless” events, but also trains church congregations how to work with the needy with dignity. Those that would like to donate their time, effort, resources, or food to help sustain his effort to reach out to the homeless can call the Rev. Clay at (504) 782-9196.

Christopher Tidmore’s full interview with the Rev. Derek King and the Rev. Byron Clay can be heard by going to www.thefoundersshow.com and listening to the April 11, 2021 program. Both men explore, in greater detail, the failure of both the Church and the nation in general to address the homeless problem.

This article originally published in the April 19, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.